Vancouver Fashion Week SS24 Interview w/ Designer Daniela Maribel (Japan)

Daniela Maribel will be showing on the runway at Vancouver Fashion Week SS24 on Thursday, Oct. 19th, at 6:10 p.m. You can purchase your ticket HERE!.

From the VFW Website - 

Applying age-old esoteric techniques with a palette originating from her Okinawan roots, Daniela Maribel re-imagines and breathes new life into garments.

Daniela Maribel invites Canadian brand TAIKAN to her vivid world, showcasing a collection of one-of-a-kind pieces, to music by Robin Rastenberger.

Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career.

I began remaking clothes by myself from early elementary school without anyone teaching me.  I am a Japanese designer, born in Argentina, rooted in an Okinawan cultural background. 

How did you learn your skills

I started learning fashion at high school and proceeded toward a path in fashion design by being a student at and graduating from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo.

Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?

 
As a brand, we work on making custom-made embroideries with this concept. Our original embroideries range from clothes, shoes, accessories and even to furnishings by applying various materials and techniques. What I do is Hand Embroidery & Needlework.

What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?

First of all, as DANIELA MARIBEL, to create a design for a customer requires "personal communication" between me and a client/ customer. Therefore, It is easy for me to create something when I deeply understand what a customer wants and their personality. 

On the other hand, it becomes difficult when I have no idea about who I create for nor who they are. Actually, to be honest, I don't create things when I cannot imagine anything about customers.

Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?

I find inspiration from communication with people, plants and music. Feelings are not visible, but I feel them delicately and get inspired for details. Color is essential for my design process like breathing.

Readers would love to know more about the current collection you showed at Vancouver Fashion Week.

As mentioned previously, communication and inspiration are the keys for my creative works. There is significance in every single process. What I like is the process of materializing inspiration into my work through my handwork.

Do you have a favorite look in this collection?

It might be an ordinary answer... but all the looks are my favorite in this collection. I cannot pick one...

Where can readers purchase your designs?

 

You can reach out to me and make an order by sending DMs via Instagram. My hand embroidery & needlework can be done on your own belongings such as clothes, bags, shoes and interior.

What's next for you as a designer and your brand?

To connect with people and cultures all over the world and explore what Daniela Maribel can become/ do by following my heart.

In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?

Through DANIELA MARIBEL, I hope you can feel something beyond what you can actually see with your eyes and touch with your skin. I believe that my creative works have the power to move your heart.

Links -

• Website - www.danielamaribel.com
• Instagram - @daniela_maribel
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/daniela1030

Taikan (Canada) - www.taikaneverything.com