Creating Success Around the World with Chie of Vivat Veritas

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Creating Success Around the World

The worldwide blog hop tour that introduces you to creative people from all corners of the globe.

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Our guest today is none other than Chie of Vivat Veritas. Chie is sharing her talent with us from the beautiful country of Japan.

[Janelle]: Welcome to our weekly interview and blog hop Chie! And thanks so much for taking the time to join us here today. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your country.

[Chie]: Hi! Well, my name is Chie Duncan.  I am Japanese born and raised but have lived for a number of years in the U.S.A.  I am married (celebrating 5 years in December) and a new mom (daughter born in April).  Japan is Japan.  It can be difficult for me to describe Japan sometimes.  I think of it as the most complicated simple place in the world.  This goes for life and fashion.  In Japanese fashion you see the convergence of the placidly simple with the utterly extravagant.

Chie with her daughter. (photo from Mommy's Diary 10)

Your daughter is beautiful! And I love your Mommy Diaries series where you share about your baby's development and also your development as a new parent. Your work is beautiful too, I love browsing around your blog. Can you tell us about what kind of projects you like working on?

I design and make clothes.  I mostly sew women's clothes, ranging from sun dresses, skirts, rompers and formal dresses (bridesmaid dresses). I'm designing and making my first wedding dress for my friend's wedding in September. I try to make everything I wear, except for shoes and bags....those are way to difficult!

I can't wait to see the final wedding dress! I've been reading your updates about it. What made you decide to start sewing?

I am a seamstress for myself first and foremost. I like to be able to bring  pieces from my head to paper to fabric to on my body.  The whole process is a lot of fun and the fact that other people like my creations is amazing and flattering. 

For those women out there who I know will fall in love with your dresses, do you sell them?

I have a few venues where I see my clothing line.  I have my site www.vivatveritas.com.  On that is my blog, a guide to past collections and a link to my online etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/vivatveritas7.  

How is your business doing?

I cannot say I am making millions from selling clothes but it is a nice source of extra income.  It has paid for some great vacations and will be very helpful in the future paying for my daughters education and what not.

I'm sure your business will continue to grow seeing how nice everything you make is. With all your the sewing that you do, what mistakes have you made?
The whole sewing thing was a mistake actually!  I got my first sewing machine from a friend in order to put a few pillow cases together.  Having completed those I tried making a dress which was an utter failure and I started sewing more just to figure it out.  As I was working it became a hobby and the hobby grew into something bigger. In terms of lessons learned I can say that the main thing I have learned from this whole sewing experience is that putting in time and effort can really pay dividends.  Also, the really American "You can do it" never made sense to me until Vivat Veritas came into being. At the beginning, without my husbands "You can do it" attitude I would have given up to focus on my "real work".

That's a great lesson to share with others! At this point, how do you define success and can you say that you have achieved it already?
Success is doing what needs to be done. I could also say that success is fully doing what you are meant to do. Not everything in life will be a "win" but that does not mean that it hasn't been a success.  I take this definition of success from my life as a Christian.  I won't get too preachy but as I think of success, the influence that my faith has on that words meaning is strong.  As such, I think I understand that term in a different way than the standard definition.

Your definition of success is inspiring. Definitely worth thinking about. With everything you have already achieved with your creativity, what's next for you? Any future plans?
Well that is exciting for me.  At present I am working on my first wedding dress.  I am making a gown for my good friend's wedding and I hope to use this to parlay into a Vivat Veritas Wedding line.  In addition I would like to begin a general formal formal line for evening dresses, gowns and events pieces.  I am also toying with expanding into men's wear but I am still thinking on that one.  I would love my husbands help with that but he is so devoid of fashion sense that if I do decide to give it a try I will have to find help from another male!

I can't wait to see the final wedding gown! And we will all look forward to your wedding line! And with your daughter growing up, you might be inspired to venture into a clothing line for girls too. Looks like there's a lot in store at Vivat Veritas. Good to have you here Chie, and thanks again!

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If you want to see more of Chie's work, do visit her at Vivat Veritas.

Be sure to check out the other interviews from my co-hosts:

 Australasia - Jill @ Creating My Way to Success

Europe - Yaga @ The Shiny Bubble 

The Americas - Suzy @ Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom

Africa - Adepeju at Peekadot

Asia - Me! :)

And now, it's your turn! Join our blog hop by linking your blog to our link party below! After linking, make sure you visit a few other links because that's what this hop is all about :)