Christopher Kane
Encyclopedia
Biography
Kane was born as the youngest of five children in NewarthillNewarthill
Newarthill is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, situated roughly three miles north-west of the town of Motherwell. It has a population of around 7,800. The Member of Parliament for the local area is Pamela Nash. The Member of the Scottish Parliament for the local area is Michael McMahon...
, near Motherwell
Motherwell
Motherwell is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, south east of Glasgow. The name "Moderwelt" appears on a map of Lanarkshire made by Timothy Pont some time between 1583 and 1611 and printed in the Netherlands in around 1652, although the settlement was probably little more...
, North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. It borders onto the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains much of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also borders Stirling, Falkirk, East Dunbartonshire, West Lothian and South Lanarkshire...
, to an engineer and draughtsman and housewife mother.
While still in college, Kane worked for fellow designers Russell Sage and Giles Deacon and attracted the attention of Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace is an Italian fashion designer and current Vice-President of the Versace Group, as well as chief designer. She owns 20 percent of the entire stock market assets of Versace. Her brother, Santo Versace, owns 30 percent...
by winning the Lancôme Colour Award in 2005.
Kane subsequently won the Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
Design Award for his MA Graduate collection, consisting of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1,500 and a showpiece window in Harrods from 24 February to 8 March 2006. The collection consisted of stretch-lace dresses decorated with brass rings. He was immediately hired by Versace to work on the label's Atelier couture collection as well as consulting on shoes and accessories. He graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...
in 2006.
In December 2006 Kane was photographed by David Bailey for British Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
alongside Antony Price
Antony Price
Antony Price is a London fashion designer who is best known for glamorous evening wear and suits, and for the seventies icon of the cap sleeve t-shirt...
, whose 1980's bombshell evening dresses and curvaceous feminine styles foreshadowed Kane's bandage-tight tailoring.
Professional career
Kane established his own-name label in 2006, with his sister, Tammy Kane, who studied at the Scottish College of Textile Design, running the financial side of the business and also assisting in his fabric creation and design process. His first independent show, presented on 20 September 2006, consisted of super-short bandage dresses in neon shades. Kane said of his collection that he "only used neon last year because it was [his] first collection and I wanted to go as bright as possible." The collection was lauded by prominent international fashion critics and credited by various sources as a major contributor to summer 2007's 'fluoro' trends. In April 2006, Kane was awarded the Young Designer of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards. Subsequently, the designer launched a capsule collection for British high-street clothing store Top ShopTop Shop
Top Shop may mean:* TopShop A British Clothes Store* BOARD GAME Top Shop - A PlayStation Game* A Serbian national shop located in Novi Sad...
.
His second collection, show cased on 13 February 2007, once again received positive reviews from leading critics. Moving away from his signature tight-fitted look, Kane showcased a collection of velvets and leathers in a more relaxed silhouette. This was also his first collaboration with prominent shoe designer Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE, , is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand.-Biography:Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and born and raised in the Canary Islands , Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris...
, who created the shoes for the show.
Kane collaborations extend into music, whereby he designed costumes for Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
's music video 2 Hearts
2 Hearts
"2 Hearts" is a song by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue from her tenth studio album, X . The song is a cover version of a track originally recorded by Kish Mauve, who also produced Minogue's version. "2 Hearts" was Minogue's first commercial single release since she was diagnosed with...
. On 18 October 2007, he collaborated with Beth Ditto
Beth Ditto
Mary Beth Patterson, known by her stage name Beth Ditto , is an American singer-songwriter, most famous for her work with the indie rock band Gossip.-Personal life:...
for luxury label Swarovski
Swarovski
Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
's Fashion Rocks show held at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
to critical acclaim. In addition to designing his own label and consulting at Versace, he is also part of Atlier Swarovski, a small collective of designers who create special jewellery collections for Swarovski
Swarovski
Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
.
On 10 September 2007, days before Kane was scheduled to show his third collection, it was reported that 23 pieces from the Spring-Summer 2008 show had been stolen from his London studio. In addition to cashmere
Cashmere wool
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from Cashmere and other types of goats. The word cashmere derives from an old spelling of Kashmir. Cashmere is fine in texture, and strong, light, and soft. Garments made from it provide excellent...
and leather pieces, a laptop was also stolen. No fingerprints were found upon inspection. However, the designer proceeded his third show and second collaboration with Blahnik seven days later on 17 September 2007, once again changing directions and introducing snake skin printed chiffon and denim in yet another collection that won rave reviews.
On 27 November 2007, he was awarded New Designer of The Year at the British Fashion Awards. Kane has also been credited for single-handedly turning the fortunes of cashmere producer Johnstons of Elgin
Johnstons of Elgin
Johnstons of Elgin, also known as Johnstons Cashmere, is a woollen mill in Elgin, Moray, Scotland.-History:Since its establishment in 1797, the company has traded from its present site on the banks of the River Lossie. In all that time has been owned and run by just two families, the Johnstons and...
by partnering with the company to produce his line of cashmere garments.
Known to be a passionate promoter of his home country, the designer was appointed as an ambassador for VisitScotland
VisitScotland
VisitScotland is Scotland's national tourism agency. It is a public body, with offices in Edinburgh, Inverness, London as well as other parts of Scotland...
in January 2008. He celebrated Burns Night by showcasing a special trunk show of his Spring-Summer 2008 collection as well as hosting an exclusive party at Harvey Nichols
Harvey Nichols
Harvey Nichols, founded in 1813, is an upmarket department store chain. Its original store is in London. Founded in 1813 as a linen shop, it sells many international brands of clothing for women and men, fashion accessories, beauty products, wine and food...
the ambassador for VisitScotland. Furthering his role, Kane collaborated with Lancôme
Lancôme
Lancôme Paris is a makeup brand. Owned by L'Oréal since 1964, Lancôme is part of the Luxury Products division, which offers skin care, fragrances, and makeup at higher-end prices....
to create a limited edition Juicy Tube lip gloss
Lip gloss
Lip gloss is a product used primarily to give lips a glossy lustre and sometimes subtle color. It is distributed as a liquid or a soft solid...
. The finished product, called Burns Night, is a tangerine colour with a beautiful illustration printed on the tube along with Kane's signature and was launched in February 2008.
On 12 February 2008, the designer showcased his fourth collection which departed again from his previous themes. Featuring dresses of layered organdy and plastic sequins, cable woven cashemere tops and dresses along with heavily embellished jackets, the show was greeted with similar praise from fashion critics.
On 16 September 2008, Kane showcased his fifth collection, this time building upon his previous theme of circular sequins which "had grown into even bigger circles of chiffon and leather that rippled like scales around the models or created scalloped contours down their bodies to oscillating – and very short – hemlines." Inspired by "Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
" and "The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
", it was met with similar praise from fashion critics. Commercially, the collection was a massive success, selling out within 24 hour of launch on Net-A-Porter.com on 13 February 2009.
Kane presented his sixth collection on 21 February 2009, a show labelled as another "Best Ever". The collection featured nude chiffon dresses and was praised for its construction as a more mature offering. He also collaborated with Versace, producing a capsule collection of accessories for the younger Versus (Versace)
Versus (Versace)
Versus is the diffusion line of noted Italian fashion house Versace. It began in 1989 as the first of many diffusion lines by the house, a gift by the founder Gianni Versace to his sister, Donatella Versace...
line showcased on 2 March 2009. Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace is an Italian fashion designer and current Vice-President of the Versace Group, as well as chief designer. She owns 20 percent of the entire stock market assets of Versace. Her brother, Santo Versace, owns 30 percent...
later compared him to her late brother Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Madonna, Elton John,...
.
In 2009 and 2010, Kane also collaborated with a professional British haircare brand Catwalk by TIGI to create an advertising campaign for the brand's three new product collections.