The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

FOR Bahamian fashion designer Kim Reidel, a major strategy for seeking brand awareness and global success is snagging opportunities to exhibit around the world.

Securing a spot for her jewelry collection on Africa Fashion Day during Berlin Fashion Week in Germany last month was therefore a major milestone.

While participating in a show in Hamburg, Reidel was approached by one of the organisers of the Berlin event and later invited to showcase her collection.

Africa Fashion Day Berlin is a network for fashion designers living in Europe with an African, Afro Caribbean and Afro-American background. The network is a platform that shows the wide variety of young, new, modern, high end, urban, and global art to the African fashion scene.

During the show, Reidel featured looks from two collections: one was sterling silver from her classic line; the other, a new collection she developed for a German company inspired by modern art and synthetic materials. The lines focus on vibrant colour, she said.

“My collections have always drawn from the past and the forms that many cultures seem to have in common, but I am also very inspired by modern art and architecture. I am interested in what connects us as a people and I try to layer these influences in my work,” she said.

“I have participated in other shows, but Berlin Fashion Week is particularly special for me as it is the fashion capital and hub for designers in Germany. It was a great experience. The highlight for me was meeting the other designers and connecting. I was very much inspired by their work as well,” she told Tribune Arts.

She hopes that her participation in the event creates opportunities for her to exhibit in other shows and create awareness for her brand.

“Fashion Week is a platform that provides media exposure for designers, but one of the other key roles it plays is bringing artists and designers together, and out of that can come interesting collaborations and ventures. My hope is dual: that the exposure helps to familiarise the market here with my work, and provide opportunities for interesting projects and collaborations with other designers.

“It is important to be a part of the larger circle of peers and the design community; there is a synergy that happens when you are in such an environment. All designers, whether Caribbean, Latin American, European deserve to have a place in the larger market and the opportunity to show their work. The influences we bring from our unique cultural perspectives are valid and bring new ideas and a fresh outlook to the industry,” she said.

Reidel is a former architecture student who attended design school in Montreal, Canada, before attending Central Saint Martins in London, England, where she studied Fashion Design. At the end of her studies she developed an interest in metal. She continued her studies in architecture, but found that jewelry design was her true passion. She taught herself how to create the intriguing designs featured in the collection.

Reidel started fashion designing as a hobby and has now turned it into a 15 year profession.

“I briefly worked with Tyrone Ferguson (artist/metalsmith) when I first had an interest in metal. I continued from there and taught myself the specific techniques I needed to realize my ideas. Tyrone was very instrumental in helping to forge my technique and visual vocabulary to metal and later to metalsmithing.

“My greatest enjoyment comes from seeing someone wearing my work. I am always surprised because it is no longer my creation, but a part of the story and character of the wearer. I will design and make jewelry as long as I feel I have something to bring to the craft,” she said.