Meet the Designer....

I am Kim the designer of West Indies Wear.  A lot of you already know me, but for all of our new island friends out there, I thought I would introduce myself.  Here is a little video to say G'day from down under.

To see my fashion school graduation collection on the runway at the Australian Design Awards back in 1992, here is the video.  It was a star studded event, LIVE telecast from Sydney Town Hall around Australia..... for a student it was SO EXCITING.

 

 

Here was a newspaper article about me from that time..... 

Here I am working as a designer for a massive clothing manufacturer in Egypt.

Here I am in the Billabong South Africa Design room, I was head designer there for 5 years, and thats where I met my husband.

Here we are sailing to the Caribbean from South Africa on our tiny 34 foot yacht.  It took us a total of 51 days at sea.... click here to hear about that adventure.

Here I am on the boat with baby Maya.

I love this photo of toddler Maya in the dinghy.

Here I am sewing samples on the boat.... we had no electricity, so I am using an old fashion hand operated sewing machine that I had bought of another yachtie.

Here is me in one of our early photo shoots for West Indies Wear, on the beach at Guana Bay, St.Maarten.

 

Here I am with my first banner I had made, for my first trade show.

Here is one of our early shipments..... we had moved off the boat, and into an apartment in St.Maarten, and we received the shipment into our lounge room.  This was right before Christmas, so we were trying to quickly pack and ship all the orders out to our boutiques so that we could have the lounge room back in time for Christmas.

These days we are sold in over 200 boutiques all over the world.  All up the East Coast of USA, Bahamas, throughout the Caribbean, Hawaii, and even a few Pacific Islands....  I design my collections from my home studio in small town Australia, manufacture with a small 4th generation family factory in India, and warehouse in an incredible facility in Nashville TN. 

What an amazing journey it's been.  Here is a photo of me in our trade show booth in Orlando FL, January 2020, just before the world shut down with Covid.  This was my last time in USA.... hope I can come back soon!

 

 

One love island friends x