It’s young, cheery, vibrant…the kind of clothes that can brighten up even mundane Mondays. In Karishma Kristina Singh’s creations, baby-doll meets femininity. The collection is titled Hate to Grow Up. “It’s something I relate to. After finishing college, I didn’t know what to expect from life. I was reluctant to take on responsibilities and behave like a grown-up; I didn’t want to let go of my childhood-adolescence phase,” says the 23-year-old designer who started her label K. Kristina in February this year.
Minimalist with an explosion of colour is what defines her clothes. They come in happy shades of cyan, lemon yellow, pink, green, white, brown and black. Looking at them lined together is like staring at marshmallows. The collection comprises knee-length dresses, interestingly cut crop tops, shirts, short A-line and pencil skirts, maxi skirts with slits, flared pants, vests, sarongs, scarves and waistcoats in cotton-silk blends, linens and cottons. There are popsicles, cupcakes, butterflies and abstract floral prints. “I thought of all the simple pleasures in life and started sketching and came up with these.” Her prints emerge from her love for illustrations.
But is there a risk of limiting her client-base by opting for designs that are way too youthful? “My design is for the young at heart,” she says and adds, “I also do customisation. It can be tweaked for the older clients. I have had women in their late 40s buying my clothes,” says the Bangalore-based designer.
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There are 16 pieces, most of which are exclusive. Karishma believes in single pieces “because at the end of the day everybody likes feeling special and not wearing something that another person already has.” Over a period of three months, the designer single-handedly put together this collection. “Buying fabrics, designing, sewing…everything has been done by me. I would go to my studio, sit by myself and sew for eight to nine hours.” She pursued a course in fashion designing at Raffles Millennium International College in Bangalore and topped it up with courses in costume designing and wardrobe for theatre and television at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
Karishma’s tryst with designing started at the age of 10 when she sewed together pieces of fabrics to make clothes for her dolls. Then she experimented by making clothes for herself. The good thing about being a designer is you can always create new clothes for yourself. She laughs, “Yes, but after a point I wanted to see others wear my clothes.” And now that they are being retailed on her website (www.kkristina.com) and out of Maal Gaadi in Chennai, she is delighted.