Role models come in all shapes and sizes, and we’ve just found a new favourite for our future selves: Emiko. This 93-year-old is the face of her granddaughter Chinami Mori’s very colourful fashion designs. Osaka-born Chinami specialises in Saori, a weaving technique that essentially has as few rules as possible – literally anything goes, with the individuality of each artist being key. In Chinami’s case, this means using very colourful and varied types of yarn to weave everything from hats and scarves to tops. Her grandmother, Emiko, used to drop by her studio every day and eventually Chinami asked her to model a few of her items. She later uploaded the images to Instagram, and the rest is social media history.
Since those first snaps, Emiko has become a fixture on her granddaughter’s account, and has recently made airwaves outside of Japan as well with her carefree demeanour. Her joy is definitely infectious, with comments in a large variety of languages agreeing that she might just be the cutest and happiest grandma ever. In Chinami’s words? Emiko is ‘her favourite person in the world’.
Chinami’s Instagram account currently has just over 25,000 followers, a large part of which can likely be attributed to Emiko’s appearances, and the fun is spreading with each new upload. For those interested in adding some colour to their lives from within Japan, Chinami can be reached by private message. She’s also trying to figure out how to sell her creations to an international audience – hopefully a little bit of Emiko’s joy will be carried in each garment. Follow her journey on Instagram.
– By Kirsty Bouwers