Yesterday was my day of interesting encounters… there was coffee by the waterfront, a figurative trip over the Tobin, heart wrenching eye contact in my favorite District and of course there’s that whole awkward seeing my future thing… although last night I heard it instead of seeing it… anyway, combine all of those experiences with the fact I was recovering from a sunshine-hangover (seriously, never, ever fall asleep on your roof deck in the midday sun… ) and my head was spinning by the end of the day!
Today should be pretty chill and tomorrow I’m looking forward to the Lucky Toes launch event in Cambridge (I’ll take pictures or whatever and post them for you… if you haven’t stopped by LuckyToes definitely check them out!) …
Okay, enough about moi… let’s talk about today’s designer, Karen Karam. I love her fun, flirty designs, and I’m loving the knee socks over heels thing. I rocked it a couple times last winter and thought it was really fun. I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of that and a lot of over-the-knee boots this fall… Anyway more about Karen (Bio from Not Just a Label)
Karen was born in the same year as the Smurfs first featured on television, when every woman wanted a pair of wonder woman boots, and when the UK’s first jogging craze swept the country. Yes, this was 1978!
After finishing her psychology degree Karen went to London to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a fashion designer. Central Saint Martins was the first step towards achieving her dream. She graduated in 2006 and presented her collection in the final year press show in which she received numerous publications.
During her placement year Karen decided to go into a mini adventure where she would move from one fashion house to the other in order to have a fully rounded training. She started at Alexander McQueen in London and then moved to Paris to work at Chloe and ended her year at John Galliano. “It’s been probably one of the best years of my life” says Karen “to be surrounded by so much talent and creativity was overwhelming at times. I felt like I was Alice in wonderland.” Much of her work in all 3 fashion houses was used for the ready to wear and catwalk collections.
During her last year at school, Karen won the Mulberry bag award competition and was a finalist at the ITS 5 young talent competition in Trieste and the YKK zip award. She was also a finalist at the Mango young designer competition.
In 2006 Karen’s accessories, that were part of her final year collection, were sold at Colette in Paris.
S/S09 was the debut collection for Karen. Her collection got instant recognition from both buyers and press and saw some gorgeous celebrities wearing her creations.
Karen’s girly, quirky look has set her as one of the new young designers to watch. “Well this is all just the beginning,” says Karen “there will be much more to come and I can’t wait to see how the wind will blow and where it will take me!”
I think that’s all…. oh yeah, don’t forget to check out Aventura’s new album which was released today!
