Fashion, TV, life.

33

Tell me your experience on Canada’s Project Run-way.

My experience on project runway .. haha.. oh boy. Well, I don’t really know where to start. The expe-rience itself was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The amount of stress and pressure is undescribable. And, truthfully if I revealed half of the things they subjected us to, I’d probably get sued. Haha. But for real, the outcome has been amazing. All the press and publicity and interest in what I am doing now has been great. I have re-cieved a lot of support from people all across Can-ada and its been awesome.

What is one thing that people didn’t see about you on the show?

I’m sure there are many things people didn’t get to see. But, the one bummer is that they never showed how much fun we all had together.

We really bonded, and especially as the numbers dwindled, the group got tighter and tighter.. unfor-tunatly they only aired our grievences. But, alas, it is reality t.v. after all.

What were some positive/negative aspects in film-ing the show?

One of the most postive things for me coming off the show was how much I learned. I learned things from all the other designers; watching 13 other extremely talented people doing their craft in their own way.... was truly amazing. I noticed this most when I came home, and got back to making cloth-ing. I found myself taking the things I had learned from the others, and really making it my own. The negative stuff?? Well, it’s obvious, no? Type cast as the bitch, dealing with hate mail.. all that stuff.. But, that stuff eventually goes away and what you have in the end is a large number of people waiting to see what you do next.

Do you still keep in contact with your fellow cast mates?

I keep in touch with a handful of them. Talk mostly online, and have seen Brandon (Dwyer) a couple of times.

What were some results after the show?

As I mentioned, just the overwhelming support and interest from all across the country has been so cool. I have been able to showcase my new

35

take on fashion and design to an audience that already cares. That’s a blessing for sure.

Can you tell us about your label? And the inspira-tion behind it?

Kim Cathers elements has replaced the brand pre-viously, called Kdon. Kim Cathers elements is a 100% recycled ECO friendly line of products that are made with the intent to preserve and restore our beautiful mother earth. I believe that it is of ut-ter importance for each human to live consciously and responsibly. What I mean by that is this; as an inhabitant of this planet, I believe that we need

to be aware of our impact on the earth and make decisions everyday that show this conciousness. Things like buying local organic food, recycling, composting, planting trees, using recycled prod-ucts, using our money (which, is our most powerful vote for things that promote the preservation and restoration of the earth, its inhabitants and its peo-ple). It is my belief that we are in all this together, that there is no divide between humans, we are all flowing in the same stream of light. And, the sooner we can all realize this, the sooner we can start to change the future.

I have committed my design career to following

this path and only producing things that fit into this ideology. I receive all my fabric from Our Social Fabric; which, is a textile recycling initiative. Not to mention, I am on the board of directors for Our So-cial Fabric. Every sale I make, I give 10% directly back to the organization. What are some current projects that you’re work-ing on?

I am working for a non-profit organization called Our Social Fabric - www.oursocialfabric.org. It is a textile recyling initiative - the goal is to provide opportunities in communities of need and to also

reduce the amount of textiles that hit the land fills each year. “ECO Fashion Week” is another project that I am in support of.

Where do you see the fashion industry in Vancou-ver in the future?

It’s always hard to predict what is going to happen with fashion. And, especially in a city like Vancou-ver, that can be known to be fickle at times.

I would like to say that the future of the Vancouver fashion industry will be a bigger and better move-ment than what is already starting. Locally made

37

incorporate fashion and recycling. Recycled fashion doesn’t need to stay at the music festival ‘granola’ level. There is much room for it to grow and to be considered relevant fashion along side ‘new’ products.

What makes Vancouver such a great city to live in?

My favorite part about Vancouver is it’s close proximity to the Gulf Islands. The voice of mother nature is often drown out by the going ons of the city and it’s just a short ferry ride to reconnect with the soul of exsistence.

Last words?

Ask yourself, what are you doing? Like for real.. what are you doing? Do your actions have purpose, do your thoughts include others, are you doing everything you can today to make tomorrow better?

If you can begin to make changes to answer yes to all of those questions, then you are on the right path.

I have committed the rest of my design career to pro-mote and produce any and all things that help rebuild and sustain mother earth; because without her, we would all certainly fail to exsist.

Interview by Dmitri Litvinov

40