For nearly 50 years, Kansas City fashion company Asiatica has been creating contemporary designs from vintage Japanese textiles.
“The fabrics are antique and extraordinary—they allow us to make us one-of-a-kind pieces,” says Asiatica founder Elizabeth Wilson. “If we find something made in a fabric we find appealing, we take it apart and recycle the fabric to make modern, Western-style clothing out of it.”
An art historian specializing in Asian art, Wilson travels to Japan at least once a year to source materials. Although the company works with a range of textiles, the majority of designs are made with silk.
Among Asiatica’s wide-spanning collection of pants, vests, coats and more, the New Dress is a standout. With deep double slits and discreet inseam pockets, the adaptable piece can be worn by itself or left unbuttoned and layered. It comes in a few color variations, but the luxurious bright-red silk damask fabric offers a much needed pop of color in the midst of a dreary winter.
Beyond the current stocklist, the company also produces made-to-order pieces from its archive of hundreds of past patterns.
“The styles that we come up with are styles we would like to wear,” Wilson says. “They are as current and versatile as possible. Our customers buy it as if it were a work of art. It’s not that next year that work of art will go out of style.”
Shop Asiatica’s collection in person (4824 Rainbow Blvd., Westwood, KS) or online at asiaticakc.com.
