Karl Kani - History

History

At age 16, Carl Williams started designing clothes after learning the essential handcraft at his father's company. Karl never studied tailoring or design, but he had flair for coming up with unusual, stylish concepts. He would buy material and tell a tailor exactly how he wanted his garments to look. "For a relatively small sum", as he put it, "I had a fresh outfit that nobody had."

Karl's customized outfits were so "fresh" that soon they were in demand. After seeing him on the scene in local clubs, men started asking for a Carl Williams' outfit of their own. Soon Karl was taking his first orders in his car. The death of one of his close friends inspired some deep contemplation. "It made me think about life differently", he added " I thought I should really do something positive."

In 1989 Karl headed to Los Angeles where he and a good friend opened a clothing shop on Crenshaw Boulevard. They made no profit at this location and after the shop was robbed, they moved to Hollywood where Karl started selling catalogs for $2 that he and his partner had put together. They only made profit off the catalog sales and didn't actually sell any clothes. He decided to take out an advertisement in Right On!Magazine but even that didn't help jumpstart sales.

Read more about this topic:  Karl Kani

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
    —Frances Burney (1752–1840)

    “American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
    —Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)

    “It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.”
    —William Howard Taft (1857–1930)