You should know about... Kisa

Why a young female design duo is the name to watch at London Fashion Week. By Danielle Radojcin

Who are they? Designer Carolina Marengo, 26, from Rome, and Creative Director  Maya Tarkhan-Mouravi, 25, from Georgia.

How long have they been designing? The upcoming autumn / winter 2008 collection (on-schedule for the first time) will be their third collection. 

What's their story? Introduced by a mutual acquaintance while studying in London (Carolina at Central St Martins, and Maya at the London College of Fashion), the pair found they shared a similar vision - namely, to design elegant, chic clothes for young women. Carolina had the
  Maya Tarkhan-Mouravi, left, and Carolina Marengo, the faces behind Kisadesign skills (she completed internships at both Chloé and Alexander McQueen) and Maya had the means (husband Alex Kiselev and some willing investors in France); soon they had the making of a fashion label. Their first show was only a year ago at On/Off during London Fashion Week, after which both Harrods and Aquaint in London bought the collection (it's also stocked internationally, notably at cult boutique Martine Chambon boutique in St Tropez).

What does the name 'Kisa' mean?  According to them, nothing - they just liked the sound of the word. But they do point out it's an abbreviation of Maya's husband's surname.

What was the inspiration behind their spring / summer 2008 collection? According to Carolina: "It was inspired by a woman featured in the photography of the late Guy Bourdain, who is one of my main sources of inspiration. I tried to portray a confident woman, who's effortlessly stylish and sexually confident, but never vulgar. The colour palette of cream, dark blue, black and silver was pretty classic...what I was trying to do was create an image of someone who is chic and elegant, but young. So often elegance is associated with your granny!"

 
Who wears Kisa? Young, fashionable girls who like to dress up to go out. These clothes are made for hanging out in upmarket hotel bars and sipping on champagne martinis. Readers would also do well to bear them in mind for those times when a smart dress is called for: their cocktail dresses are classic enough in design  - and, crucially cost around the £500 mark, which is just the right side of exorbitant these days - to work as investment pieces.

What does the future hold for Kisa? Says Maya, "Obviously we would like to open a boutiqe in London at some point. The kind of designers we would like to position ourselves alongside are Giambattista Valli and Giles. We already have a showroom in the US, but we would like to develop our brand more out there. We never want to become too commercial, though. The great thing about London is that you can stick to your creative vision, and people will respect you for that." 

Kisa is available to buy at Harrod's and Aquaint in London. 

Click HERE to see pictures from the Kisa spring / summer 2008 collection.