Casey Lamb, the owner and designer behind clothing brand KSLAM, caught the eye of not only local Vancouverites, but celebrities like Rita Ora, Bea Miller, Kenzie Ziegler and more at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
With no experience in design and business, her experience as a fashion designer comes from both family and friends.
Lamb, who is from Abbotsford, said that since she was 12, she wanted a career in fashion, art and design, but briefly gave up on the dream when it seemed impossible. But she soon returned to the passion.
“It got to a point where I was so tired of saying I was going to do something, and not doing it, that I gave in no matter what the risk,” she said, in a press release.
Lamb, at the age of 19, started her brand in April 2016.
She began by printing her art on graphic tees, then switched to denim, with a focus on women’s empowerment and feminism.
“Feminism is something I started to learn about in my second year of university. The importance of intersectional equality that I found when studying, became significant to my journey, not only as a designer, but as a woman,” she said.
“The marginalization and oppression that not only women face, but people of colour and members of the LGBTQ+ community, was important when shaping my brand. The invisibility of these groups continues to transgress in media and throughout fashion brands. I wanted to make sure that with KSLAM it was different.”
Now, Lamb continues to design by utilizing both reworked denim and new materials.
She hopes to bring together elements of both past and current decades, to create clothing for those who don’t fit in to the modern society or the decade we are currently living in.
Her focus on sexuality, identity, and empowerment is represented through her visuals and work as a designer.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ran from April 13 to 22 in Indio, California.