We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yasunari Onodera a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Yasunari with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My creativity derives from the fantasy world that I have been experienced through video games, books, and anime. For me, experiencing the fantasy world is like having another life. In the another world, everyone could be whoever they want to be and enjoyed dressing up with the fantasy themed clothes. With this strong connection, I am trying to bring those fantasy elements in real life to allow people to become someone else that they want to be.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I graduated from Parsons School of Design in December 2023. I am currently working on my own collection which I plan to exhibit in September 2024 at NYFW. My collections would be exploring the clothes for non-human being. The fashion has been made for human and I am trying to break the boundary of fashion industry by creating the ready to wear garment for something else. The first collection would be a designs for Asura, the buddhist god who has 3 faces and 6 arms.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I believe the most important qualities that was impactful in my journey was story creation. It has been my main focus to deliver clearly what I want to tell through the designs. In order to achieve it, the pattern making skills are also very important to bring my stories into real life form. At last, knowing many skills from different field definitely helps even if it seems unrelated. I learned welding and electrical work from my dad when I was in high school. Although it seemed useless in fashion design, I could expand my design options since I could do it in so many ways not just sewing.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I am currently working alone for the upcoming collection. It has been challenging since I am planning to create 12 garments. In addition, I will need to face the issue of funding since I need to rent a space to exhibit my garments and hire PR company for more exposure.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @petoruche
Image Credits
Model: Yeva , Rose Schierlitz Photography: Shan Shi
