Community

Over the past 25 years, I have been working with many unique creators at dogstar.  Each of us has a different cultural backgrounds and uniqueness.When we create, so many different thoughts and ideas are thrown up in the air and dogstar is able to absorb and unify those energies.  I have been working with some of them for almost 25 years.We know each other so well and are friends as well as colleagues.Sometimes our ideas clash and we argue and debate, but I love the process.Often the garments and images turn out very differently to what I originally expected.   I hope you...

I have known the bride for nearly 15 years.. maybe more..? I don't quite remember.  It is so special for me to make a wedding dress for someone that I have known for such a long time.  She lives in the UK now and the wedding ceremony will be held over there. All the bride's family and friends from Brisbane are unfortunately unable to attend due to global travel restrictions.   So, on the wedding dress completion day, I invited the bride's mother Sue (who lives in Brisbane) to see the dress before we send to the UK next Monday. ...

Located on Brisbane's south side, in the quiet suburb of Tennyson our thoughts and hands are mixed together. In the last 6 months, we have all been working really hard to complete our Autumn Winter 2023 collection. In the last 25 years we have always had a unique mix of cultures. Maybe because I myself am Japanese, our team members have always been quite diverse.Not only Japanese and Australian, we have Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukraine and African at the moment. So many languages and cultures are mixed at dogstar. There are sometimes challenges, especially with language, but we have more...

Lately I have been working on some new designs for the Queensland Youth Orchestra. #queenslandyouthorchestra This is the first time I am working with young musicians. I myself have young teens so I am so excited to come up with something unique and comfortable for them to perform in as a team. It's a little challenging for one design to fit all, both males and females in different sizes.  It has to be elegant and also a little funky I would think. What kind of elements can you think of for those young people to wear on stage? What are the elements you think we...

Over the last 20 years I have met many beautiful women who have fought with cancer and other illnesses. We often meet customers who are going through illness and often listen to their stories and help to style them together As we age, we all go through some kind of physical challenges and become more aware of the importance of our health. But also realise that we are not defined by our diagnosis.   Dogstar family in Pink Eclose Apron As always, I want to continue to support and be there for those facing hardships in the dogstar community. I...

I met Jeniffer from @byquilly through Instagram quite a while ago.  We had many things in common and started to talk about our creations and old materials.  Recently I purchased a hat from Jennifer and started to play with it.  My BORO stitch cloth worked beautifully with this hat.    I started to design my Autumn/Winter collection based on this hat. It has a Japanese feel to it. I have been working on this BORO stitch for nearly 2 years now.  Memory of my grandma.  BORO indicates "POOR" in Japan. Old damaged clothes are patched and stitched back together.  I...

I love it when my customers show me how they wear and style dogstar pieces for themselves.  They sometimes wear upside down, back to front, they pin the hems or tuck the volume of the skirt to mold and create the shapes to suit their body type and their personality.  It's just like shaping pottery, or layering paint on a canvas.  The textures and colours of the clothes mix with their body shapes and my customers just love to finish the final look.  Sometimes it's so unique I can't recognise that they are dogstar pieces.  One day I was waiting for a pedestrian at...

I have known Mr Tuan and Trung for a long time before I started dogstar 20 years ago. They have been dogstar clothing since the beginning. dogstar garments are not easy to make. It often takes time for them to understand how to construct the pieces. Over the last 20 years that we have been working together, they became like my family. Their children have grown up over time. To me it is their hands that created and supported dogstar. Each garment has been carefully made by them and finished beautifully, their thoughts were sewn with each stitch. I just...

This weekend I picked up this beautiful old sewing machine from Brenda, @Thehouseofwindsor. She makes beautiful hats.I had been looking for weeks on ebay, gumtree and other online marketplaces.It was such a coincidence that the sewing machine that I have been looking for was from my friend Brenda. Or was it meant to be? My grandma used to have one of these SINGER foot operated sewing machines ages ago. I remember the sound of the foot going up and down rhythmically when I was a child. My grandma's machine is not as fancy as this one but I remember the...