Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maki Saruwatari. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents have been the best supporters and my number one fans for my whole life. My mom being a former cultural dancer and my dad an art teacher, they introduced me to all kinds of arts in my early childhood, and always pushed me to be better at what I do.
They were very stoic when it came to training and competitions, though it was a lot of pressure for a child, they were my biggest supporters who always came to see my performances, and encouraged me to pursue my artistic passions.
A lot of competition costumes I wore growing up were made by my mom, and she often has fun ideas to spice up my designs, or advices on solving technical problems I run into when I’m working on projects.
My dad has also been working on his own artwork after retiring, he and I usually show each other progress of our projects which I enjoy doing so much.
Their understanding of my work is exceptional, and being able to share ups and downs of being an artist with my parents is something I definitely cherish deeply.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born and raised in a small city in Osaka, Japan. I started twirling baton at the age of 2, classic ballet at 4, and Jazz dance at 7.
I became a recurring Japan national champion in baton twirling in my early teens, and placed 4th representing Japan at world championship in 2006.
I competed often in dance at the same time in my teen years, and won many titles nationally in Japan.
Growing up as a very competitive baton twirler and a dancer, my mom made me a lot of my costumes. After I learned some basics of sewing in a home economics class at school, I made my own costume top with my mom for the first time when I was 10.
Later in high school, I majored in dance to learn different dance styles, where I fell more deeply in love with the art, and trained day and night with little to no sleep everyday with friends.
My school would also have us put together our own costumes for recitals, but no one knew or thought that costume design would be a career for me until much later.

In 2017, an event entertainment company I was involved with as a performer took a big chance on me, my friend Kat who was the owner of the company learned that I knew how to sew, and asked me to make costumes for their performers. She trusted me despite my lack of experience and knowledge, and gave me a safe place to try something new and figure things out as I went. It was such an amazing opportunity for me to learn and dive into costume design, with her company I got to work on a lot of challenging projects including LED costumes, and with performers like dancers, contortionists, stilt walkers, aerialists and fire performers.
I believe being a performer myself was what made me into the designer I am, since the most of my clients are dancers and circus performers, I totally understand and prioritize their needs to ensure that their costumes won’t get in the way of their movements.

As a performer, I truly love working with other performers from different backgrounds, people often ask me what my favorite genre of dance is, which is a very tough question for me as I enjoy so many different styles. I’d be dancing my heart out in an emotional contemporary dance piece once day, and poppin’ and lockin’ in a full LED suit the next!
Over the years I developed my own style of mixing baton and dance as well, there is so much potential I see in bring twirling baton more into entertainment scenes.
Lastly, I’ve also been incorporating Japanese culture into my work lately. Especially with Kaimera, an entertainment company specializing in infusing various traditional cultures with circus and modern street dance styles. I learned dances from other Asian countries like China and Vietnam with them, we are always discovering new stuff and I’m excited to see where it will take us next. Older I get, more I appreciate the beauty of the traditional Japanese culture, working with companies like Kaimera has been an eye opener as we get to explore new ways of sharing our roots.

Above all, I’m definitely “go with the flow and see what happens” type of person, and I always try to be personable and supportive of my clients and colleagues, hoping that working with me brightens up their days as well!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pandemic had a huge impact in both of my careers since there were no live events happening then. I was lucky enough to land a livestream contract during the lockdown, where I actually met some amazing artists to collaborate with, and experimented performing in a very very limited space with just my phone in front of me.
I’m not sure if I’d want to do it again, but I really was fortunate to have the community and platform to share the art during the time, it also gave me a chance to slow down and focus on family and relationships that truly are important to me.

And I became a mother in 2022 which again changed my lifestyle drastically.
It lined up with when my costume business started to grow, and my live performance gigs started back up. Although my physical recovery was relatively smooth, I felt conflicted in between not wanting to miss opportunities to grow my businesses, and wanting to just take my time and focus on my growing family.
Trying to get any work done during the day is nearly impossible with a toddler now but when I do get to sneak in some sewing, my daughter often comes to me and says “Oh! It’s pretty mommy, good job!” And that to me is the best compliment.
Finding a good balance of all is something I’m still figuring out, and everyday is different, but one thing for sure is that it’s giving me a chance to enjoy life from all sorts of different perspectives.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being in a creative field, we collaborate with so many different people on every project. Especially in specialty performance jobs, everyone in the room is like a magician to me, no one understands how others do what they do, everyone blows each other’s minds and it’s just so much fun.
And with costume design, I love helping people bring their vision to life, and seeing it all come together with everything else like choreography, makeup, music, lighting and set design, watching my clients shine makes me the happiest.
We definitely get to hear lots of life stories from people we work with, share some rewarding moments of creating together, learn new skills and make new friends.
Some become a huge part of my life in and out of work, and cast mates become families.
And of course it’s always a special feeling when we get to hear from people from the audience how much they enjoyed our work.
We get to bring joy to people’s hearts often and to call it a job is such a wonderful gift!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @aglaiamaki / @designbymaki
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/aglaiamaki

Image Credits
Jose Ricardo Rivera Karmagraphy Hollywood Connection