BLAKE WOMAN - HAENI KIM

Next in our series is the formidable Founder of hit Womenswear brand Kitri.

Since its launch in 2017 Kitri has soared thanks to its versatile, sophisticated offering. With their belief in premium quality, not premium prices, it's become a fashion go-to.

We met Founder and Creative Director Haeni Kim in their London studio. We hope you enjoy!

You are from Korea, Seoul. Can you tell us about growing up there? Any earliest memories?

 We lived in the outskirts of Seoul near a town called Suwon. We still live in the area now and whenever I go back, I can’t believe how much it has changed since I lived there. It was very rural when I was growing up and I remember playing with friends by the lake and going fishing and hiking with my family at the weekends, I was a big tomboy growing up.

 You trained as ballet dancer. Tell us more about this, where did you train, what was it like? When did you take the decision to stop and focus on fashion? Where you always interested in fashion? 

 I remember going to my first ballet class when I was 8 and immediately fell in love with it. I had to travel for 2 hours to get to my ballet classes everyday but all I wanted to do was dance and my mum was so kind to recognise that and travelled with me 3 times a week to those classes. From then on, I trained pretty much every waking moment. During summer holidays, I would wake up at 5am to go to my early morning classes then onto various other academic classes, then would end up at my ballet school for a final lesson before heading home exhausted! I came to England when I was 12-years-old and I could not wait to go abroad and start my adventure. Looking back it must have been so hard for my parents. Once I arrived in England though, not being able to speak the language and not having my family and friends around really hit me hard. I trained with lots of different schools and companies in England – English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and National Youth Ballet, but in the end, I had to make the decision to give it up. I didn’t have the right body type to be really successful. I have always been interested in Fashion. My father has had a long career in garment manufacturing and my aunt was a seamstress in an atelier so I was always surrounded by it. When I decided to give up ballet, it seemed like a natural choice for me and haven’t looked back since.

 Tell us about your background in fashion and your career steps to launching Kitri? 

 I’m not a trained fashion designer. I studied French with Business Management at King’s College London, hoping to be able to work in the business side of fashion when I graduate. I naively thought you had to speak French to work in fashion! I studied and interned in Paris for a year and when I graduated I started working for a luxury designer in London as a marketing intern and worked my way up to be marketing/sales manager pretty quickly. It was fantastic to work for a small company at the beginning of my career, I learned a lot in a short space of time. After a few years, I moved to Hong Kong to work for a manufacturing company so I could learn more about the sourcing and manufacturing side for mass market brands, the total opposite market to the one I had worked in London. I lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong for 5 years and it was a huge eye-opener! I had a fantastic time out there and I loved getting to understand the full life cycle of garments and how you can get the best quality for the best price. I couldn’t have launched KITRI without those experiences. In 2015, I started thinking about the gap in the market for design focused, high-quality, affordable brand and came back to London to launch KITRI in 2017.

 The name Kitri comes from the ballet Don Quixote - which we love! Tell us more and why you chose this name? 

 Picking a name for the brand was so hard! I knew I didn’t want to just put my name on it but I wanted a name that was meaningful. Don Quixote was one of my favourite ballets growing up. Kitri’s solo in particular was all the girls’ dream role – it’s passionate, feisty and had the best costume and accessories. I loved the idea that we could imbue the brand with her playful, charismatic and vibrant spirit.

 Starting your own business can be very tough, have you taken anything from your years ballet dancing into this new chapter of your life?

 I think I must have. I have always been very goal-oriented, dedicated and focused – you have to be to train as a dancer. Starting KITRI has been undoubtedly the best and most terrifying decision I have made in my life so far but one that I’ll never regret. 

 Kitri is a direct to consumer brand - was it a conscious decision to by pass wholesale and why? 

 I had wholesale experience in the past and also had direct-to-consumer ecommerce experience from my passion project on the side, where my friends and I sourced and sold antiques online. I felt that direct-to-consumer felt more modern and fun. It meant that we had direct access to our customers and received feedback in real time which you couldn’t necessarily get from wholesale. It was also a pricing decision. In order to give our customers the best price for the quality, we could not build in the margin for wholesale. 3 years in, we do have a few strategic wholesale partners now and it has become a very important channel for us to expand into new markets but we’re really careful about who we work with.

 You fill the gap between high street and high end with really affordable prices - was this a very conscious move?

 Absolutely. As I was growing out of my twenties, I really didn’t know where to go shopping anymore. I didn’t want the ubiquity of high street but at the same time, wasn’t able to spend £300 on a dress every time I wanted a new dress! It was from this frustration that the idea for KITRI started.

 You have done various pop ups, stand a lone and in named department stores such as Harrods and Harvey Nichols - is this important to the brand to have a face in bricks and mortar stores?

  I think the buzzword at the moment is ‘omnichannel’. Honestly for us, we just want to be creative in different ways so that we can bring our brand to new customers wherever they are. Pop ups have been incredibly fun to work on as it’s completely different to what we normally do online. I would love to have a permanent bricks and mortar store as an HQ . I don’t believe in having a store in every high street but I definitely think that there is a unique experience that can come from a physical space that you just can’t get online. We’ll continue to experiment with different concepts and locations but hopefully we’ll find our home soon.

 Who is the Kitri women? Who would you love to see wear the brand?

 KITRI woman is playful, ambitious and creative. Smart and confident woman who is not just about the clothes she wears.

 Describe your personal style, how has it evolved over the years? 

 I went through lots of different phases over the years – some very embarrassing looking back on it now! When I first started working in London, I wore pretty much all monochrome. I was desperate to emulate the ‘Paris Vogue editor look’. Lots of sharp blazers, black skinny jeans and pointed stilettos – I don’t know how I ran around town in those 5 inch heels every day! When I moved to Hong Kong, I started experimenting with more colours and patterns. At the time in Europe, the look was still very minimal and when I came back to London, I was craving something more playful and less severe so KITRI is a reflection of that. My personal style now is pretty relaxed but put together – a mix of feminine and masculine pieces. I have to wear lots of different hats throughout the day, going from a finance meeting to a creative meeting to an event in the evening, so versatility is key. These days, I enjoy wearing a midi dress with a sharp blazer during the day and switch it up to a sleek jumpsuit with heels for events. 

 How do you think the fashion landscape is changing and what is next do you think? What do you see the future hold? Do you think high streets and departments stores will still be around or just online? 

 I think there is always room for a physical store, whether that be on the high street or multi-brand department store. There is a definite sense of change in the retail landscape and I think it’s well-overdue as the customers’ shopping behaviour is changing so rapidly with the technological advances. Ultimately, I believe that brands and stores have to focus on giving the customers the best and most memorable experience possible – we need to be wherever they are and keep on innovating to make things fresh and exciting. 

 Which piece from the Blake LDN collection do you love and why? 

  I have a thing for the colour red so I love the Domino style in bright red. It’s a classic shape in a vibrant colour and who doesn’t love playing domino?

Haeni was shot at Kitri’s HQ studio in East London. She wears Domino sweater in red, Ardmore in lilac and the Domino in green.

Photos by Ollie Ali