Education
The youngest of five children, he was born in Newarthill, a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, to a very close-knit family: "I was always surrounded by my Mum and her sisters - my aunties - and by my two older sisters who are both really artistic so . . . I suppose we're quite an artistic family. It's genetic, it's in the blood to be creative."
As a child, he didn't know what a fashion designer was, but he recalls: "I was always in the art room at school and drawing dresses and models from catalogues."
He realized he wanted to work in fashion after watching John Galliano's graduate collection show on The Clothes Show, a BBC program: "I know it sounds cheesy and dreamy, but then it just clicked."
After attending some life-drawing classes and courses at the School of Art in Glasgow, at 18 he decided to move to London with his sister Tammy, who already had her degree in fashion.
He attended a course in fine art at Central St Martins, completed a fashion BA and MA. During these years, he worked for the likes of Russell Sage and Giles Deacon.
He graduated in 2006 and soon after that established his own company.
Breakthrough
He became famous before completing his studies, not only thanks to his talent, but also for a series of fortunate events: "Louise Wilson [director of the Central Saint Martins MA course] was being interviewed by Sarah Mower and she saw one of the dresses from my first collection and liked it. Then Donatella Versace and Anna Wintour heard about my stuff and started taking an interest. I was so lucky the way it happened."
His MA mini-collection received praise and an important award, but the debut collection (S/S 2007) was a turning point in his career: "It was a continuation of my MA because that's what everyone expected. I thought I'd do it brighter - bright, bright, bright. It was a summer collection so I just thought the shorter the better and the brighter the better. I came across the elastic by chance, in a really dodgy haberdasher in Shepherd's Bush.
I just wanted to do a small collection of dresses, stricter, and with more binding and stretch. So that was it.
I suppose that, with those colours, it was a bold statement. I did that on instinct but after seeing the New York collections the week before I showed mine in London and it all being really dark that was quite good."
About him
At 12 he saved money to buy Tammy (who is now a business partner) a pink, wet-look Versace mini-dress for her end-of-school dance.
The list of celebrities who love his designs is endless and includes Jessica Alba, CareyMulligan , Emma Watson, Freida Pinto, Leighton Meester and Diane Kruger. Cher wearing one of his chiffon biker jackets during a concert in Las Vegas is one of his favorite celebrity moment, since he's a big fan of the American performer.
His printed dresses and t-shirts are among his most famous and trademark creations.
It all started with the S/S 2009 collection, which included tight jersey dresses with scary baboons and gorillas printed on them. The source of inspiration was the movie Planet of the Apes and a certain obsession with dangerous animals: "Sharks, snakes, crocodiles; even monkeys freak me out."
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Rihanna wore these dresses, which became a hit. Following collections included cloud prints on men's t-shirts (seen on Russell Brand), nuclear explosion prints (seen on Daisy Lowe and Katy Perry), and galaxy prints, featured in the Resort 2011 line.
He lived one of the worst moments in his career when 23 of his S/S 2008 collection pieces were stolen from his atelier in London, just a week before the fashion show. Kane did a tour de force to complete the collection in time: dominated by snakeskin-print chiffon ruffles, cashmere vests studded with Swarovski crystals and ripped denim, it was a success.
His creations are much sought-after by music stars, too: in 2007 he designed an aubergine dress, embellished with Swarovski crystals, for Beth Ditto, who wore it to attend the concert-event Fashion Rocks. In the same year, Kylie Minogue asked Kane and Gareth Pugh to design the outfits for the video 2 Hearts.
Outstanding quality
The unique mix of couture (hand embroideries, black lace) and cheap (metal rings, colourful elastic bands, PVC); the update of tailoring and decorative techniques.
The piece of advice
"Try and try again. If something doesn't work out, there's always a solution."
Main awards
He is one of the most awarded designer of his generation: in 2005 he still was a student and won a Lancôme Colour Award; the following year, he received a Harrods Design Award for his MA graduate collection and a Scottish New Designer of the Year Award.
In 2007 he was named New Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards; in 2009 he won the British Collection of the Year at the British Fashion Awards and the Best British Designer Award at the Elle Style Awards.
In June 2010 he won the Fashion Innovator Award at the 5th annual Scottish Fashion Awards. In the same year, he received a nomination to the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (the prize eventually went to Erdem Moralioglu). He has recently won a nomination as Designer of the Year for the 2010 British Fashion Awards, which will be held on December 7th.
Currently working on
S/S 2011 collection, presented during the London Fashion Week in September 2010.
Other projects
In 2008 he teamed up with Lancôme for Juicy Tubes World Tour, a limited-edition collection of nine lipglosses. The tubes of the glosses were decorated with different illustrations. In the same year, he designed a Couture glass - made of hand-blown crystal - for the gin brand Bombay Sapphire. His collaboration with Topshop started in 2007 with a capsule collection and reached its peak in September 2009, when the high-street brand launched a complete collection, including clothing, shoes and bags. In January 2010, the Parisian store Printemps included an exclusive creation by the Scottish designer - a pale yellow pleated dress - in the window displays celebrating Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. The mannequin also wore one-of-a-kind shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood. In April 2010 he celebrated the 40th anniversary of the London boutique Browns with a re-issue of a cherry red bandage dress, originally included in his S/S 2007 debut collection. The lace-up booties seen on the F/W 2010 catwalk are the result of a collaboration with Giuseppe Zanotti. Kane and Zanotti worked together on the shoes for the Resort 2011 and S/S 2011 collections, too.
He has been designing jewelry collections for Atelier Swarovski since the F/W 2007 season: among the most notable pieces, multistrand bolster colliers, pieces embellished with resin scarabs, laser-cut and engraved brooches.
Working method
"The way I approach the collection is to work with a few things that I like, a few textures or fabrics, and focus on those. I don't like to go overboard and have too much going on."
He gets bored easily, so he likes changing style in his collections, even if this has a downside: "There is a pressure to reinvent each year and not to disappoint anyone. I think if I did checks again next year it might not go down too well, but I wouldn't want to anyway."
Mentors
I've always been star-struck by Donatella," he has recently said. Versace became his mentor while he was attending his final year at Central St Martins. Donatella heard from a journalist he was looking for metal mesh to finish a dress for his MA graduation collection, so she sent some to him.
Soon after the graduation, Versace offered him a job, which he turned down: "[I did it] because I always wanted to do my own thing so it just wasn't right for me," he explained at the time. "But I'm still doing some consultancy work for them, so she was fine about it. She totally understood. I think she knew in her head what I wanted to do and she thought it was really brave."
They started working together when Donatella asked him to revive Versus, a cheaper line launched in 1989: he first designed a capsule collection of accessories and jewelry for F/W 2009, then worked on S/S 2010 women's and men's collection, which received raves.
"Christopher is a highly creative young designer and his work impressed me from the very beginning," Donatella said. "His rock 'n' roll style is very powerful, glamorous and sensual - perfectly in tune with the mood of Versus - which was always intended for young people who want clothes that project a personal style that is constantly evolving."
Style keywords
Modern, experimental, sexy, sinister.
Personal style
Basic and comfortable - cardigans or sweaters with t-shirts and jeans. His favourite item of clothing "is a Comme des Garçons jacket. It's from Tokyo, and elegant and durable, with a funny texture. I particularly like suit jackets with a soft tailoring."
He loves shoes, Church's brogues in particular.
Inspirations
Cinema (some elements in his collections were inspired to Gone with the Wind, Braveheart, Lolita and Rambo); Pablo Picasso ("His drawings are something I always relate to. You might not think it, but his work creeps up in my designs each season"); the 1990s ("Tammy and my other sister Sandra were getting dressed up and jumping about, going out to clubs. My dad got a satellite dish and I became obsessed with Fashion TV and The Clothes Show"). A source of inspiration of the F/W 2010 collection was Priscilla Presley, "before Elvis got his hands on her".
Icon
"My style icon is Carine Roitfeld [editor-in-chief of French Vogue], and Helena Bonham Carter in recent months. She is an eccentric and doesn't care what people think. I like that she wears what she wants. Plus, her husband [Tim Burton] is the best film director ever.
Birthday
July 26th.
Born in
Newarthill, Great Britain.
Lives in
London, Great Britain.
Scottish-born designer Christopher Kane has become one of London Fashion Week’s key players. Working closely with his muse and business partner, his sister Tammy, his star has sky rocketed since winning the Harrods award for his MA Collection. He launched his own label in 2006 (after a stint at Atelier Versace) and counts Donatella Versace amongst his legion of fans. So much so that she tapped him to design the accessories for Versace’s recently relaunched Versus collection. In 2007 he deservedly won New Designer of the Year Award at the British Fashion Awards.
Signature Style: His Scottish heritage, and 80s films have inspired his past collections. He always has the fashion pack guessing, what will inspire him next.
Best buy for S/S 2010: The ankle-length slit gingham dress
Nancy Reagan, Lolita and religious cultism are just some of the influences listed for design star Christopher Kane's latest spring collection. The Central Saint Martins graduate who set London Fashion Week alight with a punchy launch collection of neon bandage dresses won Young Designer of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards in 2006 and has quickly cultivated a celebrity following including Chloë Sevigny, Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss who love his signature pretty yet provocative style. With vivid floral embroidery on everything from cashmere to leather, this fall's collection is as eclectic as it is chic.
Christopher Kane is a London designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2006. He's worked with Versace and Top Shop and they say he's responsibilily for bringing the whole fluoro trend back to mainstream. I think he's incredibly talented, this collection from spring 2007 is old news, but still so striking. I haven't been this blown away by a designer since Marc Jacobs and Philip Lim.
http://mahalofashion.blogspot.com/2007/10/christopher-kane-arias.html
