STUDIO VISIT: KERIN ROSE aka A-MORIR

There's a really interesting dynamic within the fashion design community in New York. Not exactly a hierarchy, more like movements. There's the been-there-forever's (Donna Karan, Isaac Mizrahi), the CFDA sweethearts (Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone), Style.com new forces (Prabal Gurung, Suno, Mandy Coon), and there's this great group of us who are just becoming established, yet working in a very hand-crafted, meticulous & customized way - and loving it. Perhaps its a bit more prevalent in the world of accessories, but I've been lucky to meet several New York based designers who are making their own rules for how they run their businesses, resulting in the creation of their own cult niche.

Of course the obvious issue of making pieces à la minute (per individual order, no mass production) is the fact that you end up spending 90% of your day physically producing the pieces! This is one of the reasons why its taken so long for me to meet up with the lovely Kerin Rose, designer of the infamous eyewear label A-Morir. We first met outside of the CFDA afterparty for Lady Gaga, and instantly clicked. We then bumped into each other after Mugler in Paris and vowed that we would meet up back in New York. Then we both had crazy Octobers and crazy Novembers and I finally made it over today.

Although we work with different materials, I found that we shared almost parallel experiences with our businesses. How our love for making things turned into a fulltime job, the assumptions of factory-like production when in reality every individual crystal is applied by hand (as with rivets on harnesses), and especially how many online customers do not understand (or read) that since every item is custom created per order, it will take time to be delivered. That is what makes what we do special.

I could easily blabber on forever about my thoughts on handcraft & the fashion industry, but this post is about featuring Kerin's awesome work. You can find her pieces worn by all of the big biz ladies like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj and in the pages of Elle France, Vogue Hommes, and GQ (check her interview on Vogue.it). And if that doesn't sound busy enough, she's also one of the designers featured in Gaga's Holiday Workshop at Barney's. Plus she has sick style and amazing hair.