A/W 2011-12 is now ready to go

My new A/W 2011-12 is now completed and is presented to buyers around the world.

please let me know if you’re interested to come to the viewing at my Agency AMF sales showroom

Printed Fabrics (and cycling)

I am working at the moment on a couple of printed repeated patterns for my next collection of womenwear. I think some of you may know that I concider myself to be quarter Japanese (quarterJapanese, quarter Tibetan, quarter tigress, quarter Scottish)…

Ok, now seriously, it’s no secret I adore Japanese art, I admire the sense of aestetic that only the Japanese eye can see and it’s no wonder that some of my alltimes favourite Fashion Designers are Japanese (Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto).

I recently started looking on traditional Japanese samurai armours and these are so beautiful and inspiring; the textures, the construction, the silhouette, these definately kick the traditional europian knight’s armours up the ass! Together with traditional Japanese printed icons from artist such as Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the concept for this collection literally built itself.

I decided to look at construction vs draping and concentrate on short dresses with prints of a japanese theme as well as d-constructed garments and soft separates. I think all these brought to my attention that although fashion may seem as an endless struggle at times,I still love it. I said it before, but its just how I feel; if the last thing I am thinking of before I go to bed is dart manipulation and box pleats then I guess fashion is where I need to be!

I joined a Printed textile class which focuses on Screen prints onto fabric, and created a three colours print. I have also took on a very ambitious-driving-me-crazy kinda project to create an intricate full-on-crazy Japanese print. In digital this time, it will be printed on silk and cotton satin. This print has drove me crazy for days, of course it is my fault that I can’t just settle for a nice simple design… but I’m quite happy with the results, and I think it’ll look amazing on a large scale.

Please take a look on both prints here, I hope you’ll think that sometimes going crazy actually pays off.

And on a completely different note (yes, I do it again), my beloved husband has a good heart (ah-ha!!), and he is cycling from London to Brighton for the Nightingale nursing home charity ride. We all hope he’ll survive it or perhaps will have an epiphany that smoking doesn’t help when it comes to exercise… but honestly, I am so very proud of him, yet again! I wish I can do it myself, but having bad knees and bad back means he will do it for the both of us (and it is knows that I feel sorry for myself after a few hours of excercise anyway). So if you want to show your support and donate just tiny winy £10.00 we will both appreciate it, and it’s for a good cause so you can sleep better at night knowing you did something good today. Here is where you can donate a little bit for Danny’s ride. Oh, and he is doing it on a really small (but pretty) bike… that should earn him some points too, right?

I love you baby!!

Danny’s charity cycle ride

Campaign Photo-Shoot

In a cold and windy day last  month I gathered an all women team (girl power!!) for my first campaign shoot for ‘Boundaries’ collection.

The photographer was Zhanna Malaya a very talented fashion photographer with a great eye for details and an interesting editorial composition. Keiko Nakamura was the make up artist, Natalie Guest was the hair stylist and the beautiful and inspiring models were Jessica De-Core and Claudia Gou.

The shoot was a very successful day, we wanted to create great images that will enhance the bag’s concept and mood. All the girls were wonderful and we worked great as a team!

Please check this link to see more campaign photos

Here is also a link to a short article about me in this US magazine spotlight section (press here please).

Other then that, I am now taking part in Fashion Fringe competition and its amazing to be back sketching everyday, I am also sending my campaign shoot to blogs, magazines and other interesting sources so that’s keeping me busy… other than that I am starting to print on fabrics, which is exciting for me(I might be alone in this excitement, I understand) all of these will follow in future posts here in my blog.

And now, in a completely different note; something that I had to write about (and have been postponing for a while) I know I haven’t written anything since McQueen’s death. Believe me, it’s not because I had nothing to say. I actually have a lot to say, but I felt that everything has been written already, and I was terribly sad about it. I guess I am not writing when I’m sad. I don’t know if I was more sad for the fact that we won’t enjoy his creations in the future and that we lost one of the most important designers in the world or for the fact that he was unbearably depressed and decided to leave this world. I felt he was alone and probably in such a low point spiritually that this seemed to be the only way to go. I know it must have been so difficult for him and although I never met him,  I wish I could be there for him as a friend and give him a hug. I wish there was someone who could make him feel that there is a light in all this darkness. He was such a great inspiration for me as I moved my life to London. I admired everything about him. And I can only wish him to be reincarnated as a happier person and thank him for blessing us with his presence here on this world, even for a short while. I hope his family are moving on, one baby step at the time…and again, I don’t know any of them but I do feel like I want to give each of them a hug…

Thank you for all the bright spots you have brought to my life, for making me a better designer and for enriching my vision. Hope you are smiling now, wherever you are. Thank you!

K

Website launching

Yes, yes it’s finally here

And its true, many of you made fun of me for taking so long to do this,  but I could’t help it. I kept seeing bits to ‘fix’ and couldn’t allow it to  come out to life and be out-there online.

But now that I managed to press that horribly terrifying button  called PUBLISH, I’ll admit that it’s a great  feeling of relief and I’m actually glad its out there.I don’t know, I was told lately that this blog is turning up to  be pretty personal, although in my head it wasn’t that at all. Reading back; I guess I can see why this may be  the case. Maybe its just who I am, and can’t do something without being personally and emotionally so utterly involved… If I learned to live with it, so can you. What I’m trying to say(hopefully) is that I’ll do my best to keep the website less Keren and more K.Brat, so fingers crossed.

‘Boundaries’ is my new collection, which is kinda the reason I went through with the website finally. The collection is a composition of leather bags and belts, where I really explore my love to the craftsmanship of working with leather as a medium. The collection was inspired by ‘Boundaries’(not very literally but more surrealistically) and look and the purpose of boundaries and their place in our society. Physical and Emotional boundaries at the same time. I know this all sounds very conceptual for bags and belts but this idea kept me going while I hand stitched every tiny bit of this collection. ‘Boundaries’ was all handmade with extra love and devotion in London UK. I used the best materials I could(very anally) find, and I combined these with beautiful silks I brought from India and Nepal, used as linings.

So for me it was a big week, but then I received an email that Salinger died. He was 91 I think, and I saw so many people have dedicated their recent blog post to him. He was truly loved. Its almost unimaginable to think of being a teenager without adoring Salinger, like you can’t really be 16 and not think Dali totally gets you(which reminds me, today Danny – my beloved husband, told me that he had never read the ‘Catcher in the rye’, hmmm… I guess he just ‘forgot’ to mention it before we got married!).

I, just like all the other teenagers around me, absolutely adored his books. I was in-love with Zooey, as I read descriptions of him, I felt he was standing there, so beautiful, just next to me. I cried for the family when they mourned Seymour. It made me wonder whether he was selfish or not. Salinger has brought these characters to my life (and to so many other’s lives, I know I’m completely not special about this) and made them into real living breathing human beings. I’d miss him, although I feel ashamed to say that for years I’ve neglected him. My friend Ido says he didn’t suffer any pain as much as he knows. I guess that’s comforting. I’m so grateful to Salinger and to the livelihood of the Glass family.

Oh, I almost forgot;I guess this is supposed to be about my website, and fashion and bags and belts… please visit my site when you can and I hope you’ll like it www.kbrat.co.uk

And perhaps a bit more important, please take a second to thank Salinger, because for most of you, he was probably there in your heart at some point, if not always. And he must have played a part in your teen life, showed you beauty, light and grace,conversations with Bessy in the bathroom and kisses on the train’s platform

Night night

K

Ido

It is only appropriate for me to write about this person who truly has changed my life. Ido Hartogsohn, other than my parents and my brother is the person who probably has shaped me most. In a direct or an indirect way, I try to think of things that weren’t affected by his touch somehow, and it all kinda connects and bring me back to him. We used to make lists every couple of years of the 20 people who influenced us the most and I bet he’ll still be up there in the top if I set down and redid one of those famous lists now, 16 years later…

I met Ido at the tender age of 14, and he introduced me to(among many others) Hendrix, Zeppelin, Zappa, Neil Young, Steely Dan, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Dostoyevsky and Salinger, we fell in love together with prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky and were depressed by Journey to the end of the night to the point of tears. I think I probably started being fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism because of the ‘Free Tibet’ shirt his sister brought him from India when we were kids.

I guess he is still one of those people in my life that will never realize how thankful I am to him and his constant presence in my heart.

It was only a question of time until the world will see Ido for who he is, and obviously I wasn’t surprised when he has published his book ‘Technomysticism -Consciousness in the age of technology’, which I’m reading at the moment. I can’t bare the thought of getting to the end of the book so I’m trying to read it as slow as possible from the fear of reaching page 338.

He is so active these days starting his own revolution, and I feel so privilege to be able to say that I know this rare human being. My true friend, Ido.

One thing he showed me was how someone who truly has found his calling in life shines. He is the most thorough person when he wants to learn something, he reaches the core of the issue, he is reading everything there is to know about the matter. He inspired me to see how technique is important even in art. How important studying is, and being humble in your learning.

You can find him and his brilliant work if you simply google him. Please read his book(Hebrew readers), you’re in for a treat.

Thanks, Ido. Even though we’re far from each other and have been for some time, I thank you every single day.

New collection thoughts

K.Brat’s new blog starts here! my thought, passions and everything in between. My first attempt as a blogger.

I am a Fashion Designer, based in London and K.Brat is my own Womenswear Fashion design and accessories label which never compromises on the vision nor the materials. This is me – expressing, contributing and speaking my voice as an artist and a designer.

I often think of my label as a collaboration of Anthropology and Design, although I’m not saying I am an anthropologist in any way, but Fashion inspired by culture makes sense to me, its where I draw most of my inspiration from, as Art and Anthropology were always my two great passions.

On the other hand, promoting and marketing myself and the label is an unknown territory for me (completely…)so I’d appreciate any feedback. writing a blog…that’s new for me too. I’ll try to focus on many things rather than constantly on Fashion; music, fine-art, books, great people that have influenced my life, travelling, remote cultures, Buddhism and more.

I am not claiming to be a writer, especially not a blogger, so please be patient.  I’m working at the moment on my new collection for 2010. Creating leather bags and belts, all handmade in the UK.

I am putting my heart and soul into the design and manufacturing, creating a great product for women who appreciate quality of materials combined with great design which is practical yet edgy.

I am using different leathers with different finishes, which complement each other along with Fine silk linings that I have collected in my journeys to North India and Nepal. The bags structure, texture, lines and shapes  are extremely important to me. All fastening are from brass, the beads are a combination of metal, plastic and czech glass beads to complete the look, but you’ll see all that… I’ll post here picture of the bags and belts as I’m working on them. So enough with this writing for now

ta,

Keren

P.S the new website is coming shortly too… www.kbrat.co.uk

till then if you wanna contact me, I’m on info@kbrat.co.uk

‘Black Dove’, from  the previous collection, just to give a taste of what’s ahead