Louise Clifton will sit on a low stool for six weeks and watch Japanese master shoemaker Keitaro Takano create shoes in his workshop in Tokyo.
She leaves for Ginza — "the glamorous suburb of Tokyo" — on June 9.
Mr Takano did not speak English so the pair would communicate with hand signals, she said.
"If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to make shoes of my own while he’s there, but that’s up to him."
The "high end" dress shoes Mr Takano made sold for between $2000 and $13,000 a pair.
"They are graceful designs; they have elegant curves with fine detailing and are well-fitted."
About 90% of his clients were men, she said.
She invited Mr Takano and his assistant, Chiemi Chiba, to exhibit at iD Dunedin Fashion Week last year. During the week, the two exhibitions of his shoes at Olveston Historic Home were sell-outs.
On the trip to Asia, she would visit a friend in Hong Kong, leather-worker Emily Hoaglin, for a tour of shoemaking workshops in the territory to buy equipment to bring home, Ms Clifton said.
