I made a new friend over the blogosphere recently...It all started when Chika forward me this link to ET AL., ETC. shop on Etsy thinking that it'd be something that I'd like. Interesting enough...she was right.
I was more than excited to see something as nice as Évita's work existing on Etsy....Besides the fact that her handmade clothes are well-made & adorable, she also seem to have a great sensibility to create simple, refined, and delightful clothes and objects.
Being able to keep things simple is harder than it sounds...it's a talent to be able to know how to pare down and know what the right element & design details to use that can make something feel well made and special. It's what I aspire to be...I'm still working on it...
Évita seems to have it down though!
Once I went to her Etsy shop, I couldn't stop looking at every single item if not once, but three times! It totally boggles my mind how she can make all these variety of garment from shirts, to knitwear, to sweaters, to dresses, to skirts, to bags...and even custom jeans!! 
Now... how many of you out there can say that you have sewn jeans let alone custom ones for other people?! I know there's no way in hell that I'd be able to sew a pair of pants that would look remotely as good or at all wearable...it'll probably end up with some weird puckering in the crotch area. :P
And of course..she also has these wonderful, well-packaged delightful object like this stamp set. I'm obsessed with stamps in general...and this one is no exception!
Somehow along the way of purchasing some of her clothes. I ended up contacting her with few inquires and I couldn't help but to ask her a ton of questions trying to grasp how she does it all.
I just think It's so interesting to learn about what creative people do and how they think. I especially like to hear stories about how they end up living where they are and doing what they do...
So what started as a simple shopping transaction turned into a long winded impromptu interview/conversation between two strangers....so much of it seems odd that things like that can happen, but at the same time so normal because it's so common to connect with people through the internet...weird how that works. But I love the internet for this reason.
Luckily, Évita wasn't weird-ed it out by my compulsive manner and was generous enough to take the time to answer all my questions. :)
Q: Are your clothes one of a kind and made from existing vintage clothes found in Japan?
Most, if not all, of the garments are one-offs/one-of-some-kind and they're made and patterned (from scratch) to new or vintage fabric. The vintage fabric comes "as fabric" and not from vintage clothes (vintage clothes have a life and time of their own so I don't really do the cutup & reconstruct). The garments are sometimes informed by vintage styles.
Q: Do you make things from scratch? I love to know a little bit more about your process!
All of the garments are made from scratch, from the fabric up or in whatever direction it wants to go. My process is straightforward, completely circumstantial and depends on the remnants I find and what sort of garments they’ll allow. I draft the patterns in order to minimize the waste produced, which explains a lot of the long sleeved garments even in the summertime and all the size small. I try to make clothes/basics, that, by dint of combination with clothes the buyer might have, work with a wardrobe. I stray away from making "statement pieces" or "handmade-looking" clothing and just try to produce garments that are well constructed and understated, defaults or whispers even.
Q: How long have you been living in Tokyo and been doing Et al etc? What brought you to Tokyo? I'm super intrigued since I love the idea of doing my own thing and be living in Japan!...yeah you're sort of living my dream right now....
ET AL., ETC., in general, has been around for 4 years. The plainclothes & whitespace has been around for almost 2 years – it started up after Beth (of ofmatter.etsy.com) introduced me to Etsy, after I re-discovered my amateurish ability to sew and pattern. I've been in Tokyo since mid-February.
I came to Japan as a total-tourist, on a travel grant, after having spent a few months in the Philippines. I chose to stay simply for the reasons that Tokyo is not where I was (nor is it the Philippines); Japan has a similar strain of post-war-Americanism that engulfed the Philippines but Japan managed to develop and maintain its own (culture) despite that; and I wanted to be in a place where I could have my quiet, my say and more importantly do. Every project I've wanted to do here, I've completed.
You should come to Tokyo with your pal and dream and do! Especially since the economy is so unreliable right now – it’s the perfect time.
Q:Where did you live before you moved to Tokyo?
I went to school in Providence, lived in NYC, worked in The Land of Enchantment (New Mexico), and left the States from SLC (where I was before moving to New England).
Q:Do you have a design/art background? specifics?
I went to RISD and studied A/architecture and got a bonus degree in Fine Arts; I also dabbled committedly at the school up the hill in Anthropology and French. As for specifics: RISD came with a lot of personalities, but was a rather conservative environment/monoculture that instills the belief and attitude that talent and individualism are real and that art is somehow divorced from cultural production and value systems. I was, however, fortunate to find teachers that helped me find a way out of that; those conversations and critiques are my background.
Q:what do you love the most about Tokyo, and what do you miss the most since living in there?
For a metropolis that ranks one up from NYC on the list of those most populous, Tokyo is amazingly quiet. Since I hadn’t left the States before my recent, now almost two year, bout of tourism, I like that I can see too much architecture here and see the (sort of) aftermath of postmodernism (built or otherwise) sufficiently working for a city.
I don’t miss the attitudes. I do miss my family a whole lot at times, a few friends that I was starting to get to know well, large windows that spanned the entire façade of a previous apartment, coffee cups that come in more than one size, and driving the Volvo240 wagon with ETALETC plates recklessly on my way to wherever. 
Thanks for being so wonderfully open...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 07:48PM 
Check out these beautiful textile designs and wearables by Bhalo with a powerful fair trade mission to facilitate women in rural Bangladesh.
"Bhalo is a fair trade design label that aims to create desirable fashion whilst empowering disadvantaged people, especially women, allowing them to work their way out of poverty. 
