JUKI Designer Ambassador: Kovid Kapoor

Today we’re introducing a new addition to the JUKI team, Kovid Kapoor, one of our new JUKI Designer Ambassadors! Based in Brooklyn, New York, Kapoor is an Indian fashion designer that focuses on the luxury and high-end fashion market. Holding an impressive background in fashion, Kapoor has won the National Textile Corporation’s Young Designer Hunt competition in India, completed his master’s in fashion design from the Academy of Art University, and was a contestant on the 17th season of Project Runway. So it’s no surprise his work has gone on to be featured in well-known fashion titles like Elle USA, Elle India, and Vogue Italia. Follow along as we share more about Kovid and his life in fashion below!

Photo Credit: Kovid Kapoor

Starting at a very young age, Kovid learned how to hand sew from his grandmother. Finding love for art, he continued to be passionate about the hobby through his teenage years and adult life. During the foundation years of his bachelor’s degree, Kovid started using sewing machines in his work. As Kovid shares, “It was one of the most crucial subjects and essential skills to develop a successful garment.”

Kovid’s brand is a small-scale brand that believes in creating dynamic clothing to find a healthy balance between art and viable commercial product. Inspired by tales and stories that celebrate feminine and LGBTQ stories, he believes fashion should represent an individual’s identity and be used as a form of self-expression. Focusing on contemporized pieces with a traditional twist, his line is relaxed yet helps buyers feel confident in their look. His motivation for creating his pieces is a therapeutic process, “What motivates me to create is to project and express my thoughts and creative aspirations through fashion and clothing. It’s a therapeutic process of self-reflection, and every collection helps me evolve not just in my creative space but also my emotional space.”

Besides his fashion brand, Kovid has accomplished great success in the art world of fashion. His favorite art piece to date was a conceptual art wear garment inspired by the Mask Project Series, in collaboration-with Akshit Bhardwaj. This art piece was an enlarged garment version of a mask, designed with three-dimensional details. Enjoying the organic process of the garment creation and the carefree approach with which they followed, the final pieces reflected their experience in the creative process. Another art piece, one he claims as his greatest success, was for an installation in the Asian Art Museum vault. A 12-foot tall saree dress tent made for art directors Adrienne Pao and Robin Lasser, designed with bright colors and traditional style. Click here to view the art piece!

Photo Credit: Kovid Kapoor

Currently, Kovid is working on his upcoming collection all constructed on his trusted Juki machine. A must-have tool, Kovid shares a good sewing machine is worth the investment because of its importance in elevating the speed and efficiency of his work. Describing the upcoming collection as something new and fresh, he’s beyond thrilled to showcase the new line once completed. With a passion for his work, Kovid’s love for sewing comes from the process of creating. “There is something very rewarding about constructing something yourself. It adds a personal touch to an otherwise store-bought world.”

As we finished getting to know Kovid, he had one final tidbit of advice for new sewers in the community, “The key to success in sewing is consistency and practice. Sewing is a skill that is finessed with practice and time so it’s completely fine if the initial projects don’t work the important thing is to keep practicing.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Kovid Kapoor! Follow along as we continue to join Kovid in his fashion journey, and visit us here to learn more about Kovid and our other designers!

JUKI Designer Ambassador: Kentaro Kameyama

Today we’re introducing a new member to the JUKI family, Kentaro Kameyama, a fashion designer. Japanese-born, Kentaro is based in Los Angeles, California, whose fashion focuses on minimalism and style. His concept is “keep your life simple and stylish.”

We are so excited to bring him on board as a JUKI Designer Ambassador and wanted to share more about him so our JUKI Lovers can get to know him!

NYFW – 2018

Kentaro’s inspiration can be found anywhere and everywhere. He enjoys finding those special moments in life and creating his art from within. With a background in classical music, Kentaro’s style brings elegance to a manner that is still minimalist but stylish. His motivation is simple, “I don’t feel right when I’m not creating things.”

His favorite projects to work on are runway collections. No stranger to the runway, Kantaro has been featured in New York Fashion Week for his winning collection in “Project Runway” in 2018, NYFW Spring 2020, and NYFW Winter 2020. However, Kentaro states his most tremendous success in his career has been winning “Project Runway” season 16, as this was his entrance into the “in” crowd of the fashion world.

His Project Runway collection was true to himself. Embodying his style of minimalism, he created 10 looks that were presented to the judges. Every day, he saw a new way to find inspiration and built the project with his plans in mind. He would go on to win the season with his winning looks and would go on to present his collection at his first NYFW.

NYFW -2019

Kentaro moved on from NYFW to a new project, composing and designing an opera show on Alexander McQueen. Recounting the final hour of the designers’ life, the opera was hosted in Boston in 2019. Kentaro, besides composing and designing, also joined in as the piano player for the show. Stating this as his favorite project to have worked on, he showcased outfits from the show in NYFW later on.

As Kentaro continues his journey, we ask him what his favorite part about sewing is, and we bet you JUKI Lovers would agree; it’s the sound of the machines. Kentaro has loved everything about his sewing experience and is excited for the future of his work. He also has a few words of advice for those new to sewing, “make lots of mistakes.”

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Kentaro, our new JUKI Designer Ambassador, and we can’t wait to share more of his work in the future! Follow along here for more news on our ambassadors!

Which outfit was your favorite? Let us know below!

JUKI Designer Ambassador: Kenya Freeman

Meet our new JUKI Designer Ambassador, Kenya Freeman, CEO and Senior Lead Designer of Sylvia Mollie Collections – an American lifestyle brand that embodies bold femininity. Her garments are meant to instill power and confidence to fearless woman! And its’ because of this that Kenya’s motivation to create is simple: this is her purpose.

“It is my calling and my assignment beyond the passion. Knowing what I do is going to change the lives of many after me.”

We are very excited to have Kenya join the JUKI family as a JUKI Designer Ambassador and want to share a tidbit of her story with our JUKI Lovers! So follow along as we share a part of Kenya’s sewing journey.

Inspired by life, Kenya stumbles upon inspiration in her day-to-day activities. From dreams to the seasons, she’s always observing life outside of her home and the people she passes. Situations in life have continued to bring her inspiration, leading to her beautiful bold fashion pieces.

Kenya’s favorite pieces to work on are dresses. From the challenging cuts to the techniques she’s picked up, she looks forward to the pieces that will shine. Using Frixon pens, her favorite sewing trend, she drapes and uses her tool to mark those seams and lines. Her favorite part is heating it and seeing all the marks disappear from her work.

Kenya acclaims her season on Project Runway to be her most significant achievement in her sewing journey. Setting the tone for her future in fashion, Kenya’s life changed. As one of the top 5 finalists, Kenya’s work is loved by viewers. Her popularity quickly rose, and she inspired so many others to work on their skills.

Her love for sewing comes in full form when she sees the final product. It amazes her to see the process from concept to creation. As she continues to grow her brand Kenya’s primary goal is to relaunch her fashion line to sizes 10-20, creating an inclusive atmosphere for all fashion lovers.

Currently, in the process of the product development stage, Kenya is nothing but excited! With a roller coaster of an adventure since she joined the fashion industry, she’s experienced crazy, insane, exciting, devastating, and unforgettable moments. Her advice to sewers is simple, “Keep practicing. Keep practicing.  Keep practicing.  Never give up. It only gets better with time.”

We hope you enjoyed getting to learn about Kenya as much as we did, JUKI lovers! So join us on our socials and visit us here to keep up with our new friend Kenya and her journey in fashion.

Which of Kenya’s pieces did you love the most? Let us know below!

JUKI Spotlight: Fashion for Dogs with Tiana Feng

What began as a fun project turned into a world of its own; meet Tiana Feng, the face behind The Bacon Collection and Bacon the Doggers! A digital marketer in the music industry and dog stylist by night, Tiana runs her little dog’s social media account under Bacon the Doggers. A miniature schnauzer who loves getting dressed and doing photoshoots with their mom, they love to feature dog fashion from creators all around the world!

Beginning in April of 2020, Tiana began to pick up sewing after finding herself with an abundance of free time due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Between research on the internet and plenty of YouTube videos, she began creating projects and continued to learn new tricks as time passed. The opening of ‘The Bacon Collection’ last year was inspired by human luxury fashion and street fashion. Bacon’s style has always been clothing that even humans would want to wear!

“The Bacon Collection is inspired by human luxury fashion as well as street fashion. That’s kind of what Bacon’s style has always been.”

Bacon was a natural model at the young age of 3! The first day he came home, Bacon was dressed in a sweater and loved it. Thus, history was born, and Bacon became an influencer without even knowing it! Wanting to learn how to make clothes specifically for Bacon, Tiana began designing and creating clothing. As she continued to grow and spend more time focusing on her hobby, she found that selling her designs and dog fashion would be a great way to support her next project. Inspired by her puppy, ‘The Bacon Collection’ was founded.

Opening up her Etsy shop in May, it would take a month before her first order. Slow at first, her shop began to grow as other dog influencers learned about her fashion sales and increased her viewership! Ballooning over 500 sales in a year, Tiana continues to be shocked at her progress from picking up sewing last year to her life now.

Using her JUKI MO-654DE serger and JUKI HZL-F600, Tiana plans to continue dressing more dogs in fabulous clothing and hopes to one day collaborate with some human fashion brands on projects. If you are interested in dressing your pet in beautiful clothing check out The Bacon Collection! Shop and social info down below.

Tiana Feng’s Instagram: @Tianafeng

Bacon’s Instagram: @baconthedoggers

Shop Instagram: @thebaconcollection

Shop Link: http://thebaconcollection.com

Blog: https://baconthedoggers.com/collabs/

Celebrate Festival Season with JUKI!

With the summer sun finally here, it’s time to start celebrating! This year’s festival season is kicking back up, and we wanted to share fashion ideas for your looks. With festival trends coming and going, here are some great options for you to recreate.

Face masks

While festival season comes back with a bang amidst Covid, it’s always fun to be fashionably safe! If you’re planning to wear a face mask, we recommend looking into nylon and spandex fabric. These materials are waterproof and come in a variety of exciting colors, perfect for hot outdoor days. Cotton is also a great choice and allows you more creativity in the designs. On top of a protective mask, you can wear an additional mask to accent any outfit. The additional mask can be made with beautiful fabrics featuring intricate designs like lace or flashy designs with sequins or beads! Adding accessories to your mask is easy when you use our beading presser footer. Personalize your mask to represent you!

Upcycled Looks

With quarantine bringing new life into the sewing world, expect to see people with new pieces they’ve handcrafted! It’s a great experience when you find something old and upcycle it into a new fashion statement. Grab old pieces you enjoy and a sewing machine like the HZL-80HP-A that helps you create fashion that goes together beautifully. We recommend ideas like patchwork, upcycling dresses into a two-piece set, or turning plain t-shirts into funky outfits!

Small Mini Bags and Fanny Packs

Attend your next one with a comfortable mini purse or fanny pack that holds your essentials. Create them using intricate fabrics, faux fabrics, or add on embellishments to really wow! Creating beautiful bags is easy using a heavy-duty machine like our TL-2010Q. This sewing machine comes with accessories like our zipper attaching foot. We recommend fanny packs, tactical pouches, or cross-over slings when deciding to make a bag!

Bucket Hat

Bucket hats have made a comeback! Perfect for keeping shade while making a cute fashion statement, look into accessorizing with a bucket hat. Personalize by adding fun designs and embroidery using our Tajima Sai! Look into canvas or denim fabrics for the pieces on the inside for a sturdier feeling and clean look. A fun idea is to get your friends together and make matching ones!

Whether you’re going into festival season with the most outlandish outfits or a more toned back look, choose creativity and show up with your very own unique look!