Charismatic Karishma

Budding Bengaluru-based designer Karishma Kristina Singh has been interested in fashion for as long as she can remember. Her earliest memories include ransacking her mother’s closet for something that she could wear, however ill-fitting the clothes might have been, mixing and matching outfits, and sketching endlessly in the book gifted to her by her father.

Today at age 24, she’s the proud creative mind behind the label, K Kristina, known for its whimsical, colourful garments punctuated with interesting  prints, also created by Singh herself.

“I always had a burning desire to work in fashion. I loved sketching, dressing up and experimenting. So the minute I graduated from secondary school, I decided to follow my dreams,” shares the young lady, who went on to study at Raffles Millennium International, Bangalore. The degree from Raffles followed with a course from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. During her stint there, she also had the pleasure of volunteering at the New York Fashion Week. “It was a ball. It’s crazy hectic but you learn so much and it was exciting to be at the epicentre of fashion,” she tells us.

Talking about her inspirations, Singh shares that it’s not just fashion that gets her creative juices flowing. From art to architecture, anything that strikes her as beautiful can spark off an idea for a new design or collection. “My father is a photographer. So I grew up surrounded by creative minds. I used to  help him out at shoots and he’d talk to me about colour,” reveals Singh, who has lately been most inspired by pastry chefs who “make the most amazing cakes that look like works of art.” On the fashion front, her idols include Christian Siriano, Tadashi Shoji, Zuhair Murad and Alexander McQueen.  “Christian started very young and has reached great heights of success, which is inspiring for newbies like me,” elaborates the designer whose annual trips to New York, where her mother lives and works, also prove useful for her  designs. She’s now focusing on expanding her brand. “I want it to reach a wider audience and have a faithful clientele,” she concludes.