Since she was a small child, Isa Catepillan felt the need to express herself artistically, but she was never consistent in any technique or discipline.
Her quest to find her own identity as an adult saw her settle in Australia, change her surname to that of her Indigenous grandmother, and find solace in crochet.
In the face of all of life’s changes, the Chilean migrant took up weaving as a catharsis and did not stop until she finished her first wedding dress. For Catepillan, it was a pleasant surprise to see the final result.
In a matter of just a few weeks, she created a dress that she thought would take at least a year to weave.
Isa Catepillan Source: Marta Cabrera Pereira
She grasped the momentum and continued weaving. Little by little, her creations multiplied. It didn't take long for people to begin noticing her talent and complimenting her on her work.
She got involved in the slow-fashion movement, which celebrates feminine strength and women's innate connection with natural processes. Catepillan felt this as a way to pay tribute to the lineages of women that preceded her.
Highlights:
- Isa Catepillan shares ancestral lineage to the Mapuche-Williche, a Chilean Indigenous culture with textile traditions.
- In six months, she managed to complete her first collection of wedding dresses made entirely by hand.
- Eight years after her undertaking as a creator of handwoven garments, Catepillan is today a renowned designer of crocheted wedding dresses.
Catepillan suspected that her commercial engineering studies would not take her on the path she wanted in life.
She worked in a bank in Chile for three years, but at the age of 28, she embarked on a trip that took her to Spain and New Zealand, before venturing through Asia.
When her backpacking adventures were about to end, she decided to make a stop in Australia in the hope of securing a work visa, before eventually continuing on to Europe or Latin America.
Wedding dress created by Isa Catepillan. Source: Sam Clarke Photography
The journey that led her to reconnect with her roots
Before arriving in Australia, she decided to make a stop in Chile, where she would find the key piece of the puzzle that she had been putting together for years.
“There I found myself with a box of yarn scraps and crochets and I said, 'I'm going to give this a go'. So I wove several little things before coming to Australia and I brought them to see if I could sell them in a market,” she says.
She initially began selling hand-knit ponchos and bikinis at fairs and markets in Australia.
During those early days, she juggled her work as a waitress, babysitter and house cleaner to make ends meet as her departure date approached.
However, she decided to stay as she felt a special connection with the country.
“When I arrived in Australia, I felt a very great connection with the land, with the sea, with nature… and from the first day, I decided that I wanted to stay for more than a year.
“But when they had been here eight to nine months, I went to speak with a lawyer and he told me that there were no options to stay.”
A few months later, Catepillan was presented with the opportunity to settle permanently.
Although she was happy with the idea, settling in one spot presented a personal dilemma — she would have to stop being a globetrotter.
Source: Sam Clarke Photography
The lineage of the Mapuche-Williche coupled with her grandmother's surname
The identity crisis that led her to settle in Australia also led her to change her surname to that of her Mapuche-Williche grandmother.
She says her grandmother was a very important figure for her and taking her surname inspired her to inquire further into her grandmother's culture.
"She was Indigenous by blood and her last name was Indigenous. Unfortunately, she was highly discriminated against."
With this adoption, she sought to change this history of discrimination for one of pride.
"Between blaming my grandmother for not being proud of her roots, I thought, 'well, I can do that myself, I can be proud of my roots, I can connect and I can heal that lineage in some way'."
Weaving day and night
The artist says that the first weeks with her grandmother's last name were a bit of an emotional battle. She felt she owed it to her grandmother to bear her last name with pride, but she didn't know how to honour her in a tangible way.
By way of therapy and as a means to continue with her work of producing clothes to sell, Catepillan returned to the task of sitting down to knit.
“During those days, in the middle of this crisis I was going through, I started knitting the first dress.
“I thought it was something original that brides could wear on their wedding; a more natural and handmade option.”
This was also a process of self-knowledge and revelation.
“I realised that if I really liked something, I could develop the skills quickly. And I also felt like I was really just channeling something that was already in my blood."
What she would later discover is that her grandmother's culture, the Indigenous Mapuche-Williche, has a very widespread and profound textile and weaving tradition.
And in what would seem like a scene out of a Latin American magical realism novel, once she finished her first wedding dress, Catepillan set herself on the task of weaving, day and night.
It was such a powerful catharsis that in six months the designer achieved the unimaginable - completing her first collection of wedding dresses made entirely by hand.
She felt the skills of the Mapuche-Williche women, Indigenous to the island of Chiloé in southern Chile, were evident in her creations.
