Coachella-approved designer Kasia Kucharska is morphing Bavarian traditions into fashion futurism.

Kasia Kucharska is on a mission to redefine experimental fabrics and fashion’s relationship with them. Born into a Polish family, living in the German Alps, she grew up with luscious nature surrounding her, diving deep into multiple sports like skiing and skating, being fascinated behind how technological garments develop throughout the seasons.

Kasia’s own namesake brand grew from a dichotomy of tradition and futurism, morphed into exploration of garments and patterns. Speaking to Perfect, Kasia opens up about her initial beginnings during fashion school, the life-long ethos of constant development, and her fascination with latex and lace.

Perfect: Growing up, what were your main inspirations? What were the things that fascinated you?

Kasia Kucharska: My parents are Polish but I grew up in the German Alps region in the very south of Bavaria and I believe this region influenced me significantly. It’s an area where sports like hiking, skiing, snowboarding or figure skating are very routed in the daily life of people. And you don’t do them just for fun but in order to compete, to win races, to be the fastest and take part in Olympia. So, being thrown into this culture as a pretty lazy person I was very much relying on my high-tech equipment. I loved that you can look like the fastest without being it.

All the sports equipment and clothing renew itself every season and I remember always being fascinated by how the stuff technologically is made. On the other hand it‘s a very traditional region with a long history of traditional costumes which also fascinate me. It wasn’t my own tradition so I could just observe and absorb the looks with all its details.

I was fascinated how these contrasts can coexist and I think they absolutely continue to coexist in my work.

Perfect: How did you get started in fashion? What drew you towards the industry?

Kasia Kucharska: I never thought of fashion as an industry. I noticed the transformative power of clothing when I was little living in a culture and community where you strongly demonstrate your social affiliation through clothing. I learnt as a child that I could use clothes as a tool to fit in when I didn’t. I loved to play with that aspect. Clothes speak before you speak. It is my tool to communicate.

Perfect: Starting your work in fashion, was sustainability always at the forefront of your values?

Kasia Kucharska: I think so. As a student I couldn’t afford to not be sustainable. I always used my resources carefully and cooperated with companies working with dead-stock and remaining stock materials. Even more today, we seek to be as sustainable as possible in every aspect of our work. Not only in terms of how we work with our resources or which manufacturing technique we chose but also in terms of how we want to evolve our practice in general and grow as a company. We are slow but conscious of every step we take and we enjoy every aspect of this journey.

Perfect: Your collection works with liquid latex, a material that is biodegradable and natural. What drew you towards working with it as it is generally a difficult material to craft with?

Kasia Kucharska: At the very beginning I was working with silicone but we switched to latex because of its many better characteristics: it’s more durable and compostable. What we love about it is also that we are able to create garments out of latex with zero waste as we work with the liquid form and not with bulk material; this way we can also inclusively cater to any body shape or size. It’s a really fascinating material in general but it’s also a very sensitive and tricky one too. In its liquid condition it reacts to differences in atmosphere like temperature, air moisture and sunlight and there’s even different procedures when working with it in winter and in summer. The manufacturing process can be very time-consuming and it drives us crazy sometimes as some parameters remain unpredictable.

Perfect: What were the references behind your current collection?

Kasia Kucharska: We are still investigating lace making and traditional crafts but this time we wanted it to be much more daring and colourful. Coming out of lockdown last summer we felt a need to dress up again. During all these past months of solitude and isolation, we realised how much we missed thinking about what to wear and seeing other people dressed up. Having stayed inside for so long, it really felt like waking up from hibernation.

There was a such a huge need to see other people and to be fearless and careless again and with the collection we wanted to capture these emotions. We want to celebrate life and all the beautiful things about our existence.

Perfect: Your goal is to redefine the meaning of latex in fashion, how do you see it developing in fashion in the next year?

Kasia Kucharska: At the moment latex is still considered almost exclusively for fetish wear. We believe it holds so much potential for the fashion industry which is not being realised at the moment. Through our work we want to introduce this material to a broader audience and show the opportunities it holds for fashion in a new context. Also, technologically this manufacturing technique can simplify complicated processes that we aim to show through collaborative projects.

We are only beginning to develop this technique and there’s still so much to explore…

Perfect: How would you like to see your brand grow? What are your personal and professional goals for the future?

Kasia Kucharska: For the future, we aim to introduce more innovation to garment making in general. In this area we’re driven by the goal of improving standardised manufacturing in apparel and beyond, rethinking old crafting techniques to reintegrate them using modern means of creation. We believe that the new luxury will be well thought through and innovative products will decrease traditional boundaries in favour of sustainable and more disruptive approaches reflecting contemporary societal needs. Furthermore, we want to be ambassadors of this potential change and add a meaningful contribution to the making of fashion.

From the start we have moved away from a fast-paced fashion calendar towards working at our own pace and producing only things we believe have a potential instead of contributing to a wasteful society. That’s also why we’re only releasing products that we feel are ready and add value to one’s wardrobe.

We want to see us evolve towards a forward-thinking crafting lab rather than being viewed as a traditional fashion brand per definition.