PROFILE: ISA CATEPILLÁN
Isa Catepillán shares why her Chilean roots and a love of textiles led her to a career designing bespoke crochet dresses for women around the world
The love of crochet gives us many things: a creative outlet, a way to relax and the joy of making something handmade, to name a few. In Isa Catepillán’s case her love of craft, textiles and crochet has led her to reconnect with her Chilean heritage and carve out a career in which she uses her crochet skills every day.
Born and raised in Chile in the 1980s Isa explains that “it was a time when our mothers and grandmothers were still required to know how to make things by hand. This was a large part of our culture and I truly believe our generation were probably the first to start losing these abilities.”
Taught to knit and crochet by her mother, Isa quickly embraced needlecraft as a way of updating her own wardrobe. “I’ve never felt intimidated to adjust my own clothes, fix missing buttons, or even make things from scratch,” she says. “I feel a deep sense of familiarity with materials, techniques or ingredients and how to mix them. In my last years of high school, my best friend and I would go to a second-hand market every Saturday. We would buy old clothes and send the fabric to a neighbouring seamstress to make miniskirts. Each skirt was unique and slowly we started to sell them among our friendship circle.”
With this background in may come as no surprise that Isa now runs her own fashion crochet business, but when her best friend went to design school Isa didn’t feel confident enough in her abilities to follow suit and decided to study economics and business instead. “They were tough years;
I was so far away from my true self,” she remembers. “In the end I quit my job, travelled the world, practiced yoga, meditated and healed myself. That entire process took me to Europe, the Middle East, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia.
“Symbolically, with my new sense of adventure and passion, I felt compelled to transform my hobbies into a business and create a life for myself. I took my indigenous grandmother’s name as my own, Catepillán, and started creating my first collection.
“I had no connection with my indigenous heritage,” she explains. “In fact, my great grandfather left the town to live in a big city and the family lost all contact and culture. While visiting Chile, I reconnected with my roots and gained certainty the path I was on was the right one. My Williche ancestors
came from the Chiloé Island in the south of Chile, where the textile skills are important. They still are traditional weavers to this day.”
Isa’s heritage can be seen in the naming of her two main collections; “HIJAS DE LA LUNA was my first collection and it came intuitively. I looked at the dresses I had made, and I felt for first time in my life that I made something worth putting out in the world.
“ANCESTRA took much longer to be completed. However, I was invited to do my first runway and that was a good excuse to finally finish it. It was rewarding to see my two collections featured at the Byron Bay International Fashion Festival.”
In between creating her own collections, wedding dresses form the bulk of her commissions. “I love that people feel so connected with my work to ask me to design and create such an important garment. It’s amazing that more and more people trust my process remotely. I have made wedding dresses for women in France, Israel, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
“My favourite dress is always the one I am working on as each new piece brings new challenges and I’m not the same person after finishing a dress. I love connecting with women around the world. Women who choose my work value handmade work, respect my creativity, trust my design, prefer natural fibres, understand the importance of a non-industrial process and how it positively impacts the quality of the piece they are going to wear on such an important day of their life.”
Attention to detail is an important part of the design process, as not only does Isa have to come up with an original design, but the fit must be perfect too. “It’s very complex! Sometimes I question if it’s really worth it, but because it makes me so happy to see the final results, I guess it is. I don’t have a fashion background, so I have to figure out the perfect fit on my own. It makes me proud and confident to see what I am capable of achieving; however, I do respect and accept that my skills have been inherited from my indigenous lineage by blood.”
No matter how complex the process, Isa takes a lot of joy in choosing the right yarns, colours and textures. “I love the simplicity of raw colours and neutrals, combined with the complexity of textures. It has unintentionally become my signature style! People get very surprised when I crochet a red top for a pattern magazine and that makes me smile.
“I love thin yarns and always try to source natural fibres where possible, organic cotton or linen, and use ergonomic hooks. The techniques I like most are the textured, tassels, scales, bubbles and lots of fringe. I like to mix them with lace-like open work that is delicate and feminine.”
Isa works remotely as a couple of years ago she and her husband decided to have a nomadic lifestyle. “We spend most of our time in Australia, South America (where I come from) or in Greece (where he comes from). Working with portable materials makes this lifestyle choice possible. I used to have a studio at home but now I work anywhere; from public parks to hotel rooms.”
With no fixed abode, Isa loves having a routine to keep her focussed; “I like working alone, in silence or with soft music. When possible, I have my yoga mat on the floor next to me. Crocheting for long hours is hard on my back, neck and hands, so it’s great to take small breaks to practice yoga for five or ten minutes at the time. That’s all I really need, plus a couple of notebooks to sketch and draw and a cup of herbal tea. My tools fit in a pencil case; I love the simplicity of it.”
With many projects, including a possible new collection in the pipeline, Isa has plenty more work to keep her occupied. “Lots of surprises that I can’t announce yet!” she enthuses. “I feel like my work is taking new directions this year and I’m open for transformation. I’m currently taking a not so little break from social media and it has been very fruitful so far. I can’t wait to share what is coming, so stay tuned!”
Written by Lucy Evans
“I felt compelled to transform my hobbies into a business and create a life for myself”