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:
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Spain is an overflow of sombreness ... a strong and threatening tide of history meets you at the frontier.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)