Asian Attitudes

Finding the influences, and the muse, that will propel your creativity is both the most exciting and the most difficult part of the process. I have many sources [ human, animal and vegetable] that I pull from and will share it with you.

In 1988 the Japan Society of New York city hosted an exhibition about Japanese Folk Textiles. For me this exhibit was a seminal textile moment when both the Oriental refinement and textile influence from Japan struck a chord within me. About half of the textiles on show belonged to Fifi White, a weaver and collector from the midwest. The catalog: Japanese Folk Textiles, An American Collection (M.A. Kataginu, Tokoyo: Shikosha, 1988), contains both English and Japanese text, a forward by White and has been a constant reference for me in the years since. But the collection was soon outdone by White's commercial enterprise of creating one-of-a-kind fashions from Japanese fabrics. The best!

Asiatica, located at 4824 Rainbow Boulevard in Westwood, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City, Mo), offers designer clothes to die for. Go to www.asiaticakc.com and you will see what I mean. You will want to sign up for either the E-mail notifications or the mailing list or both. I have been saving their postcards and brochures for the past twenty years and usually have two or more tacked to my bulletin board for sheer visual gratification. Do not be surprised by the prices, most of her garments cost more than my first car and a are good reason to buy a lottery ticket!

IF I were to have another life and could do anything I wanted, I believe that creating upscale clothes from vintage Japanese fabrics would be just about perfect. Perhaps that is because I have always been a "textile" person, or perhaps because I grew up not far from Kansas City, Missouri and still wonder why I never met anyone who knew about or collected oriental fabrics(?). How did I miss Fifi? To study the fabrics, clothing, and accessories and to peruse the photography of the Asiatica collections is in itself a lesson in White's sensitivity to Japanese refinement. It's a lesson from a master.

And should one be lucky enough to be anywhere near Westwood, Kansas, pass GO and do not stop until you reach that shop!