Wearing Maia has been celebrating your inner awkwardness since 2013. Raised in Australia and based in Tokyo for the past eight years, you can see an influence of 80’s and 90’s Harajuku-kei in her work. Wearing Maia strives to create sexy wear for the odd bod, and is gender, size and shape inclusive. All garments are made in small run batches or one offs and are customisable depending on fabric availability. Wearing Maia utilities traditional and self-taught handicrafts in an unconventional manner, including patchwork, digital print, AI, screen printing, padding, embroidery, stencilling, painting, illustration, and tapestry to create sentimental and long-lasting garments. This “How do you remember it?” Collection is derived from three perspectives of nostalgia. The first explores Maia’s childhood memories of 90’s pop culture. It asks why we make a strong sentimental connection with toys, but not with our clothing, when they are both essentially just fabric. She has been collecting and up-cycling soft toys found on the streets of Tokyo over the past four years and repurposing them into clothing. The second aspect explores the nostalgic character of Artificial Intelligence. In collaboration with AI Developer Bektur Ryskeldiev, past Wearing Maia collections were put into an algorithm and used to predict future designs. These images were then printed on fabric and used to create pieces for the new collection. The third perspective examines the nostalgia of neurodivergent people, who created hand painted fabrics based on questions, images and textures from their childhood. The fabric was then used to create signature pieces in this collection. Wearing Maia is made with limited fabrics and handicrafts so each garment is unique and made with love, care and durability. Wearing Maia has a transparent production line, and fabrics are sourced from dead stock, repurposed items or local artisans, all finishings are done locally and all sewing is done in house.