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With pride and spirit as a traditional cultural artist
In 2010, Oshimoto launched the Suehiro Kimono Agency in partnership with Kentaro Terauchi to promote kimono around the world. At the time, Terauchi asked her, "What do you want to do in the future?" and she immediately replied, "Well, I want to do costume design."
With the goal of designing costumes incorporating kimonos that would be popular not only in America but around the world, Oshimoto began her challenge, regardless of the medium or occasion, including movies, commercials, stage plays, and pageants.
"I sometimes stay up all night sewing and finishing my own costumes. It's been decades since I've done this, as I've always been focused on dressing people. But strangely enough, I don't get tired."
Perhaps it's the fulfillment of being able to do what you love as a job, and being busy with it every day. I've also become a member of the costume department union at Hollywood Entertainment. There are Japanese-American costume designers, but there are only two Japanese designers from Japan, including Oshimoto-san. And when it comes to a designer who has a Japanese national license for dressing... there seems to be no need to reply.
"Whether I'm designing costumes or styling them, I always pay attention to quality," says Oshimoto. Her determined expression shows her pride and spirit as an expresser of traditional Japanese culture.
"50 is still a baby in the design industry"
This year, the fourth anniversary of the company's founding, has brought a flurry of exciting news: Oshimoto dressed actress Miranda Kerr in a TV commercial, exhibited a kimono dressing demo video at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and in July participated in a fashion show at the Japanese American National Museum. Furthermore, her costume design work for the fashion film "Kiss of a Siren" was highly praised, and Oshimoto became the first Japanese person to win the Best Costume Design Award at the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival.
Currently, she is putting the finishing touches on the costume design for Miss Universe, which she will be in charge of for the second consecutive year (the world competition will be held in January 2015). When I interviewed her, I was shown the design proposals on a screen, and they are highly anticipated, and their originality will attract the attention of the viewers.
Oshimoto, who moved to the US at age 38 and began her career as a designer in her 40s, is a late bloomer, but she is certainly blossoming into a great flower. "I once told a Japanese cameraman who retired from NBC and is now active on the world stage that before I turned 50, my sister in Okinawa told me, 'It's about time you took it easy.' I think my sister wondered why I was choosing to live such a busy life, and thought that it was time to take it easy. But the cameraman told me, 'What are you talking about? You're still a baby.' That was my awakening. It's true that in the design industry, 50 is still a baby, and it's not uncommon for people to be active at the forefront even at 70 or 80. Chanel's designers are around 80, right? (Author's note: Designer Karl Lagerfeld was 81 in 2014.)
Looking back, even though she had a stable life in her hands, she chose to give it up and take on new challenges many times. She left Okinawa for the United States, quit her job in Las Vegas and moved to Los Angeles. "You only live once," Oshimoto says. However, even if people say this, how many people actually use it as motivation to act?
In the future, she plans to focus on textiles and dyeing in her hometown, Okinawa.
Now, as a designer, Oshimoto is trying to tackle a new theme: "I want to incorporate the sewing and dyeing of Okinawa's traditional costumes into my designs. I still go back to Okinawa twice a year. I'm supposed to be visiting my hometown on business trips to Tokyo, but I can't help but think about work and act when I'm in Okinawa. On my last visit, I not only visited the weaving and dyeing sites at the University of the Arts, but I also had the opportunity to meet Miyagi Noho, Kinjo Mitsuko, and Sato Taeko, all leading experts in Ryukyu dance, and learn about the construction and dressing of the dance and its costumes. I was particularly impressed by the fact that, unlike kimonos, Ryukyu dance costumes are not constricting the body and are created to suit the climate and environment of Okinawa."
Until now, she has been working on the traditional Japanese culture of kimono, but now that she has established a solid foundation in that field, she says that as the next step, she intends to focus on spreading the traditional culture of her hometown, Okinawa.
"I can't adapt it and incorporate it into my own designs," he says, and he plans to continue making repeated visits to Okinawa to learn more about Ryusou.
Oshimoto-san is not only involved in traditional kimono dressing, but also styling and design, so she probably doesn't have enough time, but if you remember the saying "50 years old is still a baby in the design world," she has more than 30 years left. I hope that she will continue to use her natural creativity and energy to convey Japan's traditional culture and the beauty of Okinawa to the world, based in Hollywood.
Suehiro Kimono Agency: http://suehiro-kimono.com/
Sueko brand official website: http://sueko.co
© 2014 Keiko Fukuda
