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Shopping With Designer Norma Kamali
"I really had no intention of getting involved in fashion. I wanted to be a painter, but my mother kept informing me on a daily basis that that would not pay the rent, and she threatened to put a lock on the refrigerator if I didn't get it together with a real career and start contributing to the house."
So said Norma Kamali when we met up with the striking 60-year-old designer - all angular cheekbones, sharp red bob and Garbo-esque shades - at her sunny loft like showroom in midtown Manhattan last month to do a little shopping and get the lowdown on her celebrated thirty-year career, for which she won a CFDA Board of Director's Special Tribute Award last June, given to acknowledge significant contributions and commitment to fashion.
Significant contribution may actually be a slight understatement in Kamali's case. All we can say is: Thank you, Mama Kamali, for "forcing" your daughter to go into fashion. Because without her, the world would be devoid of sleeping bag coats, stylish workout wear, parachute pants, 4-in-1 dresses, ingeniously cut swimsuits and all the other (now standard) clothing innovations that Kamali was personally responsible for introducing into the 20th century fashion lexicon. Not bad for someone who graduated from FIT with a degree in fashion illustration and spent her early post-college years working a computer job in the airline industry.
"I think all designers have an antenna about what's next," said Kamali with characteristic modesty of her groundbreaking ways, as she gestured to an imaginary antenna on her head. "I don't think it's a special talent that just I have. People who are in fashion - and designers in particular - just pick up the energy and electricity of what people are feeling, and it becomes so much a part of who you are as a designer. Many times [different] designers all come out with the same thing at the same time. That's not an accident; it's a real kind of energy - and everybody's feeling it and expressing it in their own way."
"I used to collect everything and had a lot of things for the home because I had a home store, but when I turned 50 I stopped collecting," she said while navigating her way through pages of, errr, home things. "I felt like I had collected all this stuff - I had things in warehouses I never even saw - and that all this stuff was holding me back. My possessions were possessing me."
One life-confirming trip to India and a Christie's auction later, Kamali was blessedly stuff-free. Thankfully, we were there to change all that.
"Simplicity for me is really important," she said while showing us the $39 five-piece Fiestaware place setting she had chosen in sunny yellow.
"If you look at your daily routine, there's only a certain amount of space in your apartment that you can use and room that you need and things that you need," she added. "If you have things but stop using them, I think it's time give them to someone else to use and enjoy. If you let go, so much more comes to you."
At that moment, what was coming to her was a puffy sky blue comforter ($19) and (click, click) - "What is this? Save 30 percent on a microfiber blanket?" - a sublimely plush reversible blanket (on sale for $19) that was turquoise on one side and grass green on the other.
"We're not finished yet. Yellow beach towels, $5 each. Bling! $100 exactly, madam," Kamali said, her voice ringing with triumphant glee. "Not bad, right?"
Not bad at all. Someone who didn't know any better might even call it lucky.
By Lauren David Peden Via Fashion Wire Daily
So said Norma Kamali when we met up with the striking 60-year-old designer - all angular cheekbones, sharp red bob and Garbo-esque shades - at her sunny loft like showroom in midtown Manhattan last month to do a little shopping and get the lowdown on her celebrated thirty-year career, for which she won a CFDA Board of Director's Special Tribute Award last June, given to acknowledge significant contributions and commitment to fashion.
Significant contribution may actually be a slight understatement in Kamali's case. All we can say is: Thank you, Mama Kamali, for "forcing" your daughter to go into fashion. Because without her, the world would be devoid of sleeping bag coats, stylish workout wear, parachute pants, 4-in-1 dresses, ingeniously cut swimsuits and all the other (now standard) clothing innovations that Kamali was personally responsible for introducing into the 20th century fashion lexicon. Not bad for someone who graduated from FIT with a degree in fashion illustration and spent her early post-college years working a computer job in the airline industry.
"I think all designers have an antenna about what's next," said Kamali with characteristic modesty of her groundbreaking ways, as she gestured to an imaginary antenna on her head. "I don't think it's a special talent that just I have. People who are in fashion - and designers in particular - just pick up the energy and electricity of what people are feeling, and it becomes so much a part of who you are as a designer. Many times [different] designers all come out with the same thing at the same time. That's not an accident; it's a real kind of energy - and everybody's feeling it and expressing it in their own way."
"I used to collect everything and had a lot of things for the home because I had a home store, but when I turned 50 I stopped collecting," she said while navigating her way through pages of, errr, home things. "I felt like I had collected all this stuff - I had things in warehouses I never even saw - and that all this stuff was holding me back. My possessions were possessing me."
One life-confirming trip to India and a Christie's auction later, Kamali was blessedly stuff-free. Thankfully, we were there to change all that.
"Simplicity for me is really important," she said while showing us the $39 five-piece Fiestaware place setting she had chosen in sunny yellow.
"If you look at your daily routine, there's only a certain amount of space in your apartment that you can use and room that you need and things that you need," she added. "If you have things but stop using them, I think it's time give them to someone else to use and enjoy. If you let go, so much more comes to you."
At that moment, what was coming to her was a puffy sky blue comforter ($19) and (click, click) - "What is this? Save 30 percent on a microfiber blanket?" - a sublimely plush reversible blanket (on sale for $19) that was turquoise on one side and grass green on the other.
"We're not finished yet. Yellow beach towels, $5 each. Bling! $100 exactly, madam," Kamali said, her voice ringing with triumphant glee. "Not bad, right?"
Not bad at all. Someone who didn't know any better might even call it lucky.
By Lauren David Peden Via Fashion Wire Daily
