Studio Visit: Conni Kaminski
The times they are a-changin’. In fashion designer Conni Kaminski’s workshop stands a 1960s mannequin, thoroughly swathed in elastic tape. Time has turned the faithful companion into a somewhat dated friend. But a little careful revamping – “More breast and more ass!” – has left her fit to face the future. A future that will involve about 30 designs per season. Conni Kaminski: “I like working with volumes and drapings and asymmetry. The fabrics suggest the direction. I don’t really see myself as an artist, but I do find myself going more and more in that direction. I am gradually freeing myself from the rules of the fashion world. When I put together a new collection, I don’t look at fashion magazines, but I open myself up to what is around me, to what I see in films or at exhibitions. But I mainly draw my inspiration from daily life. I don’t just sit there thinking, ‘Now I have to design a skirt’. What I make is about a mix of the urban and the elegant. To an extent that is my life too, the life of an active woman who also wants to be elegant and sexy.”
(© Raisa Vandamme)
(© Heleen Rodiers)
Conni Kaminski (1971) moved from Hamburg to Belgium eleven years ago with a degree in Fashion Design under her arm, attracted by the Belgian fashion design scene and more specifically by the Antwerp Six. She was offered a job in Brussels as a fashion designer of men’s clothes. “[Embarrassed laugh] Not really my dream. After three years I started developing projects of my own and doing fashion shows and photo shoots. In 2005 I was able to present my first collection at the Brussels Fashion Fair. The first two years I worked from home. We had a small apartment and eventually found ourselves living surrounded by fabrics and cardboard boxes. Then I decided to look for a place of my own: a shop with a workshop – my dream since I was thirteen.”
Conni Kaminski (1971) moved from Hamburg to Belgium eleven years ago with a degree in Fashion Design under her arm, attracted by the Belgian fashion design scene and more specifically by the Antwerp Six. She was offered a job in Brussels as a fashion designer of men’s clothes. “[Embarrassed laugh] Not really my dream. After three years I started developing projects of my own and doing fashion shows and photo shoots. In 2005 I was able to present my first collection at the Brussels Fashion Fair. The first two years I worked from home. We had a small apartment and eventually found ourselves living surrounded by fabrics and cardboard boxes. Then I decided to look for a place of my own: a shop with a workshop – my dream since I was thirteen.”
(Conni Kaminski © Heleen Rodiers)
Conni Kaminski’s shop is on the Kolenmarkt/rue du Marché au Charbon. A little courtyard with a tree in it separates the shop from her workshop, a gradually narrowing space that, right to its tip, is packed with fabrics, cardboard boxes, and prototypes and also contains a wee kitchen, a computer, a mood board, a mannequin, sewing machines, and large tables. “This isn’t really a commercial street. But it has its own charm: you can still make discoveries here. And because people aren’t barging in all the time I can still work in my workshop.”
The changing times are bringing in more colour: “My summer collection will all be about colours and prints, with some retro touches. People want to be cheered up. Today, because of the economic situation, we are looking for a piece of clothing we really love. We are no longer buying just to buy, but to bring some imagination into our lives.”
Conni Kaminski’s shop is on the Kolenmarkt/rue du Marché au Charbon. A little courtyard with a tree in it separates the shop from her workshop, a gradually narrowing space that, right to its tip, is packed with fabrics, cardboard boxes, and prototypes and also contains a wee kitchen, a computer, a mood board, a mannequin, sewing machines, and large tables. “This isn’t really a commercial street. But it has its own charm: you can still make discoveries here. And because people aren’t barging in all the time I can still work in my workshop.”
The changing times are bringing in more colour: “My summer collection will all be about colours and prints, with some retro touches. People want to be cheered up. Today, because of the economic situation, we are looking for a piece of clothing we really love. We are no longer buying just to buy, but to bring some imagination into our lives.”
(© Heleen Rodiers)
COLLECTION: Conni Kaminski will be presenting her collection during the Paris fashion week, from 3 to 7 March.
CONTACT: Kolenmarkt 102 rue du Marché au Charbon, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-502.51.55, info@connikaminski.com, www.connikaminski.com
COLLECTION: Conni Kaminski will be presenting her collection during the Paris fashion week, from 3 to 7 March.
CONTACT: Kolenmarkt 102 rue du Marché au Charbon, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-502.51.55, info@connikaminski.com, www.connikaminski.com
Read more about: Expo
Fijn dat je wil reageren. Wie reageert, gaat akkoord met onze huisregels. Hoe reageren via Disqus? Een woordje uitleg.