Shiori Aiba is not sure what's going to happen next in her life, but that's OK. She has hung out her shingle in Berlin and one of the valuable things she feels she's learned from living there is to be happy in the present. Through a combination of determination, skills and lucky breaks, things are working out well for her.

After graduating from the art and design department at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture in 2009, for which her final project was an installation featuring dresses made with human hair, Aiba worked in Tokyo for a TV commercial production company.

She knew, though, that she wanted to continue making her own work, and her primary creative interests were fashion and textiles.