Fashion stars like Badgley Mischka and Prabal Gurung show their designs at the spring edition of New York Fashion Week. For many designers, however, values such as sustainability are now more important than the big stage.
New York – The home village of Janina Klahold has not even 1000 inhabitants, but a theater – the open-air theater Bökendorf. “I started making costumes at the Freilichtbühne. I taught myself all that first,” says the now 30-year-old from Bökendorf, which belongs to Brakel in North Rhine-Westphalia.
At that time she was still at school, but was already very interested in fabrics, sewing and design – and because she is very tall, she liked to sew suitable clothes for herself, says Klahold.
Today she lives in New York, a metropolis with more than eight million people, and still sews for herself – but above all for the customers of her fashion label “blk top kope”, founded in 2018. The name stands for “blacktop”, the urban asphalt surface on which life and sports in the city take place. And for “Kaleidoskop” – because her clothes are colorful and the people she makes them for are diverse, says Klahold: “Because we are all so different and lead different lives and still come together like a kaleidoscope.”
Participated in New York Fashion Week
New York is one of the capitals of the fashion world. From Friday (February 10) the next Fashion Week will take place twice a year, during which famous fashion stars and labels such as Badgley Mischka, Tory Burch, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Prabal Gurung will present their designs with famous models the catwalk and famous guests in the front row.
Klahold has also taken part in New York Fashion Week with her designs. But it also became clear to her that her own values are more important to her business than the big stage: She makes “athleisure”, inspired by sportswear but for everyday use, high quality but comfortable. T-shirts, hoodies, trousers, all around the equivalent of between 40 and 150 euros. All of their pieces are gender neutral – and most importantly, made sustainably.
Order is hand tailored
The designer sources her fabrics in Canada, where they are made in a resource-efficient manner, then hand tailors each piece to order. She donates leftover fabric to FabScrab, a company that fights fashion waste. Because in New York alone, according to the authorities, around 180 million kilograms of clothing and leftover fabric are thrown away every year – and even if many fashion brands have officially committed themselves to environmentally friendly goals, according to experts, there is still a long way to go before they are implemented worldwide.
Klahold learned the tailoring trade in Germany from the fashion company Gerry Weber. She completed her training in 2015 as the best in the state and was recognized for this by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The associated scholarship enabled her to start in New York in 2016, where she had been wanting to go since an au pair year nearby and where she initially added a degree in fashion management and merchandising.
Influence of New York on fashion
New York influences her fashion – and she, says Klahold. “I notice that I can develop more here.” There was always a lot of criticism and a lack of understanding from Germany and also from her family, in which nobody worked in the fashion industry, and she always took that to heart. “And here it is the case that I don’t always hear this criticism all the time, and as a result I may have gone a bit in a direction that I wouldn’t have gone in Germany. It helps me more to be myself.”
After her studies she worked freelance before she started her own label in 2018. Klahold still sells everything online, but she could also imagine opening a shop in the future. She is currently supporting her dream with a part-time job that is very typical for New York: dog walker, meaning walking other people’s dogs.
Klahold still tailors everything herself in her apartment in Brooklyn, which she shares with her husband, several sewing machines and dozens of rolls of fabric. She also shares part of the wardrobe with her husband – because they are both about the same size and the pieces she sews are gender-neutral.
Klahold says it takes her about an hour and a half to tailor a T-shirt. Other pieces take a little longer. “Trends don’t interest me personally. Of course, as a brand, I have to pay attention to it, but I wouldn’t do anything just because it’s a trend.” But she has already learned a few things about the wishes of her customers in the first years of her label, says Klahold: “I I buy more black and white fabrics than bright colors because I’ve learned that colors attract people – and then they end up buying black.” dpa
