Caroline Sato
knew everything by the time she was 18 then, embarking on her fashion degree, didn’t. The quest for illumination has since then taken her on various adventures, from lithography in Paris, ukiyo-e in Tokyo, batik in Java, kalamkari and tanjore painting in Tamil Nadu. This is particularly ironic because as a child, she resented being dragged around 2D works in galleries despite not being able to see 3D.
Shibori and pleating on silk
1997 collection in Wairoa, Adelaide Hills, Australia
Textiles have always been the great passion. She no longer runs wildly under clothing racks but cannot resist the urge to touch fabrics in all forms. She has been humbled working with both weavers and embroiderers in Kashmir, tailors, designers and museums in Tamil Nadu. Since 1999 she has been researching kimono in Japan. Thanks to a Commonwealth scholarship, she completed a Masters degree in 2011 remotely through RMIT University on 20th century fashions in kimono. Since then she has given lectures in Japan, Russia and India.
2020 closures came halfway through her Shibori in Kimono exhibition in Dakshina Chitra Museum, South India. This also impacted on a series of shibori workshops she arranged to link the skills of rural village women and people with disabilities to local designers with the aim of economic empowerment.
Uchi soto
2020 Self portrait in cotton, wool and polyester repurposed family rags and underpants tags
During the pandemic, she worked with the foreign wife community, AFWJ, in Japan, founding weekly sketch sprints and co-ordinating an eBook. Currently she is working on a sticker book ‘Fashion: Kimono’ made possible by a project grant from the V&A Karun Thakar fund.