2023-10-17 12:00:34
When they come out of the mouth of Kelly Kim, the words sound like fantastic tales, the kind that make us not take our ears off so as not to miss anything. The designer spent a lot of time hiding behind the sewing machine: it was only during the pandemic period that she developed the ability to communicate with her audience. Founder of Calm down São Pauloa clothing brand created by her and her husband, French Adrien Gingoldthe 39-year-old entrepreneur has started to use her Instagram profile (@dissolvido) more actively in recent times.
Just go through some of your stories to soon be captivated by Kelly’s charisma — who also calls herself a pattern maker, cutter, ironer and print mixer, among many other things.
“It was very difficult to start this part of communication, my husband is a journalist and he had to help me. I did one live for [revista] See, during the pandemic, I even got sick [risos], then I started learning. Recently, I gave talks to a lot of people, regarding fabric, fashion… I try to imagine that I’m talking to my friends, or telling a story to my sister”, explains the designer, with such a punctuated speech that makes this nervousness seem to go away.
It was in her apartment, in the Perdizes neighborhood, in São Paulo, that the creative welcomed us for the editorial of these pages, showing how a home is capable of absorbing so much from its residents.
Everything everywhere
Right at the door, colorful decorations from India and the smell of incense reveal the entrance to Kelly and Adrien’s apartment, which they have lived in for two years.
The choice of decor says a lot regarding the creators of Calma: a mix of elements of different colors and origins, but which with organization and aesthetic sense speak to each other and result in an inviting environment.
The desire was to have an apartment that looked like home. To do this, they removed the divisions, such as the one that separated the living room and kitchen — which are now semi-integrated and divided only by a curved frame, as well as the line that divides the sofa corner in the living room.
This was the first time that the resident touched the structures of her home: “Even when I lived in a very small house, I always found a way to leave the space with my energy, but here was certainly the place where I was most able to express my feelings” , he adds.
The rounded lines that convey comfort, the god masks from Goa, India (where his sister-in-law lives and where the couple always travels), and the masks from Korean folklore sum up the mood of space.
“Last year, I took a trip to Korea and I had a very strong reconnection with my roots, I have been connecting with my ancestors. So, these masks come from a lot of that, there is also a necklace on one of them, which I brought from Acre, which speaks of my religiosity. I acquired it when I lived in a village, I didn’t expect to understand so many intersections in my life from that”, he recalls regarding some of his journeys.
Daughter of a Paraguayan mother and a Korean father, Kelly, who was born in São Paulo, always felt this cultural mix effervesce in her soul — and, consequently, transform into art.
“My aesthetic needs to have a mix to work. Over time, I understood the reason for this search for prints, which is my essence. At home, they always told me fascinating stories, my father talked regarding how the Chinese arrived in America and my mother told me all the stories regarding the interior of Paraguay, regarding the ñanduti embroiderers”, she narrates, referring to the embroidery characteristic of Paraguayan culture.
“My mother speaks Guarani, so I grew up in this universe of poetry and nostalgia. I think immigrants always try to bring that magic.”
In addition to the fascinating stories, it was from her parents that Kelly acquired her interest in sewing. She spent much of her childhood watching her mother sew for wholesale stores in the Bom Retiro neighborhood.
The father, when alive, was also a seamstress, and that was how the couple met in Paraguay and, once in Brazil, they had Kelly, as well as two other daughters. Since she was born, the São Paulo native was sure she wanted to sew.
“I think that ever since I was in my mother’s belly, I heard the noise of the sewing machine. This memory is very strong in my life.” At the age of 10, she entered a clothing factory for the first time and there she saw the meaning of life take shape before her eyes: “I was shocked, everything there made sense to me, the smell, the colors, the paper…”, she recalls, fondly.
I travel a lot, but the best time is when I return home. It’s great to be able to have this connection outside, but it’s here inside that I feel like myself, welcomed.
At 14, she started working in a sewing factory in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, already as a seamstress. Having decided, she insisted to her mother that she wanted to specialize in the area, and started a technical course. When the time came to choose a college, she didn’t even have any doubts, she enrolled in the fashion course and discovered another world there.
“I felt very behind, I didn’t know regarding the artistic part. Sometimes, there would be conversations and people would talk regarding artists, films and things I had never heard of; For me, clothing was technical, it had no political, abstract, concept part. This gave me desperation, a hunger for knowledge, and I ran following it.”
She spent 20 years working in São Paulo’s wholesale market: as a seamstress, then as an assistant, until becoming a stylist. He traveled to New York, Paris and London in search of references and research. Finally, she decided to pursue an old dream alongside Adrien: backpacking through Asia for a year. Upon returning from this transformative trip, the challenge was to get back into the market.
“I came back married and without a penny”, she says regarding the period she had to return to her mother’s house. Although she never dreamed of having her own company, the solution was to create, from scratch, a business that reflected the couple’s vision of fashion.
Today with a physical unit in Vila Madalena, Calma was created in 2018 and remains a brand of timeless pieces, modeled by hand and with prints designed to fit all bodies — Kelly wears some in this report.
“It’s an ant job. Sometimes we see a beautiful house and think: ‘Wow!’ But for her to be tidy, I woke up at 5 am. Everything is a process, even in the decoration, I arrived and I didn’t have any books, so I bought one and then another. In life, we also build, it’s a puzzle that never ends. I mean, it ends, or not…”, she reflects.
Of the few certainties in life, Kelly carries one with great confidence: “I travel a lot, I observe people’s behavior, I do research, but when I get home, I feel like myself, welcomed. I feel at home here”, she concludes.
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