Handmade fabric flowers, vintage and delicately vibrant, fully displaying the beauty of fabric art

Takayuki Ito, a Japanese general goods store owner and corsage artist, graduated from Kuwasawa Design School.

In 2001, he went to live in the Netherlands, and later returned to Japan. He initially worked part-time at a flower shop, and on the job customers often asked whether the Dutch corsages Ito wore were for sale. After being asked so many times, Ito began to wonder whether he should sell handmade fabric corsages.

Once he had the idea, he started researching and found that apparently no one in Japan was making Dutch corsages, so Ito decided to teach himself how to make corsages. Fortunately, in a shop selling fabric dyes, Ito not only found materials and tools, but also learned the basics of flower ironing.

And the part-time work at the flower shop also allowed Ito to systematically understand flowers, both in terms of color and structure.

After that came a long road of self-study, starting from drawing, dissecting flowers, cutting fabric, mixing colors... step by step, constantly accumulating experience and lessons, until he finally made fabric flowers he was satisfied with.

And in order to create corsages with a Dutch flavor, Ito also continuously collected various vintage corsages from all over Europe, and through observation learned and improved his skills.

In 2007, Takayuki Ito formally opened a shop called "TURBO" selling Dutch clothing and accessories, and combined techniques such as dyeing and flower ironing to make exquisitely beautiful fabric corsages, and passed on his own making experience.

The color comes in powder dyes, diluted with clean water, then different colors are mixed to obtain the desired color.

For the fabric, different fabrics are used according to the needs of making the flower, such as velvet, silk, and satin. Each fabric is dyed and made differently, and some fabrics need to be dyed many times.

The flower buds are kneaded from ultra-light clay.

Wrap with dyed silk.

For the leaves, the flower ironing technique is used, so that the leaves have clear veins.

The last step is assembly, combining the flowers and leaves.

From an accidental idea to truly becoming a craftsman is a long road with no end, especially when delving into an obscure craft back then, with no one to guide or teach, no experience to share,,, passion was the only guide.

And the failures, setbacks, and joys in the process,,, are not only nourishment behind the craft, but also dessert on the journey of life.