Professional textile artist speaks to fashion students

Sharon Kilfoyle stood in a self-created sparkling, purple nuno felt shawl and looked up at the room filled with eager fashion design students.

Tables filled the meeting room with a variety of colorful and elegant garments of silk, wool and chiffon. Observers occasionally cast a glance at Kilfoyle, looking eager to touch the garments.

“Go on ahead and try them on. See how they feel,” Kilfoyle said.

The students rushed up to touch. 

Kilfoyle, textile designer and tie dye expert, gave a presentation about her work Friday in the Walnut Room of the Indiana Memorial Union as part of the Bill Blass Fashion Design Seminar Series, sponsored by the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design. Kilfoyle then had a workshop for students to practice her tie dye technique.

Professor Mary Jane Matranga previously worked with Kilfoyle at Stevens College in Columbia, Mo., and she said she knew she wanted Kilfoyle to speak.

“I teach an accessories design course where the students are making hats, scarves and handbags,” Matranga said. “Students’ designs are to be inspired by another culture. I thought that Sharon would be great to come and teach the Japanese art of Shibori.”

To begin the presentation, Kilfoyle shared details about her life with the faculty and students. Before starting in fashion design, Kilfoyle was a technical writer for NASA. But when she took a class in Shibori, a Japanese method of dying cloth, her life changed.

“It brought back a childhood memory of me finding a Japanese-to-English dictionary and being completely intrigued, which led to my interest in Japanese culture,” Kilfoyle said.

From then on, she started creating her own fabrics.

In 1976, Kilfoyle moved to a 75-acre farm in Missouri. There, she raised her own Angora rabbits and harvested the fibers to make her pieces.

Kilfoyle spent three years in Japan teaching Shibori.  She taught the technique with an American twist. Instead of going through the lengthy process of dying, Kilfoyle’s dyes take about five minutes to process because she uses the microwave.

“I call it American Shibori,” Kilfoyle said. “It’s instant.”

While in Japan, Kilfoyle found many elements that inspired her such as flowers, leaves, sunsets, beaches and Japanese food.

“You get lost in this, and that’s the joy of it,” Kilfoyle said.

Freshman Virginia Ferguson, who recently transferred to IU for the fashion design program, attended Kilfoyle’s presentation because she said she shares similar
inspirations with the artist.

“I came here to learn what Shibori was,” Ferguson said. “I’m a painter, and it was great to see inspirations in another form because a lot of her inspirations are mine.”

Kilfoyle credits serendipity for her success and praises taking chances in life and trusting what’s inside your heart to disregard fear.

“I’m not lucky. I’ve just said yes to a lot of opportunities a lot of people wouldn’t take,” Kilfoyle said. “I’m a risk taker.”

“It’s a life-long ambition and spiritual goal of mine to have people from all over the world come up to my studio and be creative,” Kilfoyle said. “It’s a combination of selling my work and teaching that keeps me going in life.”