“Live, Love, Laugh, and look fabulous while doing it.”, Tahaja Samona and Karine Melissa
Noblivity Spotlights Emerging Designers Samona and Karine Melissa
Company/Designer Name: Kimajé Kreations Swim Collection | “Too Fabulous to Get Wet”
Emerging Designers: Tahaji Samona and Karine Melissa
Designer Background Summary:
The designers of Kimajé Kreations Swim Collection, Tahaji Samona and Karine Melissa, crochet their swim collection with a perfect fit to compliment the uniqueness of a woman’s curves. Tahaji picked up her first crochet hook as a little girl in the Bahamas filled with creativity and an urge to let the world know about it. Karine Melissa, born in Jamaica, tested the waters of the Fashion Industry as a teen model and began producing fashion shows soon after. Their expertise in designing comes from a combined 30 years of experience in the industry.
How did you get started?
Tahaji Samona taught Karine Melissa how to crochet in 2002 while working as fire-rescue dispatchers in Florida. The path of creativity developed from blankets, to purses and sweaters, and then settled on a monumental landing of a crochet couture swim design. Once the idea came, the concept was perfected by using the finest yarns and materials.
What inspires your designs?
With inspiration from the beauty of their home islands, Bahamas and Jamaica, and from the lavishness of a woman’s curves, their selection of colors, materials, gemstones, and crystals for each design come together to create a masterpiece!
How would you describe your design style, design signatures and who is your targeted customer?
Our design style is anything fun and flirty, sophisticated, and yet sexy. Our design signatures are the various crystal and gemstone designs incorporated into each masterpiece. Our target clientele are glamorous yet sophisticated ladies between the ages of 17-40. However, we welcome anyone to experience the luxury of one of our unique designs.
What designers inspire you?
This is honestly a hard question for both of us. We choose to think outside of the box. We effortlessly choose not to pattern ourselves after any other designer. We believe that the fashion industry has enough of that. It’s time for something new to break through into the never-changing cycle of fashion. On the other hand, we would say the emerging designers inspire us the most because of their dedication and relentlessness to bring their dreams to reality.
What obstacles did you have to overcome and how did you overcome them?
The biggest obstacle that we have had to face is breaking into a saturated industry such as swimwear. True success has come when our target audience finally sees our designs. So our goal is to use every marketing tool possible to make sure our designs are seen by the right clientele.
What has been your greatest moment on your journey so far?
Our greatest moment on this journey so far has been at the Spring 2010 Fashion Designers Expo Florida in Miami Beach at the Newport Beachside Resort. The response from the audience was amazing and we ended up selling almost every design on the spot. It was the perfect clientele for us and the execution of the Fashion Week was amazing. We had a blast!
What has been the biggest change in your designs so far?
The biggest change in our designs so far has been incorporating more one-piece styles with intricate crystal designs rather than our initial two-piece designs with gemstone artwork as a focal point.
If money were no object what would you do right now?
As designers our possibilities would be endless. We would experiment with every material possible to make a beautiful handcrafted crochet swim suit. We would also attempt every design idea that we have ever had. Including, but not limited to, real diamond artwork incorporated into some of our pieces.
What are the best and worst things about being a designer?
The best thing about being a designer by far is the creativity. The worst thing is those moments when it feels as though your creativity is blocked. Almost nothing is worse than wanting or needing to create and nothing comes to mind.
Describe your typical day?
First and foremost, we thank God every morning for another day to bring our dreams to reality. After that, we stretch our minds by educating ourselves on different designs in magazines and books. We then start sketching, which leads into the perfect hand crafting of another Kimajé Kreations Swim.
What’s your philosophy of life?
Our philosophy on life is… “Live, Love, Laugh, and look fabulous while doing it.”
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
We would have researched our material selection more. That would have saved us a lot of money. We would have also kept more photos and drawings of our earlier designs. Each piece is an opportunity for a new design idea and an opportunity to make the next one better.
When will you know you have made it?
When we’ve made it, we’ll be producing our own fashion show on TV like the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show broadcasted every year (laughing). We know we’ve made it when every woman in our target audience has experienced the fabulosity of a Kimajé Kreations Swim.
