Norma Kamali (Q4702)
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fashion label by Norma Kamali
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Norma Kamali |
fashion label by Norma Kamali |
Statements
Norma Kamali’s business runs like a well-oiled machine, but the designer has decided she doesn’t want to coast into the future. Rather, in the interest of shaking things up a bit, she approached her pre-fall offering from a new angle: “It’s not a collection; it’s just looks,” she said on a walk-through. “The thing I like the best is that it’s so disconnected from last season. ‘Disconnect’ sounds sort of negative, but I like that people will see the collection and think, ‘Oh, this is something I haven’t seen or this is something I want to try.” Not all elements of the lineup were “random,” however. Kamali is actively engaged with her customers; they wanted a rework of a lacy vintage jumpsuit Sabrina Carpenter wore, and she obliged.The unifying element is the strong, straightforward palette of red, white, and black, with touches of metallic. There are themes as well, such as a bias plaid and a red rose print; Kamali has you mostly covered (there are lots of sheer options) whether you are planning a pool party or a City Hall wedding. Peter Pan collars, a jumpsuit with a sheer-striped top and patch pockets, and mitred checks conjure 1940s American fashion and some of its utilitarian elements. Yet, like others in the industry, Kamali has an itch for glamour. To satisfy it, the models wear Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russeell-inspired wigs in cartoon red that really add life to the lookbook.
9 December 2024
Longevity has been Norma Kamali’s hobby horse for a while now. Having explored the subject in the context of wellness, more recently she’s started considering how longevity can be related to legacy. She seems to find a way forward with technology. Armed with a certificate in generative AI from MIT and able partners, Kamali has created a proprietary AI program fed solely with images of her designs, which she decided to put to the test, asking the machine how it might iterate on an archival dress of alternating bands of black opaque and tan sheer fabric, and included the AI versions alongside the original in the lookbook.This experiment had little to do with the overall garden party (real or state of mind) theme, featuring interchangeable designs in what Kamali called “slightly off colors” of “vintage green, asparagus, baby pink and cappuccino,” that played well off each other. If only politicians could do the same: “I think about what’s going on in the world; it can’t get any more complicated than it is,” said the designer, who decided to lean into optimism by choosing “color and the light.”Not wanting customers to have to lighten their wallets, Kamali has focused on keeping prices low and thinking how her pieces can be variously combined or styled to create many different looks with few garments.The one-and-done draped Diana dress that Sarah Jessica Parker, as Carrie Bradshaw, re-popularized is still going strong. “I thought it was really enough,” Kamali said. Customers don’t agree, which led the designer to the conclusion that “you can’t just be feeling new all the time, you just can’t.” Her collections always include reissues; for spring she’s gone all in relaunching the convertible skirt, which has an interesting backstory.“When I started out,” the designer related, “I never had any training in fashion, and I realized that my pattern makers were bullying me, telling me things weren’t possible, so I said, ‘I better learn how to do this because it has to be possible.’ I learned how to make patterns myself, but my skills were limited, so all the clothes I made would be so simple.” One of these was the convertible, the star of the spring 2025 collection, which Kamali describes as “basically a square with a hole,” and which is so called because of the many different ways it can be worn.Another throwback in the collection was a slip jumpsuit with draped harem pants that was worn back in the day by the likes of Bianca Jagger and Cher.
Kamali has had a lot of requests to bring it back, so she set about recreating the pattern. “So much originated in the 1970s. It was one of those new ideas times,” she mused. That decade took many cues from the ’30s, when the bias cut was first popularized. Kamali played a lot with this technique for spring, using clear straps to suspend an off-the-shoulder look, creating pretty necklines, and versatile skirts.
11 September 2024
“The prices are fantastic and everything’s washable,” said Norma Kamlai of her resort 2025 collection. “So it’s like: have fun, glam up, have a good time, but then don’t feel horrible because you just spent too much money.” This has always been the designer’s approach, but, like many others, she’s leaning into versatility and considering different ways a single piece can be worn. This is not mere lip service; many looks, Kamali explained, come with instructions on how to modify a piece, like turning a midi into a mini, for example.Sheer is one of the stories of the season here, and as in the past, Kamali’s ultimate base layer is a second-skin jumpsuit. She reimagined the “modern dance dress” as a sheer black mesh circle skirt, bow-tied at the waist, and worn over a leotard. More solid, literally, was a group of looks featuring decorative metal studs. These were unexpected and especially successful on swimwear. Moving from poolside into wilder terrain, Kamali photographed leopard spots and reptile skins and created photo prints with 3-D effects. A shawl-collared animalier sleeping bag coat is divalicious. Also combining comfort and glam are metallic “elephant sweatpants” in micro sequins that strike sartorial gold.
7 June 2024
Norma Kamali believes the world is in a period of transition, and she wants you to be ready for anything. “Whether it’s an astrologer telling you, the bank, or people in finance, these are not ordinary times,” the designer said on a walk-through, “but fashion is purposeful in a lot of ways and it should always make us feel good. We should never feel guilty that we’re spending too much money, so I tried to make this a smart collection.” Smart in terms of getting dressed and bottom line; she’s managed to bring down the price of her famous sleeping bag coats (of which many variations have been shown this season). For fall, this topper got a companion in the form of a neck donut that can coordinate or contrast with your look.The collection was built around the bodysuit as a layering piece and customizability through reversibility, the standout six-pocket “shearling” that the look book opens with was an example of that. A collaged cheetah print played into the big-hair-don’t-care aesthetic popularized by TikTok; otherwise, Kamali worked with a muted palette. Crochet pieces felt out of sync with this very sleek New York offering—gray and black striped jerseys the touch of whimsy we need right now.
14 February 2024
Move over Frankie: It’s Norma’s turn to say “Relax!” Now is the moment “to de-stress, we can’t take it anymore,” said Norma Kamali on a walk-through of her pre-fall 2024 collections which includes many soft jersey knits to wear loose, wrapped, or layered. These casual, yoga-easy looks, most in heather gray and white, slide around the body, rather than hug it. “The fabric is the sensual part of it,” said Kamali. “I feel strongly that relaxed is the mood for me… because as women, especially, we just need to not have to be on point all the time.” Still, the designer’s got us covered for those times too, as with a series of smart separates in navy and white. Of particular note are high-waisted pants that are fitted through the rib cage; Kamali first showed them in the ’70s and thinks they feel right again now.One of the designer’s dresses from that era is included in the “Women Dressing Women”exhibitionat the Met; for pre-fall she revisted it, rendering it a white-to-blue ombré in short and maxi lengths. Pulling from more contemporary experience—her recent wedding—Kamali offered many looks in white and holographic silver, including pretty dresses embellished with pearls, others with paillettes, and one with tiers of fringe. For her nuptials Kamali opted for her best-selling shirred Diana dress in white, which she wore with cowboy boots, a black leather moto jacket, and sunnies. There’s a “lazy Diana” in her pre-fall lineup that’s cut in a lighter fabric; it will be in stores in time for cuffing season next year.
8 December 2023
If you’re Norma Kamali and life gives you lemons, what do you do? Make a trompe l’oeil denim print, evidently. “The interesting thing about this collection is that I had fabrics chosen, everything done, ready, and none of it arrived,” explained the designer on a walk-through. “The universe didn’t want me to do that because I shouldn’t have been doing that,” she concluded and moved on, cool as a cucumber. And why not? Kamali has many resources at her fingertips.From her archive, she pulled a marble print and another that featured a giant elephant head. From her memories, she pulled a trip to India. These inspired draped sashes that were attached with magnets to garments to give the wearer an easy on-off option. The TV series1883was the starting point for Kamali’s fringed vegan-leather jackets, which fit into a sub-theme of “Old Hollywood, but cowboys at the same time.”Kamali is extremely perceptive and ever sensitive to what’s happening in the world and her collections, which are always extensive and usually organized around her latest preoccupation. That wasn’t the case with this one, which lacked an overarching organizing principle, likely because of the supply-chain issues. Then there’s the fact that Kamali is deeply engaged with and excited about a few projects that are separate from the making of clothing. The designer recently took a course at MIT on regenerative AI. And she’s relaunching herpodcastlater this month, featuring an interview with none other than Rick Owens, who, like Kamali, is an independent designer. What did they talk about? You’ll have to tune in, but it seems that they agree that while AI can do many things, no prompt can replicate feeling on a physical or emotional level.
12 September 2023
Norma Kamali has always cast a wide net when it comes to fashion; she was an early adapter on the crossover of sports into ready-to-wear and a wellness pioneer as well. It’s never just about the clothes for her.This season Kamali was thinking about the why of things. “We talk a lot about excess product, we talk about a lot of the things we [as an industry] are doing wrong. I think we will do more things right if we understand what our purpose is. What are we supposed to be doing? What’s the job here?… We forget the purpose is to make fashion fun and memorable, make it important for people,” she said in her showroom. “If we create collections that aren’t just for each other in the industry but to really change how people feel, I think the industry will have a better time figuring out what to do with all the products.”Kamali is advocating for fashion as a form of well-being. “Therapy’s great—I’m not against it—but sometimes we need to be our own hacks,” the designer noted. Although the resort collection is mostly rendered in shades of black, white, and gray (with shots of silver and red), it delivers a dopamine rush. A moto in reflective material? Yes, please! Ditto the ombré sleeping-bag coats and a slinky black stretch dress with a hood and open back.Duvet toppers aside, Kamali is partial to body-conscious looks. Stealth wealth might be trending online, but IRL the dare-to-bare look continues to dominate. Kamali speaks to that in various ways, even bringing back her peekaboo dot-and-dash dresses featuring opaque circles and rectangles placed strategically on mesh. Kamali’s on her game.
8 June 2023
Norma Kamali continued to build on the wardrobe theme she introduced last season. Work life may be altered, but post lockdown, our lives have once again become more structured, within new uncertainties. This requires new approaches, and perhaps some new and dependable wardrobe items that can be an aid in manifesting our best selves.It’s early in the fall season, but already it’s clear that many designers are in the mood for tightening their offering, and making it a bit more dressed up. Kamali had some thoughts on that: “As baby boomers, our job was to break every rule because everything that existed before didn’t allow for self-expression. So we did that and we broke rules and it allowed for self-expression to the nth degree. But we are in such a different time now, we’re thinking about life and death literally, in real time, and so there’s a certain decorum that you need to have to balance that,” the designer said. “I think women feel very, very, challenged in a lot of ways, but how we present ourselves is a very big decision that we make… we can definitely do a lot of damage to ourselves by making the wrong choices in how we communicate”—sartorially and otherwise.As with last season, Kamali was thinking about modular dressing, building suits in parts, so you have the option of pairing a jacket, say with a matching skirt in your choice of three lengths, or two styles of pants, or a variety of blouses. For those who want to invest in a total look, a skirt and a jacket, for example, Kamali said she’s offering special bundle deals, “we’re putting things together and you get a special price,” she explained.The actual designs at Kamali remain fairly static with classics like the parachute pieces coming and going. For fall they were back, and looked smashing with a white shirt and blazer. This collection had an entirely different mood than what we saw before because of the choice of prints and palette. Kamali leaned into prints like camo, check, and mini leopard that she believes work as neutrals, much like the autumnal earth tones she selected for fall such as army green, warm browns and tans. The latter two were partly inspired by the designer’s four-legged friend, Wally Kamali.
14 February 2023
Over 55 years Norma Kamali has built a lexicon of signature styles that she parses each season to address the moment. Take the best-selling Diana dress; last season it was offered in party-’til-you-drop neons and metallics; for pre-fall it’s been toned down, appearing in muted shades like bone and lichen that speak to Kamali’s embrace of Zen in the face of a looming recession.“How do you keep it simple?” was the question she asked herself when designing pre-fall. Her solution was to narrow the palette dramatically (the majority of garments are rendered in white, black, and gray), keeping the silhouettes sleek and close to the body. On the whole this was a much more tailored collection with a focus on suiting and shirting. Kamali revisited the fluid, pleated pants she created in 1986 for Twyla Tharp (and which have been recreated for the choreographer’s recently revived ballet,In the Upper Room). Heathered jersey was used for sportswear separates meant to be worn anywhere but the gym, a concept that Kamali had pioneered 40 years ago.Kamali also had a feeling for leggings and bodysuits as key layering pieces. The designer had been thinking back to her time at Jones Apparel, where she was tasked with designing modular wardrobes for a working woman. She updated that idea here. A work look transforms into a going-out one with the substitution of a vegan leather jacket for a blazer. The most extroverted designs in the collection were a feathered jacket with a collar meant to be worn high to frame the face, and an outerwear grouping in gray reflective material that speaks to safety as well as style. Kamali’s idea of Zen is simple, but not plain.For many, including Kamali, it’s notcomme il fautto flaunt in recessionary times, and to that end she’s proposing a streamlined and somewhat subdued wardrobe, with a spiritual or philosophical spin. What “I keep going back to [with Zen] is that it is also a state of mind,” the designer explained. “You are accepting and realizing there’s something going on and you are Zen in it, you are at one with it. You’re not fighting it, you’re not succumbing to it, you are finding strength in it and a place in it.” Ultimately what Kamali is offering this season is a wardrobe built to weather a storm.
13 December 2022
Norma Kamali has become a “downtown girl” after many years of being an uptown one. Visiting her new West Village space I encountered an army of mannequins dressed in the collection and a designer delighted with her new digs and her balance sheets. “Our business has been just crazy, crazy, crazy. I’m always asking what’s going on? Why do people want this from me now? and I listen to what they want,” said Kamali. Her reading of the zeitgeist is that people want to feel good. “There’s no controlling the world situation, the wars, the government decisions that are being made that we don’t agree with,” she continued. “All of that takes a toll. I never thought I would say this in my entire life, that clothes are the answer, but I think we’re at that point, where there’s very little we can do, but we can get dressed.”For spring, Kamali lifts the mood with “dopamine colors.” There’s an eye-popping selection of neons, and, of course, pink, but done, the designer pointed out, “in five different fabrications so that the textures give you shades of pink.” You can always count on Kamali for a metallic (silvery and pearl lamé are featured here) and some swim/sport elements. New this season, by demand, is a pickle ball dress, which fits right in with other pieces like legging and puff joggers. For swim, Kamali brought back the high cut à la Olivia Newton John and Jane Fonda, which she had done back in the day. This time they are reversible.Kamali is happy to see a return to bias cutting. It’s one of her favorite techniques and she describes it as having a carefree attitude. She used it for dresses that can be worn with the top folded down over the waist like a deconstructed skirt, a nice option for over one of her useful hooded catsuits.Reissuing designs like the Diana dress, which remains in demand, is one way Kamali creates collector’s pieces. She also does so with her seasonal prints. For spring there’s a slithery python, and she photographed a cable-knit and blew it up into a print on a light, easy care material for a “sweater that you could wear year round.” She also made a print based on an archival design of studded leather, “that three people could afford” in its original form, the designer joked. Translating a dimensional design into a flat one means that the look is more accessible. “I can’t make expensive clothes, I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it,” she said.
“I don’t want people to feel bad because they spent too much money on clothing; I want them to have collectibles and things that will make them feel good.”
15 September 2022
With its sparkling beaded tops, velvets, and tartan prints, Norma Kamali’s resort collection feels “extra.” While it’s as wash-and-go as always, this lineup is also determinedly ornate, luxe, and showy. People want to feel good, the designer says, and fashion is a means of escapism. The question is whether that escapism is moving toward something (ie “a return to normal”) or is a now or never proposition (ie “party like it’s 1999” before the world ends).In 1987 New York Magazine used the coverline “Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano” when writing about Christian Lacroix’s 1987 benefit show in the Winter Garden. That event took place a week after the collapse of the financial markets and served as a coda to the era. The headline’s been haunting me lately. When I asked Kamali—who has a sixth sense for undercurrents of change if she was getting the same vibe—she replied: “I can’t believe you said that because it’s exactly what I’m feeling. Yet, she continued, “I still feel that because clothes are something we can control….[they can offer something] helpful right now.”Kamali is proposing glamour for resort, the kind that doesn’t sacrifice comfort, and that comes at a range of price points. Those winning beaded tops are modeled on a digital jewel print, which came first. This use of technology, and Kamali’s play with the real/fake dichotomy seems prescient.Like every Kamali collection, this one includes pieces from the designer’s extensive archive. Having discovered a series of photographs of dancers wearing her sculpture dress designs, Kamali reissued them, adding sparkle to the cutout sleeves or a turtleneck. Her revival of the Diana slip dress and the butterfly pieces was more intuitive, she says. It’s interesting to note that these have a sort of Grecian quality, revealing the body through draping, in contrast to the more skin-baring and swimwear-inspired looks.The news here is a return, which is happening g elsewhere too, to a sort of formal looking, if not stiff, femininity with a vaguely ’40s or ’50s twist. A counterpoint to Kamali’s tight off-the-shoulder jacket is a roomier washed denim one with mutton sleeves. A structured strapless gown with pockets offers Golden Age of Hollywood-type vibes—its “wing-hip” details a symbolic means of escape.
8 June 2022
Norma Kamali has an optimistic and realistic way of looking at the world and at fashion that has given a longevity to her clothes that many designers would envy. Take the shirred Diana dress: Designed in the 1970s, it was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw onAnd Just Like That…and is selling like hotcakes. As with everything Kamali designs, this sexy dress can be thrown in the washing machine, and since it stretches, it adapts to many body types.Through her use of bias cutting and drawstrings, and translation of swimwear aspects like cutouts into ready-to-wear, Kamali has always made clothes that could be described as user-friendly, which means something different in 2022 than it did even 10 years ago. “A lot of the way we shop is through photos on a screen, and the way the light comes through the photos and how eye-catching the photos are, how appealing emotionally that experience is, is really a very modern thought process that many of us didn’t have to think about before,” said Kamali. “So if I have a dark color or something subtle, I have to do something so it pops off the screen.”Kamali’s snappy fall collection (which isn’t much of a departure from the pre-fall offering) doesn’t need any zhuzhing. It’s a straightforward offering of her best-selling silhouettes in new prints and colorways. “I never sold so much color in my entire career as I am now,” exclaimed the black-clad Kamali. “I think it’s clear,” she added, that people “just want fun clothes that are expressive and a happy experience when you wear them, because we’ve been locked in for so long. So we’re in this exaggerated time.” The designer obliged, with a collection made for living large in.
18 February 2022
Norma Kamali is and always has been pro-woman. For pre-fall she’s also pro-princess (bride). The impetus was her own impending nuptials and the assignment to create a dreamy wedding dress for the daughter of a good friend, who happens to be a neuroscientist with fairy-tale good looks.For about 15 years starting in the mid-’90s, Kamali designed custom bridal looks, including for one Cynthia Germanotta, whose daughter Lady Gaga wears it in her video for “You and I.” This time around Kamali’s offerings are off-the-rack and aimed at a variety of brides (Disney princess, Jessica Rabbit, and so on). “They’re modern, they’re easy to take care of,” said Kamali on a call, adding that they are relatively affordable. “The amount of money you spend on a gown doesn’t necessarily mean that that gown is more beautiful, or it isn’t more fantastical or magical, or makes you feel any better because you spent more,” she said.Having taken care of the bride, the designer also addressed the bridal party, by offering the looks not only in white but in red and black as well. For day-to-day, or day-to-evening, dressing, Kamali updated and rotated her catalog, starting with the draped Diana dress that made such a stir when it was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw recently, in colors like citrus yellow and seafoam green. She also recut her iconic sleeping bag coat as a vest in a toile fabric, so it can be worn over a wedding or evening dress with a sort of 1940s flair, a look that Kamali has always cultivated personally.
10 December 2021
The Norma Kamali parachute jumpsuit and sleeping bag coat on view in the Costume Institute exhibition “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” was pulled from her spring 2022 collection, but she first designed these pieces in the 1970s. It’s a decade that parallels the 2020s in ways that go far beyond fashion, she thinks.“This time is very reminiscent for me of the way things felt during the Vietnam War, and the tension of the time of the assassinations of great leaders,” Kamali said. “My generation was overwhelmed with emotion about it. We were changing the world, literally, and then the world was being threatened. All of that was really overwhelming. And it feels so much like that today [with] questions about what’s happening with the vaccine, what’s happening with COVID, what’s happening with our identity in the world. We don’t have a handle on it; it’s just happening so quickly, and it’s making us feel uneasy.”Having carved out a place in fashion by using her talents to “support women on every level,” Kamali is offering some circa 2021 succor with a new collection focused on comfort. “I wanted to make clothes out of these things that hugged you, that wrapped themselves around you and felt safe and good.” She built on the coziness provided by her signature sleeping bag coat by using prints of antique crazy quilts and crocheted blankets on pieces clearly intended for another summer of skin.Can you say hot pants? “I wore hot pants to work every day with my knee-high boots,” Kamali remembered over Zoom. She started making those abbreviated pieces back in the day, she said, “because I wanted my miniskirt to be even shorter, and to do that it had to be short shorts.” Spring 2022’s quilt print is inspired by the vintage quilts she used for those decades-ago hot pants. “It was so great—the mix of this handcrafted, huggable comfort clothing that grannies were making with these new [silhouettes].”Anti-war protests inspired the florals in the new collection. “Having a protest and giving flowers out [there] was a new kind of protest; it was a new way to say [that] we want love, we want kindness, we want peace. We don’t want war. We don’t want this confusion. Quite frankly,” Kamali said, “that’s the way I feel now. I just want kindness. I want to give flowers to everybody. I’m feeling that energy.” Bring it on.
15 September 2021
Norma Kamali’s not angling to return to the way things were pre-pandemic; instead she’s looking forward to crafting a future using the lessons of lockdown. This designer’s key takeaway is that comfort is here to stay. “You have to feel casual [in] dressy and you have to feel special in casual, and that mix is where the magic is,” she said.Matchy-matchy, logos, red carpet perfection, all of these things feel effortful; Kamali is advocating for a “creative casual” that is expressive of individuality, and makes what she calls “democratic” use of things you might already have. She’s shown how that might be done in her lookbook where lug-soled shoes are paired with Jean Harlow-worthy slip dresses. Lamé bras top track pants. Layering is important, and the accessory of the season is a peaked fisherman’s cap that underlines the taking-it-easy-vibe.What the designer is proposing is to take the stuffing out of occasion dressing, and add some sparkle to everyday outfits; to undercut the formality, rules, and tired tropes of femininity that are endlessly repeated on red-carpets, and bring things back down to earth, and oftentimes close to the body.This is in keeping with what she observes women doing all over the internet, and maybe explains why swimwear sales have gone through the roof. “I don’t think [“sexy” dressing] is for attracting men,” mused Kamali, “I think that there’s a certain female power in it, saying... whatever my body is, this is my body, and I’m going to be one with it, and I’m going to wear whatever I want, and I’m going to show it. I’m not going to hide it anymore.” This attitude extends the idea of comfort beyond a physical feeling or aesthetic, and into psychology.What’s behind this shift? Kamali thinks it has a lot to do with the fact that we were dressing for ourselves, rather than for others, during lockdown: “That’s why I see this window of opportunity for individuality,” she enthused. Beyond creative styling, the designer is starting to prioritize one-of-a-kind pieces, like hand-crocheted and hand-studded keep-forever items. “The industry has to rethink what we have to do to make [fashion] appealing for those people who want comfort, have been home, and have their own point of view now,” she added. “I don’t think they really want us telling them how to dress. They want to find beautiful things and we have to present beautiful things.”
18 June 2021
Is there anything Norma Kamali can’t do? Adding to her long list of accomplishments, the designer and wellness pioneer has just published her first book,I Am Invincible. “This book is part of my purpose,” said Kamali on a call. “I know that at 75 this is what I should be doing. I should be sharing my life experience and tips and ideas on how to get from 40 to 50, or 50 to 60.” Addressed to women of all generations, this is a book, as Kamali puts it, about “aging with power.”It occurs to me that “aging with power” is also what clothes need to do if the industry is to really become sustainable. Season after season, Kamali shows that this is possible, regularly revisiting pioneering looks first introduced in the 1970s, updating the palette and prints to revive them. Kamali says that sales of the sleeping bag coat, introduced in 1973, are currently “out of control.” And understandably so; there’s rarely been such a need for comfort.Kamali’s feeling bullish about the future, and the collection she delivered for fall is a dynamic one, a feeling enhanced by the prancing models, one of whom is a 55-year-old kundalini yoga instructor. “I styled her the way I wear the collection, and I’m 20 years older than she is, and she is 35 years older than my models,” noted Kamali.Those models wore teal velvets, large leaf prints in autumnal colors, and ditzy black-and-white florals paired with a bolder foliate pattern. Silver sequins added a joyful spark, and skin-revealing cutouts created sexy sizzle.Swimwear, another Kamali specialty, is also booming. “Right now in the sample room I am doing every kind of swimwear you can think of,” the designer says. It would be “good if I could click in my head to understand why,” she went on. “But I’m not sure that that’s what I’m supposed to do right now. I think I’m just supposed to do the swimsuits and figure it out later because it’s too crazy.” There’s little doubt this invincible woman will do so.
10 February 2021
Add long-range planning to the things disrupted by the pandemic. We’re living day-to-day, with the shimmering promise of a vaccine on the horizon. Norma Kamali was thinking six months out when planning this collection, but after taking in feedback from buyers and customers, she changed tack.What Kamali is sensing is that there’s a collective need for joy and a desire to get dressed up again. For those who can’t wait to dance the night away or make an unforgettable first impression, this collection offers options like a blue lace dress with a bow neck, a black goddess dress that clings to the body like plaster, and a fuchsia slip dress and draped coat.At the same time that Kamali was dreaming up frocks for weddings and parties and date nights, which at this point are still mostly fantasy scenarios, she was well aware of the fundamental changes that WFH is affecting. “You want to be comfortable. You want to be able to get everything done. You don’t want fashion to get in the way, but you want style to make you feel good,” Kamali observes.There does seem to be an increasing need for designers to speak directly to very different audiences: people who are essentially dressing for themselves, as lockdown has greatly diminished the social aspect of dressing, and extroverts who still want to dress to impress. Kamali’s approach this season was to offer options aplenty—108 looks, to be exact, which offered freedom of choice but came at the expense of a strong and defined point of view.
4 December 2020
Norma Kamali is aiming to please with her spring collection: It’s unisex, designed to deliver joy, and includes see-now, buy-now options. The collection mirrors the passing of the seasons, from what looks like what will be a homebound winter to the first days of spring, and was conceived to move from dark to light via a palette of blacks, grays, and whites. The look book is, however, presented in reverse chronological order (March to January) in order to start off with a bang in the form of shiny pieces made in a holographic fabric. Kamali is hopeful that after winter in lockdown, spring will arrive with a vaccine, as well as a communal desire to dress up and go outside again.In the meantime our wardrobes aren’t moving out of the comfort zone, which Kamali knows quite a lot about, having pioneered the use of “sweat” materials. She used color blocking to update classic track silhouettes, which sometimes felt overcomplicated. The casual vibe is also communicated with acid washes. The stand-out graphic pattern is a print made from a photo of jeans Kamali tie-dyed by hand with bleach and rubber bands 30 years ago. It looks fresh today. Depending how you style it, black lace for layering might need to be reserved for post-work Zooming.Kamali always takes a trend-resistant approach to design; cost was top of mind this season. “I was super, super, super conscious of price and value—more than ever—because I think people are concerned about their income, they’re concerned as to whether or not they’ll have a job going forward,” she said. “I didn’t want to be irresponsible about [price], and I wanted people to be able to buy something as often as they could afford and not break the bank and not feel guilty about it.”Unboxing is a celebratory action, and Kamali is a big believer in e-commerce and its ability to deliver small installments of joy. She visualized the excitement of a customer receiving pieces from the spring collection and was determined that they would create special moments at a time when we don’t have so many of them.
16 October 2020
Like many of us, Norma Kamali hasn’t worn shoes for a month. Sometimes she visits the ones she’s collected over the years to admire their design, but she’s not sure what role—if any—they’ll play in her post-COVID-19 life. When it came time to shoot the resort 2021 look book (one model per session) there was not a stiletto in sight.What there were plenty of were gray terry separates for those tired of what the designer calls “day pajamas.” The silhouettes in this unisex collection are familiar, but the pieces have taken on a new relevance seen through the lens of the pandemic and the resultant comfort zone style of dress many adopted during lockdown. Surely there must be some irony in the “boss lady” pinstripes, glen plaid, and herringbone prints used for #WFH leggings, dresses, and other pieces, though the designer won’t admit to it. The hats and turbans on offer are for hiding grown-out roots.Kamali is of the opinion that the lockdown experience is really an imprinting one. “I do think we’re not going to want to give up the ease and the comfort and the relaxed feeling we have,” post-pandemic, she says. No one wants, she adds, “to have restrictions, or this sort of feeling that you have to be or look a certain way. You want to really feel good.” There are always mirrors around to keep us looking good, she observes.The company’s latest sales figures reflect the relevance, and trend-proof quality of Kamali’s designs. “We’re selling tracksuits like we’re giving them away,” says the designer, who notes that swimwear is also moving quickly. Both are bedrocks of the designer’s business.Kamali first designed sweat separates in 1979. Her initial idea was to use terry to create cover-ups for bathing suits, but she ended up making an entire collection in gray sweatsuit fabric. “I knew that this line would be copied and I would not own it,” says the designer, who produced it via a licensing deal with Jones Apparel. “There were lines out of stores everywhere; it was such a huge success,” relates Kamali. “It started this feeling about being relaxed in your clothes, [the idea] that you could feel comfortable and relaxed and still look great,” she continues. The pieces “had style and fun, but it was definitely a different style and fun to say, the Studio 54 [idea of] style and fun. It started with a bang and it just kept going and going and going.
So many other companies have perpetuated its value through the years, as well as me continuing to do it, that it still remains today an important part of the attitude of how we dress and how athleisure and casual sportswear is what it is.”It’s interesting to observe how current events affect the way that we read things. In 1979, Kamali’s innovation spoke to a burgeoning fitness craze and blurred the line between activewear and fashion. As we face a health crisis today, sweats are valued for their functionality and comfort. You might think of them as the sartorial equivalent of chicken soup for the soul.
27 July 2020
Instagram is turning into a sort of Magic 8-Ball for Norma Kamali. OMO Gym—the proto-activewear line the designer launched around 1976—she says, “is very hot in the vintage world. People have been asking me to do it again, and I listened, and I actually had a good time with it.” For fall, these logo-heavy pieces are integrated with the ready-to-wear line, which itself is heavy on sweats. They are “understated in their grayness,” she says, “but because of that, they go with everything.”Everything for fall means a mix of what Kamali describes as “classic prints”: zebra stripes and leopard spots, houndstooth check, and florals, with some metallics and velvet thrown in for good measure. “If you took the whole collection and threw it in a pile and just closed your eyes and picked three pieces,” she says, they would work. (NB: Kamali is designing gender-fluid clothes, so the models in the men’s and women’s look books are wearing looks pulled from the same racks.)But back to those sweats. Why, I asked Kamali (who has a Spidey sense for things), are she and her fans feeling them right now? “It’s just like the sleeping-bag coat; there’s a safety in it, I think. Like the sleeping-bag coat was huge for us during 9/11, and I think these times are really stressful,” she says. “I mean, I can’t remember a more stressful time. Feeling safe in what we’re wearing, and comfortable in it—I think there’s a lot to that.” Pass the remote, please.
12 February 2020
Instagram is turning into a sort of Magic 8-Ball for Norma Kamali. OMO Gym—the proto-activewear line the designer launched around 1976—she says, “is very hot in the vintage world. People have been asking me to do it again, and I listened, and I actually had a good time with it.” For fall, these logo-heavy pieces are integrated with the ready-to-wear line, which itself is heavy on sweats. They are “understated in their grayness,” she says, “but because of that, they go with everything.”Everything for fall means a mix of what Kamali describes as “classic prints”: zebra stripes and leopard spots, houndstooth check, and florals, with some metallics and velvet thrown in for good measure. “If you took the whole collection and threw it in a pile and just closed your eyes and picked three pieces,” she says, they would work. (NB: Kamali is designing gender-fluid clothes, so the models in the men’s and women’s look books are wearing looks pulled from the same racks.)But back to those sweats. Why, I asked Kamali (who has a Spidey sense for things), are she and her fans feeling them right now? “It’s just like the sleeping-bag coat; there’s a safety in it, I think. Like the sleeping-bag coat was huge for us during 9/11, and I think these times are really stressful,” she says. “I mean, I can’t remember a more stressful time. Feeling safe in what we’re wearing, and comfortable in it—I think there’s a lot to that.” Pass the remote, please.
12 February 2020
“We’re so desperate for happy right now, that’s what I thought about when I did this collection,” said Norma Kamali. Her new pre-fall lineup might be described as the sartorial equivalent of the happy face and tango emojis. The collection is organized into two deliveries, each with a distinct flavor. The hero piece from the first is unquestionably the Super Flare dress, which features a decolletage-framing stretch top and flowing skirt, and is to be included in an upcoming exhibition,Studio 54: Night Magic, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Kamali, for the record, never set foot in the legendary club, but that dress, she says, was there “every single day in every print and every color you can imagine.” After pulling it from the archive for the curators, Kamali decided to put it in the line where it’s resonating with buyers whether they know its history or not.Another potential winner is a flirty rah-rah skirt in red or black-and-white buffalo check cut on the bias. “The more the clothes make people feel good, the more success we have,” Kamali reported. Playful and joyous they may be, but the designer underlines that the clothes are “not crazy. They’re practical and everything is washable.” Kamali puts the fun in function; it’s a worthy pursuit.
10 December 2019
We’re desperately in need of a scale against which to measure brands’ sustainability; in the meantime, there’s always the test of time. “I think the comment I hear most,” said Norma Kamali, “is, ‘Oh, I still have your…[whatever].’ It really does make me feel great to think [that something I designed a long time ago] is still in their wardrobe.”Kamali’s catalog is so large and so adaptable, if she didn’t get bored easily, she could just rest on her laurels. Timing is an art, and of late, many of the designer’s rereleases are dictated by which of her vintage pieces are trending on Instagram; hence the reappearance of the Puli jumpsuit (Look 59) for Spring. Last Fall, Kamali revisited her “Modern Sculpture” dress—a tube separated from its connected sleeves by giant round cutouts—sort of like a Henry Moore sculpture. Beyoncé and her team saw it and ordered customized versions for the “Spirit” video shot forThe Lion King. It’s back for Spring as a dress, top, and jumpsuit, and in new fabrications. Speaking of art, Kamali has updated her parachute coat with a metallic silver nylon that is almost as shiny as one of Jeff Koons’s reflective pieces.We talk a lot in the office about adapting swimwear for city life. Kamali, who is noted for her skills in this area, makes it easy with bra tops and other convertible pieces (another signature). For the daring, there are nude-illusion options; more covered but also chic are her “diaper” bottoms, first popularized by Claire McCardell in the 1940s.Kamali is still going strong with gender-fluid design—“I think it’s becoming more and more real every season,” she noted—and she photographed her Spring 2020 collection in two sessions, one on women, the other on men, some of whom are employees. The latter were invited to bring their own accessories and to choose and style any pieces they like. They selected their own poses as well. “They all chose this [wrap] dress,” Kamali noted, “and it’s very funny because it’s a dress I did in the ’70s, and it was the first dress that guys ever bought from me.” Good design, apparently, has no expiration date. “Clothes,” states Kamali, “have to function, but they also have to make you happy.”
9 September 2019
We’re desperately in need of a scale against which to measure brands’ sustainability; in the meantime, there’s always the test of time. “I think the comment I hear most,” said Norma Kamali, “is, ‘Oh, I still have your…[whatever].’ It really does make me feel great to think [that something I designed a long time ago] is still in their wardrobe.”Kamali’s catalog is so large and so adaptable, if she didn’t get bored easily, she could just rest on her laurels. Timing is an art, and of late, many of the designer’s rereleases are dictated by which of her vintage pieces are trending on Instagram; hence the reappearance of the Puli jumpsuit (Look 59) for Spring. Last Fall, Kamali revisited her “Modern Sculpture” dress—a tube separated from its connected sleeves by giant round cutouts—sort of like a Henry Moore sculpture. Beyoncé and her team saw it and ordered customized versions for the “Spirit” video shot forThe Lion King. It’s back for Spring as a dress, top, and jumpsuit, and in new fabrications. Speaking of art, Kamali has updated her parachute coat with a metallic silver nylon that is almost as shiny as one of Jeff Koons’s reflective pieces.We talk a lot in the office about adapting swimwear for city life. Kamali, who is noted for her skills in this area, makes it easy with bra tops and other convertible pieces (another signature). For the daring, there are nude-illusion options; more covered but also chic are her “diaper” bottoms, first popularized by Claire McCardell in the 1940s.Kamali is still going strong with gender-fluid design—“I think it’s becoming more and more real every season,” she noted—and she photographed her Spring 2020 collection in two sessions, one on women, the other on men, some of whom are employees. The latter were invited to bring their own accessories and to choose and style any pieces they like. They selected their own poses as well. “They all chose this [wrap] dress,” Kamali noted, “and it’s very funny because it’s a dress I did in the ’70s, and it was the first dress that guys ever bought from me.” Good design, apparently, has no expiration date. “Clothes,” states Kamali, “have to function, but they also have to make you happy.”
9 September 2019
Fashion is finally catching up with Norma Kamali (again), this time largely on ideological and organizational fronts. This pioneering designer has always done things her own way; early on she decided to keep a certain distance from the fashion system, and her brand’s longevity is tied both to the appeal of her designs and to her custom-made business model. Values that are being touted today, like comfort and responsibility, are things Kamali has addressed in her work for decades. What’s more perfect to snuggle into than her famous sleeping bag coat, or more practical than garments that can be washed, eliminating the need for dry cleaning?Yes, as incredible as it seems, even the passementerie-trimmed velvets (shades of Queen Victoria) and the knockout sequined pieces Kamali showed for Resort can be thrown into the washing machine. (For the record, the designer recommends pairing heels with one of her silver spangled track suits for a statement-making New Year’s Eve getup in which you can sit on the floor or dance all night.)One way designers are approaching sustainability is by switching their focus from trend-driven collections to ones with more classic pieces that, in theory, don’t have expiration dates. Chez Kamali, there’s lots of evidence that proves good design really does stand the test of time. The suspendered dirndl skirt she’s showing this season is a reworking of an archival piece that she’s seen popping up all over Instagram. A slim hooded column dress for night was revisited at the request of a stylist, and demand for the shirred “slinky” tube dress increased after Kendall Jenner wore a vintage one. These pieces, which you might think of as reissues by popular demand, are not line-for-line copies, but slightly updated to suit current-day needs. Remarkably, there is nothing retro-looking about them.Keeping things new is the fact that many of Kamali’s designs are convertible and can be worn in multiple ways. For example, a seemingly simple shirt dress can be worn loose around the body, closed in such a way that it becomes a wrap dress, or worn open like a duster. That’s a lot of bang for the buck.
6 June 2019
At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between Norma Kamali’s Spring and Fall 2019 collections. Not only is the style of photography similar, but back are the fringe and the tracksuits the designer has been showing for decades; also returning are slim-fit suits and black-and-white prints. So more of the same? Yes and no. As a businesswoman, Kamali has to think globally and consider how she can appeal “to everyone in the world who has access to me, and who I have access to” while taking into consideration different climates, attitudes toward gender, religious behaviors, lifestyles, et cetera. It’s a big remit, but Kamali is confident that it’s possible to complete this puzzle without flattening or watering down her work. “The way you stay authentic,” she says, “is to evolve and grow and be relevant.” Having a well-defined design vocabulary is a boon to her brand equity; still, it would be refreshing to see some new silhouettes from Kamali.The Fall collection does deliver newness and relevance in this collection. It’s there in the transparent pieces, for example. When worn over a black leotard, as seen in Look 10, a see-through slip dress evokes a Helmut Newton power woman. Peek-a-boo track separates, meant for layering, in contrast, are unexpected and playful. Kamali is a pragmatic designer in some ways (her clothes can travel, be thrown in the wash), but she also possesses a special radar that’s tuned into the now—and the next. Currently she’s deep into learning about VR and AI, and she’s looking into ways they can be applied to fashion. Her great experience gives her perspective, too, allowing her to place current needs and trends within a larger matrix. Her use of khakis and olive drabs and her focus on gender neutrality are right for now, but they also relate to what came before, specifically the 1970s. “We keep talking about the 1970s,” Kamali says, “but there’s a reason: [It was the time of the] Vietnam War. There was meditation and peace and love, and then there were protests, fires, police . . . . That energy is back again.” It’s a contradictory force that has some running for shelter in the designer’s famous sleeping bag coats, offered in camo for Fall. This motif, which is apparently a huge draw at retail, appeals to a “subliminal sense of protection,” says Kamali. The designer, who has dressed the New York Dolls, hasn’t ignored exhibitionists though.
Her inclusive aim is to make clothes that give people the freedom to express themselves and continue to “engage the human spirit” in our technological age.
8 February 2019
At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between Norma Kamali’s Spring and Fall 2019 collections. Not only is the style of photography similar, but back are the fringe and the tracksuits the designer has been showing for decades; also returning are slim-fit suits and black-and-white prints. So more of the same? Yes and no. As a businesswoman, Kamali has to think globally and consider how she can appeal “to everyone in the world who has access to me, and who I have access to” while taking into consideration different climates, attitudes toward gender, religious behaviors, lifestyles, et cetera. It’s a big remit, but Kamali is confident that it’s possible to complete this puzzle without flattening or watering down her work. “The way you stay authentic,” she says, “is to evolve and grow and be relevant.” Having a well-defined design vocabulary is a boon to her brand equity; still, it would be refreshing to see some new silhouettes from Kamali.The Fall collection does deliver newness and relevance in this collection. It’s there in the transparent pieces, for example. When worn over a black leotard, as seen in Look 10, a see-through slip dress evokes a Helmut Newton power woman. Peek-a-boo track separates, meant for layering, in contrast, are unexpected and playful. Kamali is a pragmatic designer in some ways (her clothes can travel, be thrown in the wash), but she also possesses a special radar that’s tuned into the now—and the next. Currently she’s deep into learning about VR and AI, and she’s looking into ways they can be applied to fashion. Her great experience gives her perspective, too, allowing her to place current needs and trends within a larger matrix. Her use of khakis and olive drabs and her focus on gender neutrality are right for now, but they also relate to what came before, specifically the 1970s. “We keep talking about the 1970s,” Kamali says, “but there’s a reason: [It was the time of the] Vietnam War. There was meditation and peace and love, and then there were protests, fires, police . . . . That energy is back again.” It’s a contradictory force that has some running for shelter in the designer’s famous sleeping bag coats, offered in camo for Fall. This motif, which is apparently a huge draw at retail, appeals to a “subliminal sense of protection,” says Kamali. The designer, who has dressed the New York Dolls, hasn’t ignored exhibitionists though.
Her inclusive aim is to make clothes that give people the freedom to express themselves and continue to “engage the human spirit” in our technological age.
8 February 2019
Norma Kamali debuted a for-women-and-men collection last season. Gender fluidity remains her preoccupation, both in the specifics of her offerings (pieces from Pre-Fall will sport newly designed labels with dual sizing info) and as an important social concept that she expects will have a seismic impact on the fashion industry. In this designer’s book, progress is seeing Ezra Miller in bunny ears, high heels, and gender-bending looks, including a white jumpsuit of her design in, of all places,Playboy. We’ve come a long way when a men’s magazine seems more in tune with the times than the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (which Kamali has a new concept for, by the way). Needless to say, there were no wings in her Pre-Fall collection, but the fringe was flying in new colors.This lineup differed from the one that preceded it mostly in surface details and colors. Denims were offered in two new abstract prints, and a black-and-white palm pattern was in line with the endless-summer theme seen everywhere for Spring. If the clear trench the designer suggests for layering and protection will be a hard sell, surefire hits include the swimwear-as-streetwear stylings of graphic cut-out bathing suits paired with stretchy mermaid skirts—a look, the designer notes, that reemerges with some frequency. “I think everybody is aware of the fact that an active lifestyle is part of the plan, even if the plan is in your head,” notes Kamali, an athleisure pioneer. “Looking the part is almost as good as living the part.”Women’s—and men’s—roles are changing apace, and fashion needs to stay up to date. We’re currently in the process of evaluating feminism, stereotypes, styles, and how we dress for our “parts,” and what we find appealing and attractive today is vastly different than was customary in past eras. Cleavage, according to Kamali, is out. “We’re not thinking about sexy in the same way,” the designer says. “I make sexy clothes but when I’m doing them they have a sporty part to them; it’s more about the physical body rather than breasts, or rather than that kind of clichéd presentation of a woman.” In short, it’s less about showing skin than the ways the body can “talk” through clothes.
7 December 2018
The news at Norma Kamali was the introduction of clothes for women and men: Just don’t call it menswear. This collection, said Kamali, marked “the beginning of me being in the men’s business and defining it on my terms. The idea is that I do what I do, and don’t change it for men.” Selling to men is another matter altogether, but the fact that most of the collection was knits makes this anywear viable.Men have always worn Kamali’s designs: One day in the 1970s, the New York Dolls spilled into the designer’s shop in platforms and makeup and got dressed up in her pieces, but their intent wasn’t cross-dressing or drag, they simply liked the clothes. Men in fringed pants? “Hot,” says Kamali. Partners sharing clothes? Go for it! It’s easy to see how striped wide-legged pants or a printed denim jumpsuit could work for anyone, though Kamali acknowledged that not all pieces (a shirred tulle minidress, say) would make the jump quite as easily.For Spring the designer reissued designs from the ’70s including her parachute skirt and all-in-one top, showing them alongside a new blown-up knit print. But it seemed to this reviewer that while the collection took only a small step forward aesthetically, it made a real leap ideologically. Kamali seemed to see the season’s lineup as bigger than the actual pieces she’s proposing, too. “It takes a lot for somebody who’s been in this business so long to feel that tingly thing,” she said, but “this concept of acceptability” has her abuzz. She sees it having ramifications far beyond her own business, and being beneficial to an industry that’s lost its way, mired in micro-trends and sameness. “Gen Z have blurred lines on everything,” she cannily observed. “So that tells us the future for this exists, that it has longevity, because [Gen Zers] don’t need to be told this—it’s what they think and what they do.”
6 September 2018
The news at Norma Kamali was the introduction of clothes for women and men: Just don’t call it menswear. This collection, said Kamali, marked “the beginning of me being in the men’s business and defining it on my terms. The idea is that I do what I do, and don’t change it for men.” Selling to men is another matter altogether, but the fact that most of the collection was knits makes this anywear viable.Men have always worn Kamali’s designs: One day in the 1970s, the New York Dolls spilled into the designer’s shop in platforms and makeup and got dressed up in her pieces, but their intent wasn’t cross-dressing or drag, they simply liked the clothes. Men in fringed pants? “Hot,” says Kamali. Partners sharing clothes? Go for it! It’s easy to see how striped wide-legged pants or a printed denim jumpsuit could work for anyone, though Kamali acknowledged that not all pieces (a shirred tulle minidress, say) would make the jump quite as easily.For Spring the designer reissued designs from the ’70s including her parachute skirt and all-in-one top, showing them alongside a new blown-up knit print. But it seemed to this reviewer that while the collection took only a small step forward aesthetically, it made a real leap ideologically. Kamali seemed to see the season’s lineup as bigger than the actual pieces she’s proposing, too. “It takes a lot for somebody who’s been in this business so long to feel that tingly thing,” she said, but “this concept of acceptability” has her abuzz. She sees it having ramifications far beyond her own business, and being beneficial to an industry that’s lost its way, mired in micro-trends and sameness. “Gen Z have blurred lines on everything,” she cannily observed. “So that tells us the future for this exists, that it has longevity, because [Gen Zers] don’t need to be told this—it’s what they think and what they do.”
6 September 2018
Norma Kamali pointed to a board of images featuring her Resort 2019 collection. “You may see a strange-looking girl in there,” she said with a smirk. “It’s actually a guy, and he was the hairdresser’s assistant on our shoot.” Kamali went on to explain that this guy was “panting” over the silver sleeping bag coats, velvet jumpsuits, and faux fur vest in her new lineup. When he revealed his longtime obsession with the New York Dolls, the designer talked to him about dressing the band back in the day and told him that at the end of the shoot, if there was time, he could take some pictures in the new clothes. Inspired by the look of “pure joy” on his face—“men just don’t look that happy in their clothes,” she remarked—Kamali decided to include the assistant in her lookbook. After all, she’s long made a habit of dismantling the archetypes of traditional women’s and men’s clothing. This idea may be de rigueur now thanks to the likes of Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, but back in the day, embracing genderless modes of fashion, especially for heterosexual men, was completely radical and set Kamali apart in the industry.“I would say that through the 1970s, about 50 percent of my customers were men buying women’s clothes,” Kamali noted at her preview. “It wasn’t drag or anything like that; it was men who were gay, straight, whatever, putting the clothes together in such a great way and getting excited about it.” This season, the majority of Kamali’s collection lends itself to both women and men. Only the swimwear might be a tad difficult for a straight dude to pull off. She’s reintroducing her first swimsuit design from the 1970s: an ultra-high-waist bikini and bandeau top that caused quite the stir among wholesalers at Bloomingdale’s when it debuted. Thanks to the ongoing obsession with nostalgic bikini cuts, it will undoubtedly be a best-seller.Truth be told, Kamali’s clothes have not changed much since she started building her brand in the era of the Dolls and that scandalous two-piece. What she has done extraordinarily well is evolve on a technological level. She is working on a special VR project and has just introduced a shopping concept where customers can visit her stores, scan a code on a clothing tag, and click to buy and ship straight from their smartphones. At the end of the day, Kamali is an innovator. More than anything, she loves to watch people live their best lives in her creations, whoever they may be.
11 June 2018
In case you missed it, the ’80s are back. Norma Kamali is all for it—under a few conditions. She’s been in business since the 1960s, and the 1980s saw many of her most iconic pieces: the ruched swimsuit, the luxe sweats, the shoulder-padded blazers. She’s still designing all of those items, but with subtle right-now updates. “I used to stack three shoulder pads in my jackets,” she said. “But if I reissued the same blazer now, it would look almost grotesque to our eye.” As fabrics, fashion, and culture progress, it’s inevitable that certain things need a few tweaks as they come back around. (Speaking of which, Kamali just had amassive archive saleat What Goes Around Comes Around, where longtime fans picked up her ’80s fringed pants, ’90s parachute dresses, and ’70s beaded jackets.)Kamali’s velvet and jersey blazers had a bit of soft padding in the shoulders, but the real ’80s volume came through elsewhere: in giant candy pink sleeping bag coats, elastic-hem sweatpants, drapey jumpsuits, and quilted skirts. Most of us think exclusively of giant shoulders and boxy pantsuits in relation to ’80s power dressing, but Kamali says it was really about volume. “The 1980s were a time when women were dominant, and they wanted to look powerful in these oversize, covered-up silhouettes,” she said. Perhaps there’s a psychological component to wearing clothes that physically take up more space; women in the 1980s wanted to be seen and recognized, and the same is true now.The 1980s were also the dawn of activewear, and Kamali is still known for her inventive use of workout fabrics like gray terry. Even her velvet pieces can go to the gym. “You can honestly work out in these because they’re machine washable,” she said. “I think of velvet as a year-round fabric. In the ’70s, we wore it all the time, even in the summer.” In fact, those velvet pants—and velvet blazers and dresses—will arrive in stores in June. Kamali is hoping you won’t wait until fall to wear them. She no longer designs for women who shop six months in advance because those women don’t really exist anymore; they wait until the first snow to buy a sleeping bag coat and will keep shopping for these summer clothes through September.
16 February 2018
If you’re not following Norma Kamali on Instagram, now might be a good time to start. Her feed is a gold mine of Kamali credits in ’70sVogueeditorials, outtakes from recent photo shoots, and snaps of models in her signature high-cut swimsuits—but it also features clips from her podcast interviews with fashion legends like André Leon Talley and Anna Sui, fitness guru Tracy Anderson, and financial adviser Sallie Krawcheck. Their conversations might touch on the state of fashion, but women’s empowerment is often the bigger focus. Kamali hosted a live podcast recording at New York’s NeueHouse last month and has more events in the works for 2018, plus a forthcoming book.Today, her Instagram account includes something new: video clips from her Pre-Fall lookbook shoot, where she asked models to tell stories about their experiences in fashion and their greatest ambitions. “We never ask models to talk,” Kamali said. She wanted to give them a voice, but hearing their stories also “makes the clothes seem more dynamic,” she explained. “It’s subliminal. You talk to someone and you notice how she’s wearing her skirt or jacket, and it’s so much different than just seeing it in a photo.” That’s especially true of Kamali’s clothes, which are known for their fluid, malleable drape. They are pieces that harmonize with your body and mood and don’t require a feat of contortion to “pull off.”Many items can be styled multiple ways, too: Her ruched dresses can be pushed off the shoulders or scrunched higher on the hips, and a gold lamé blouse has super-long sleeves you could knot, twist, or leave open. Kamali is passionate about health and fitness, so all of her clothes can technically go to the gym—every fabric is ultra-light, wrinkle resistant, and machine washable. But the least likely “workout pant” was also her favorite: a silvery lamé cropped trouser with a loose fit and elastic waistband. Kamali first designed them a few years ago but decided to bring them back thanks to a happy accident in Pilates class. She wore the pants to bed one night, woke up late for her class, and didn’t bother to change. Not only did they feel a lot better than stretchy compression leggings during the session, but every woman in the class asked for a pair. So Kamali made them in silver, gold, and a shimmery black—and yes, they’d look great post-workout, too. That’s putting theglamin glamleisure.
21 December 2017
This New York Fashion Week may be an especially uneasy one for the industry, between the high-profile designer dropouts and dire forecasts for the retail business. But 50 years into her career, Norma Kamali isn’t worried. “It’s all good,” the designer said with a serene smile at her midtown showroom today, having just emerged from one of the frequent acupuncture appointments that contribute to her improbable air of youthfulness. “General upheaval and disruption are where I flourish.”To that end, Kamali has successfully shifted her business model toward e-commerce—and remained relevant without trying too hard at it, no mean feat in today’s fickle consumer climate—while staying true to her original mission: Clever, mood-enhancing clothes done up in tactile materials that women can actually live in. Not a single piece she produces, Kamali made a point of noting, requires dry-cleaning—even a series of dresses and coats spangled with translucent egg-shaped paillettes. (Those can get soapy in the sink, she promised.) “You shouldn’t have to have office clothes and workout clothes and evening clothes,” she explained. “You should be able to mix them up.”With her Spring collection, as per usual, you could. A series of fluid rayon-jersey riffs on the side-stripe tracksuit—elongated wide-leg pants, a streamlined zip-neck dress—felt polished and substantial. Kamali’s signature ruched goddess dresses and swimsuits were in abundance, as was flattering color-blocked activewear in an irresistibly soft, stretchy material (“I’m done with tight leggings,” she declared, prompting enthusiastic agreement from the other women in the room). And a long dolman-sleeve trench, updated from a Reagan-era pattern in her archive and rendered in her go-to heather gray French terry, stood as proof that the woman who invented athleisure three decades ago still does it best. If other groupings felt less purely pragmatic—dark denim jeans and jackets emblazoned with rows of silver stars, which she called “friendly studs”; white shirtdresses and jumpsuits bearing enormous photorealistic zebra appliqués—they certainly amped up the fun factor.All of this was shot for the lookbook and accompanying video by Kamali herself—on her iPhone—for the second consecutive season. The models were given no direction; she simply dressed them and let them loose in the city. This strategy, she explained, is inseparable from her design approach; it reflects the “simple quality of who we are,” as she put it.
“Disruption doesn’t mean you do something futuristic. You have to do something realistic.” Given that Kamali has survived—and thrived—all this time, those are words to remember.
11 September 2017
Norma Kamali might have the most diverse customer base in fashion. Girls in their 20s save up for her super-high-cut swimsuits and metallic pants; their mothers rely on Kamali for the well-priced jersey dresses and separates she’s been perfecting for decades; and women of all ages—from teenagers to the ladies who shopped with Kamali in the ’70s—can wear her sharp yet springy bonded jersey suits.As such, her collections tend to be expansive. She always includes several racks of her signature pieces—those jersey separates, sleeping bag coats, velvet peasant dresses—but there was lots of newness for Resort. On the bold, statement-making side were metallic suits David Bowie might have worn (including a gold coat that reversed to optic white) and vaguely flapper-ish feathered frocks. One jersey dress trimmed with feathers could be worn multiple ways: long-sleeved, off the shoulder, twisted into a bandeau, or pushed to the hips as a skirt.Practicality is important to Kamali; most of her clothes are totally wrinkle resistant, too. When other designers speak of functional fashion, the items often lose their luster, but it dials up the desire on Kamali’s. Perhaps that’s because her collections belie any utilitarian tweaks or functional gimmicks; they’re still in the realm of capital-F Fashion, and comfort and ease are just a bonus.Fans of Kamali’s expressive, dance-party lookbooks might notice this one is a bit different. That’s because Kamali shot it herself—on an iPhone. She said it took more than a week to edit her photos down from many thousands to 67, but it gave her the chance to communicate her vision in a complete, 360-degree way. She spent a particularly long time editing the swim looks; she said it was important to her that even her new thong maillots came across as strong, not overtly sexy. It will take a truly confident woman to wear one sans cover-up on the beach, but let’s be honest—that woman is already a Kamali customer.
9 June 2017
Why isn’t Norma Kamali more influential? It’s not that Kamali, an éminence grise of the New York fashion scene, doesn’t exert any influence at all over the city’s young designers, but really, no one is expanding on Kamali’s ideas. No one, that is, except Norma Kamali herself. Alongside her ongoing “Solutions” range—a dozen capsules of well-priced clothes that offer, well, solutions to basic sartorial needs, like little black dresses made to suit a variety of shapes—Kamali also uses her Kamali Kulture line to elaborate a concept that more designers ought to take to heart. As she put it in an appointment at her Midtown store today, “Women lead active lives, so they need clothes they can move in.” That insight has prompted Kamali to innovate a way of making clothes that look smart, but wear more or less like yoga gear. How wise!Kamali’s latest collection, for example, boasted an array of tailored looks that, upon inspection, weren't “tailored” in the traditional sense at all. She used her signature bonded jersey to recreate the shape of natty jackets, but with zero fastenings and a bare minimum of seams. A woman wearing one of Kamali’s graphic black-and-white printed suits with flared pant legs and high-drama shoulders would come across as very pulled-together, indeed, but she could, simultaneously, “crouch down and pick up her kid,” in Kamali’s words. Her wool pinstripe items, meanwhile, were doubly sharp and nearly as pliant.This was a large collection—too large, from an editorial point of view—and it traversed a broad range of tones. Along with the suiting and tailored separates and outerwear, Kamali offered up tracksuits with a vaguely hip-hop mien, sequin-covered sweatshirts, and full skirts in quilted black nylon on the one hand and a single layer of crystal-bedazzled tulle on the other. The collection as a whole had a kind of loopy vibe. But make no mistake: It was grounded in a hard intelligence.
12 February 2017
Designing a complete wardrobe sounds like a simple idea until you think about how many designers don’t get it right. Norma Kamali centers her entire business around everyday, wearable, packable clothes that fit into a woman’s lifestyle from sunup to sundown, seven days a week. There are suits alongside cotton sweats, flowing dresses next to retro maillots, and no shortage of timeless day-to-night pieces. Kamali’s approach to her business is similarly flexible; at a preview this morning, she spoke of the need to ride the wave and be open to change. That will continue to serve her well at a time when the fashion industry is in a state of flux; between the confusion of see-now-buy-now shows, designer departures, and the uncertain future of retail, rolling with it is easier said than done. But she is unwavering in her vision for a true lifestyle brand—she even has a wellness café in her West 56th Street store.This collection followed the same formula of past lineups in that it featured lots of pieces that were actually designed several decades ago. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Kamali used her signature wrinkle-resistant jerseys and knits, too, and demonstrated that you could roll a billowing gown into a ball and it would bounce back without a single crease. (Frequent fliers, take note.) New this season: the colors and prints. Kamali used to avoid prints full stop, but lately she’s been feeling them—and wearing them IRL from head to toe. Here, she introduced a cool marble print as well as classic leopard spots and Beetlejuice-y black-and-white stripes. They all came in her usual neutrals, too, but a few solid items in nearly neon yellow were a nice surprise; a citron gown with thigh-high slits and extra-long sleeves was simple and striking.
2 December 2016
WhenNorma Kamalisings the praises of e-commerce as the way and the light of retail’s future, you’re inclined to listen; after all, the industry doyenne was dipping a toe into the waters of online sales long before anyone else in the business. On her site these days she can update offerings weekly for her global fan base, serving up pieces as fast as she and her factories can produce them, in theory. Likewise, a similar sense of flexibility is at the essence of her shockingly well-priced Kamali Kulture range (it starts with a handful of pieces under $100 and goes up into the $300–$400 range). Spake the iconoclastic icon: “Anything that encumbers you shouldn’t be part of your life.”And so Resort’s emphasis on the capsule wardrobe held strong and evolved here for Spring. Eminently salable trenches, sheath dresses, trousers, blazers, and pencil skirts came in solids, of course, but there were also some of Kamali’s coolest propositions of pattern in recent memory: almost-tactile-looking leopard spots, and a series of Technicolor parrots which perched around collars and hemlines. The designer said her own head-to-toe coordinated taste for unapologetic—at times even splashy—prints is finally catching on among friends and fans.Kulture styles all come with clean, bonded raw edges, are mainly machine washable, and for around $1,700, Kamali notes, you could have yourself a durable and versatile 12-piece KK wardrobe, pragmatic and full of possibilities for every hour of the day. After all, why let wardrobe minutiae rule when, as Kamali said, “Life is meant for living”? Of course, sensible solutions don’t mean all work and no play: Kamali’s spendier, high-cut, and stud-trimmed maillots have been a surprise smash hit—especially among social media tastemakers—so for Spring she proposed bikinis in confectionary shades of ruched tulle, some scattered all over with twinkling rhinestones.
8 September 2016
Less than 48 hours after receiving theCFDA’s Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, perhapsNorma Kamali’s path was clearer than ever—why change course now? After all, her unflagging pursuit of style that’s pragmatic, cool, and entirely her own is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of a nearly 50-year career. Rather than bow to the runways’ revolving door of novelty, for Resort Kamali went back to basics in the most essential way possible, zeroing in on wardrobe pillars. The emphasis fell squarely on reliability and affordability, with separates all clocking in at under $200 and coats under $400; every piece—from her long-sleeved crewneck to the famous Modern Sculpture dress—will be produced in sizes XS to XL. When they deliver, they’ll be available via the brand’s global e-store, launching later this month. Most remarkably, the bulk of the styles on offer were designed anywhere from 30 to 40 years earlier. “When I say they’re timeless, I’m not snapping your bra,” Kamali said with a laugh at today’s preview.Indeed, nearly every item in the bunch felt planted firmly in this century, like an underwire midi dress with a sweeping skirt whose ilk surely saw a wild night or two at Studio 54 but felt supremely sexy still at 10:30 in the morning in 2016. “As simple as jeans and a T-shirt in its concept,” said the designer. She has rendered these pieces in black, charcoal, et cetera, but also bold, graphic stripes, a leopard-meets-camo hybrid, and cherry red metallic. “It only becomes fashion when it’s like this,” she offered, gesturing at a styled-up mannequin.On the note of capital-F Fashion, Kamali continues to present her seasonal collections by appointment at her West 56th Street store, favoring animated stills that show the clothes on bodies in motion rather than a staged catwalk affair. “[Runway shows] can’t be what we do forever,” she says. The industry might do well to take note; after all, from athleisure to e-commerce, Kamali’s paved the way before.
9 June 2016
Consider Norma Kamali’s sleeping bag coat. The topper was first introduced in the ’70s, made an instant splash, and celebrated its 10th birthday with what might just have been fashion’s first-ever flash mob on Wall Street a decade later. In the aftermath of 9/11, when shopping was far from America’s minds,Kamalisaw a surge in requests for the cocoon-like shape, many of them from people staying in hotels or holding up in airports. Today it counts Rihanna as a fan, and the style is in many ways an apt metaphor for Kamali’s ethos on the whole: functional, playful, and unfaltering.That iconic featherweight puffer turned up for Fall as one of the pillars of the collection: in solids, in graffiti, in a tonal camo print. Clean it with a sponge, roll it up like a sleeping bag, and stow it in one of Kamali’s carry-on totes. The sleeping bag coat was notable in the lineup as one of the only styles that won’t have a place in wardrobes year-round. Bonded jersey separates in polished slate gray, raw denim jackets and trousers, and the myriad convertible jersey styles were made (literally) for layering and reimagining.Consider too this season’s punky touches like head-to-toe snap closures, or the serpentine patterns formed by so many safety pins on otherwise standard activewear. Even if you might not take those pinned-up pieces to the gym, Kamali’s bottom line here was, and always is, one of pragmatism, a refusal to take part in what the designer dubs “fashion out of style.” As she tells it today: “I spent my whole career wanting to do fashion and make dresses with nine arms. My temperament is not so practical, but this is life. We’re not sitting still—this is who we are.”
9 February 2016
The old adage holds plenty of water: Everything old is, indeed, new again.The Wizgot a recent live-TV reboot, and this seasonNorma Kamalihas revived the densely tiered ruffles she whipped up for the original 1978 film version. The designer, fashion’s earliest champion of activewear-as-all-day-wear, brought the ruffles to life for Pre-Fall as lightweight crop tops and pants. Elsewhere, Kamali’s signature slinky jersey dresses appeared in a jazzy woodcut print. As she tells it, in her vernacular print is a neutral—a statement that wasn’t tough to swallow from Kamali, looking resplendent in a matching marble-patterned set of her own design. While that may not have felt wholly true of Spring’s splashy, Technicolor floral, the dynamism of the neutral and black number seen here was indeed versatile. Speaking of versatile: A ruched Grecian dress would go nicely from day to night and, like Kamali’s aforementioned “washing machine ruffles,” could easily be stowed in a carry-on. Most important, it looked eminently danceable.
22 January 2016
When in doubt, go with a classic. Today, the All In One Dress, a styleNorma Kamalifirst introduced back in 1973, became the cornerstone of her Spring collection. After seeing a serious response from her distributors, the designer is taking a fresh look at the shape, sending it out in three lengths (maxi, mini, and medium) and a variety of prints. Wear it as-is, with its funnel neck and dolman sleeves, or pull an arm through the collar and wear it one-sleeved, with the other one tied around your waist—per Kamali, the possibilities are damn near endless.Even if the DIY opportunities of that piece don’t delight, its charm is mirrored in so many of Kamali’s garments: Ball them up and toss in a carry-on, throw in the wash, and start all over again. That goes for shapes like her “fishtail” flare, which kicked out in a full circle from the knee, and some spruce activewear tailoring. While those are sure to please new converts to the Kamali lifestyle, for the customer who comes back season after season, the designer served up a generous offering of new prints, from a splashy painted floral to trompe l'oeil jean patchwork. Even better was the real deal: a series of fraying raw denim styles like a trench and kicky skirt, all reversible, and all very cool.
18 September 2015
Norma Kamali may as well be fashion's patron saint of ease, so integral is it to her brand's DNA. Ergo it only makes sense that she would choose to make things a little simpler for her customer this season. Where previously Sweats, Swim, and diffusion line Kamali Kulture existed as separate entities, they'll now live under a single umbrella. "Nobody's life is just active; nobody's life is just swimwear," the designer effused at her showroom. Indeed, boundaries don't exist in the way Kamali's fans of all ages wear her clothes, so why should they in name? While the marketing may have changed slightly, and for the good, what's inside continues to evolve incrementally. Still on the docket were gorgeous wrap dresses and tops to throw in a carry-on, confident in the fact that they won't be wrinkled at the other end of your journey. Separates that bore tiers of shimmering, shaking fringe also spoke to up-for-anything good times. Last season's compression pieces returned, in all of their belly-flattening, spine-straightening glory, but what does the pioneer of activewear do when the market is, as she dubs it, "glutted with active"? She brought in "real" fabrics, such as raw-edged denim and mattress ticking, and whipped them into utterly on-trend fitted jackets and flares. Leave it to a pioneer to go and mix things up in the face of the mundane.
10 June 2015
Norma Kamali is in the midst of growing her international distribution. And she's learned a few things from her far-flung showrooms, both big ("Women everywhere are really the same—really about loving being a girl") and more minute. Stud-trimmed pieces are a hit in, say, Moscow, while all the lightweight, versatile styles from her Kulture range are beloved among customers in the Middle East. So the designer is turning out a little something for everyone.Kamali has reworked her iconic sleeping bag coat in the very cool marble material spotted in her recent outings. That piece will hit its 40th anniversary next year, but it still has plenty of appeal. New to Kamali's ever-evolving array of patterns—the spice to her more static approach to silhouettes—was a tonal gray patchworked denim print. It was keen as a blazer over the designer's generously cut-out clingy black tops.And speaking of the Kamali brand of sex appeal, popular Instagram demand has brought back a strappy Studio 54 number with leggings built in. Seen in a crimson colorway, you could easily imagine DVF dancing the night away in it.
13 February 2015
There's always a place for foiled-terry sweatshirts in a Norma Kamali offering, and those weren't lacking in the designer's Pre-Fall collection. But among her biggest coups? Compression pieces. The godmother of activewear introduced a handful this season, true performance garments with an undeniably graphic appeal. They came in the form of stretch tops and leggings, bearing glossy blackX's across the torso or encircling the legs, respectively. The basic principle is that the pressure being applied can improve posture or shorten recovery time after a hefty workout, among other benefits; a happy incidental is that they may make you look svelter. But for all the hard-core workout gear, there were plenty of the lounge-y pieces for which Kamali is best known, the sort to take you from brunch to the shops to Pilates, like pinstripe-and-terry combo blazers. Burn-out terry was a particular favorite here and made for surprisingly sexy sheer maxi dresses and crop tops. Indeed, risqué reigned with this lineup—a curve-hugging jumpsuit with a plunging, crisscrossed back; others with generous cutouts over the abs, sides, and back. Ladies, start your engines.
8 December 2014
On meeting Norma Kamali, resplendent in one of her brand's sweat suits (that is to say, a blazer and pants in sweatshirt material) and heels, one may feel a visceral urge to burn all those possessions not made of jersey. To take up bi-hourly Pilates, a green-juice IV drip, and to spend one's life's savings on Kamali's terry-rich attire. In short, she's a pretty compelling endorsement. Happily, for those unable to buy wholly into the lifestyle, the designer has made it utterly easy to mix and match pieces from her various ranges. Take a hoodie from Sweats and team it with a breezy LBD from the diffusion line Kulture, or throw it on over the maillot made famous by Farrah Fawcett, available from Swim.Kamali's clothes have never come up short on relevance, but thanks to the industry's activewear mania of late, they've found a new marketability that makes them logical additions to the racks of, say, Opening Ceremony. Spring's painterly prints in combinations of black, gray, and white should do well there. Ditto the sweats in orange and Kelly green (a relatively rare foray into color for Kamali) with accents of gray inspired by the reflective tape on garbage men's uniforms. Comfy has rarely looked so cool.
12 September 2014
Norma Kamali is going back to basics. Thanks to the industry's renewed interest in all things athletic and streetwear, her long-honed approach to sweatshirt dressing has a whole lot of 21st-century relevance. In an effort to differentiate her brand from the plethora of others in a saturated niche, Kamali and her team have zeroed in on key pieces (the harem pants, the cocoon coat) and embraced a palette of black, gray, and white. If there were any doubts that sweats are no longer reserved for a run out to the bodega, Kamali has laid them to rest with her high(er)-brow separates. Terrycloth sweatpants got an upgrade with patch detailing in polka-dot and chevron prints; a wide-leg pair boasted a slick black tuxedo stripe, while others still had cool, boxy cargo pockets to stash an iPhone and lip balm. A boyfriend blazer in the same terry was surprisingly sharp, scarcely letting on its true loungewear leanings. But the designer doesn't just talk the talk—she's a longtime fitness junkie, and so plenty of her items serve as functional workout-wear with sexed-up touches. After all, why shouldn't leggings offer both a spot for one's keysandslinky sheer accents? Under her Kamali Kulture sub-label, there were plenty of simple staples—from jumpsuits to camisoles—in a Lycra blend that looked equal parts sensual and easy. Ladies, make yourselves comfortable.
25 June 2014
"I mean, this is stuff that you could sleep in or just throw on to walk the dog. That's what this line is meant to be. It's not meant to be a runway show collection," Norma Kamali said during a preview of her Fall collection. The veteran designer has always promoted a healthy lifestyle over a particular look. She had a true "lifestyle brand" long before that phrase became omnipresent, and her clothes are meant to be lived in and well-worn, not admired from afar. They're stretchy, washable, and comfortable above all, but still interesting enough to make a statement without trying too hard.Last season, Kamali reintroduced the fashion-forward sweats she first did in the early eighties. It doesn't get more meta than a sweatshirt that reads "sweats," but she also found new ways to update standard terry cloth, whipping it up into maxi skirts, slouchy tailored trousers, and a quilted hoodie that could be styled several ways—"it's like you're being hugged by that jacket," she said of the lattermost item. However, avant-garde sweats weren't the only thing on offer here. Kamali used a bonded faux sherpa fabric on a series of fleecy coats that boasted up to six functional pockets apiece. Elsewhere, she experimented with stretch leather, faux fur, varnished vinyl, and camouflage, which was featured on several of her signature sleeping-bag coats. "I did camo again because we've received so many requests since Rihanna got ahold of one of our vintage camo pieces. When you've been around as long as I have, you've kind of covered everything already," she said.
19 February 2014
Norma Kamali could teach a college course on the history of sweatshirt dressing. Perhaps that's because she was an early architect of the sporty trend, which has gained major traction in recent years. At a preview of her latest Spring lineup, Kamali pulled out a scan of an archivalWWDspread from 1980 featuring staff members modeling her terry separates, which were revolutionary at the time but would fit right into any glossy editorial spread today. "I thought I'd had it with sweats. Then I started getting all of these requests for them again because that's what girls are gravitating towards now," said Kamali. "So I decided to reintroduce them in a modern way. After all, activewear is a big part of my brand's DNA." This season, the designer demonstrated just how versatile the athletic staple can be, whipping up easy cotton hoodies, tanks, and crop tops equipped with classic kangaroo pockets. She also showed a variety of pieces cut from the same soft material, including fishtail maxi skirts, rhinestone-studded midi dresses, and bomber jackets with billowing sheer sleeves that definitely weren't intended for the gym. Case in point was a white racerback tank gown done in a thinner technical jersey also used throughout Kamali's Interactive Active sub-collection of workout apparel. It hugged all the right curves and was the kind of thing you might picture Maria Sharapova getting married in. While competition is steep in the novelty sweatshirt market these days, Kamali proved that it's hard to beat an original.
11 September 2013
"I never get tired of it, because it works," Norma Kamali said of her classic Bill maillot, a swimsuit that's been part of her collection since the early seventies. Each year for Resort, the designer uses that retro-ruched style, which now comes in several different necklines and silhouettes, as a starting point.This season, the backless halter version is paired with a shirred mid-calf skirt to create a slinky evening dress, while the crisscross bra top looks as good with high-waisted jeans as it does with the traditional bikini bottom. Beyond the Bill, Kamali played with both wide and skinny stripes on swimsuits, giving celebrity fan Rihanna even more sexy-tomboy options. For those who aren't parked poolside, she created a range of drape-y, deep V-neck jersey dresses in different lengths and sleeves. The saturated colors—sapphire, melon, citron—lent them a more current feeling.As Kamali said herself, she isn't reinventing the wheel here. But she doesn't have to. Because, well, it all still works. Very well.
9 June 2013
Every 15 years or so, Norma Kamali cleans out her closet. Perhaps it was the recent purge of her personal archives that got the designer thinking about her greatest hits—namely, the iconic "sleeping bag" coat that has been going strong since 1974. "Rihanna's been running around in them lately," Kamali pointed out at a run-through of her new Fall lineup, which includes several iterations of the padded nylon classic as well as plenty of other toppers. Outerwear highlights included a tapestry wrapper with vintage appeal, as well as an oversize patchwork number that looked like it could've been Laura Ashley for Comme des Garçons. Those were layered over little bias-cut velvet slips, which balanced out the jumbo proportions. Kamali has always championed versatility, and showed convertible items like an A-line quilted coat that doubles as a dress. "It's like Lucille Ball's take on Dior," Kamali said of the look, adding, "Eveningwear shouldn't be so precious, all of it should be mixed down." Mixing down is exactly what she did with a tulle overskirt that was styled with crisp stovepipe jeans and a bomber jacket. The result wasn't exactly red-carpet-ready, but it was still an interesting proposal that reminded why all these years later Kamali is still a creative contender in this industry.
5 February 2013
A trip through her personal archives brought about Norma Kamali's latest Spring collection, which had a decidedly (and winningly) vintage feel compared to recent seasons. Rifling through stacked clear bins of her own collectible fine and costume jewelry, Kamali piled chains and bangles onto each look. She used a bolt of hand-crocheted Brazilian lace that had been sitting in her closet for years, cutting it into delicate gowns and capes, and also showed the fabric in a more modern context as an appliqué trim on raw denim jeans and its matching jacket (similar to the outfit Kamali herself was wearing at the appointment). The paper-weight taffeta halter gown with a dramatic lapel collar was a highlight; it looked like something a present-day Marilyn Monroe—perhaps Michelle Williams—might wear to host a dinner party. The designer's signature jersey pieces popped up, too. Soft rompers and cap-sleeve tea-length frocks came with white acrylic studs and subtle shoulder pads and rounded out the lineup, which was the strongest and most feminine we've seen from Kamali in years.
11 September 2012
Count Norma Kamali among the designers inspired by this summer's Olympic Games in London. "I love when you can see the body at its ultimate," she said at an appointment at her midtown flagship. Kamali doesn't need an occasion, however, to celebrate physical fitness; she pushes herself at six high-intensity Physique 57 barre classes a week and serves up healthy pressed juices to customers at her in-store Wellness Cafe.Borrowing from Kamali's body of work, the new collection is full of riffs on her signature sleeping bag dress in the form of padded nylon scarves and messenger bags. There were also curve-hugging gowns with sheer illusion insets and swimwear in metallic red, blue, and silver. She used the shiny stretch fabric in a less conventional context, too, on tailored pantsuits. You'll find similar suiting separates (plus jersey wrap dresses and harem pants) for under $100 in the KamaliKulture line that launched back in March. It's smart business concepts like the new lower-priced capsule that keep Kamali relevant in today's competitive market full of new talent.
17 June 2012
What with her 3-D fashion films and online innovations, Norma Kamali's lens seems to be perpetually focused on be the future, or at least the leading edge of the present. So it was surprising to hear the designer cite 1939 as the spark for her Fall collection. The year, she explained, had a particularly forward-looking spirit, perhaps best crystallized in the World's Fair. Its slogan? "Dawn of the New Day."There were shades of Marlene Dietrich—a frequent name-check this week—in jersey siren gowns and a natty sharp-shouldered, wide-leg jumpsuit. Kamali's usual pop of black-and-white came in an oversize houndstooth (adorable in a lean midi dress) and a sweet polka-dotted boiled wool (in a belted coat as soft as a sweater). A body-con black dress with diamond cutouts running up the sides is something you could see a cool girl like Giovanna Battaglia picking up; the same for a tricolor faux fur chubby, which was just beastly good fun.There's always a sense with Kamali that you've seen these clothes before. (Working a forties-era reference into clothes rooted in the eighties isn't much of a leap.) But wowing the fashion set with a new vision every season has never been her priority. Start the designer talking and she's got a million things to say about making women's lives better, whether it's through her Wellness Café or her new nice-price venture KamaliKulture, which sells basics from swimwear to skirt suits, all under $100. It's all sold online and not just for a limited time. New days indeed.
14 February 2012
Considering that Norma Kamali is forever looking forward in terms of how best to show and sell her clothes, it's no wonder she appears far younger than her 60-some years. After seeing Werner Herzog's 3-D documentaryCave of Forgotten Dreamsa few months ago, Kamali became obsessed with the technology. "It's not as exciting asAvatar, but I realized, 'Oh wow, you can really see that guy's shirt!'" she explained at her morning presentation. She began experimenting, and the result is a groovy little 3-D film of girls dancing in her new Spring collection, which she screened on loop, and more importantly, the introduction of 3-D-enabled e-commerce for Spring. (Customers can see the looks on pages that will go live on normakamali3d.com tomorrow.)Unfortunately, the exercise does require those goofy glasses: Kamali had a bunch made to look like her signature cat-eye frame, which customers can request from her Facebook page or Web site. Eighteen thousand people have done so since September 8. But perhaps they won't have to for long—the designer pointed out that both Apple and Sony are working on glasses-free technology.As for the clothes, Kamali said she designed to the technology, using elements that would pop on the screen, like tiers of fringe, sequins, and graphic black-and-white stripes and polka dots. The look was typically fun—a bit pop, and slightly camp in a sixties/eighties vein. It's what Kamali does well, and it's the reason her fans go to her, but you wonder why her focus on the future sometimes leaves her designs out of the picture.
13 September 2011
Norma Kamali has been building up the lifestyle aspect of her brand lately. In addition to sipping veggie juice at the wellness café and entering astrology raffles on her Web site, you can now join the designer in person at an ongoing series of karaoke and dance parties at her flagship store (for fun, do a quick YouTube search to find Kamali singing along to Ray Charles and Etta James). The parties, naturally, have a shopping incentive—she's creating promotional, lower-priced designs specifically for them, and marking down her regular fare as well.After reinserting herself on the fashion calendar for Fall, the designer is following up with an expansive Resort collection that features recurring Kamali motifs: convertible dressing, stretchy mesh and lace fabrics, pieces that can double as swimwear or lingerie, and "diaper" wrap and tie designs. New additions, like the abstract plaid print that came on one of the signature "high-low" skirts, as well as a long, obi-inspired gown, aren't necessarily for everyone, but the Kamali customer has always been self-selective and self-assured. One client recently wore a long dress in steel gray ruched chiffon—similar to one here—to her wedding. An up-and-coming songstress who used to raid her mother's closet for vintage NK, meanwhile, recently stopped by the store to shop for tour outfits. She gravitated toward the sheer, nude-colored halter number with a cutaway skirt covered in crystals.
20 June 2011
Norma Kamali has never run her business in a traditional way. Whether it's her sleeping-bag coat or her wellness café, Kamali is a woman of ideas who has no fear about implementing them. In many ways, she's a being perfectly suited to our current fashion-in-flux moment. "It's game-changer time," said the designer, who showed her Fall collection today at her 56th Street flagship, the first time she's put herself on the fashion calendar in years. All four floors of the store were populated with eight-foot-tall foam core cutouts of model Lais Ribeiro, posing cheekily in the collection of Kamali signatures like dramatic jersey dresses, faux-fur hoodies, pinstriped suiting, parachute gowns, and studded swimwear. "I think it's fun to watch runway shows," Kamali said. "But I also think walking through a forest of eight-foot-tall glamazons and looking at something bigger than life is great, too. They tell my story."At times it wasn't clear whether Kamali was talking about telling her story to industry folk, or whether she was more focused on communicating to customers. But considering that she has the capacity to produce a capsule of these just-shown clothes—maybe the Spring-appropriate mesh-and-foil striped dresses—and get them onto retail racks within a month, perhaps that's not such a huge distinction. (Immediate production in your proverbial backyard, this one being the Garment District, is one way to collapse the time lag of the current fashion system.)As for those clothes, Kamali's work has such a continuous and timeless thread, much of it could have been from 1997, 2007, or today. That's not a complaint. The designer does what she does well, and it resonates with her clientele. And ultimately, the customer is who Kamali is focused on getting to. Her latest innovations on that front are a 48-hour trial period and having sales associates use Skype. Said the designer: "Every day, it's another revolutionary idea that gives us the opportunity to make the experience greater."
9 February 2011