My name is Kato. ("Kay-toe")

I was born and raised in Wales, UK, and emigrated to California in 2007.

I've been drawing and illustrating since I could hold a pencil and began designing clothing when I was about eleven years old but wasn't satisfied that I was worthy of the title "clothing designer" until I'd wrapped my head around the complexities of the sewing machine in my early twenties.

I decided to house my designs under the name SteampunkCouture in May 2005 after a friend introduced me to the term "steampunk" when describing the way I dressed and my style of illustration. Since I began offering custom clothing to people, I've designed and created litterally thousands of items of clothing and accessories which has been the most amazing form of self-teaching.

Everything you see in this store has been hand-made and I'm still a one-woman team,
which I believe adds a personal touch to each item and customer service.

I still offer custom, made-to-measure clothing and accessories over at steampunkcouture.com but find that Etsy makes it easier for me to create and sell one-of-a-kind items of which are added regularly, so keep checking in on me!

Before I was able to make a comfortable living from making clothes and selling my art, I served coffee, worked a cash register, cleaned hotels and nursed the elderly for several years.

As it's been such a rough, unsupportive journey to get to this point, I'm happy to spend the rest of my life working the way I do now and have no desperation to carve a name for myself in the industry or grow my business into some big, expensive, self-validating brand, but I'm letting Steampunk Couture take me where it wants to go. This May, it'll be eight years old, the oldest Steampunk Clothing label in the whole world and I'm happy to continue the journey for as long as I'm able.

I'm something of a workaholic hermit, fabric-junky and at times, a total geek. Easily entertained by life's little things and happiest when I find myself in complete solitude with the freedom to create.

Life is about creating and following your dreams. If you ruthlessly pursue that which you feel most passionately about, you'll find that doors will open for you.