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Mid way into her second year at McGill as an undergraduate student in political science, Kingi Carpenter decided to do McGill a favour. She dropped out. As she puts it, “I had too much respect for McGill to stay on.”
She then enrolled in OCA (now called OCAD) and worked part time at Eatons selling clothes and Simpsons (the Bay) selling dolls. She did what she needed to do to keep herself in school and focus on what she had discovered were her two greatest passions-art and fashion.
Kingi’s idea was to create clothing that demonstrated a love for art and creativity in design. Her first prompt that this was an underexplored territory, was when she went to Paris. Not a single dress with a picture of the Eiffel Tower was to be found. Kingi found that astounding. Her love of the visuals that surrounded her, and her creative drive inspired her to focus her OCA courses on silkscreening. By night she went to George Brown College to study pattern making and sewing. She decided to speed up her learning process, and enroll in the second year sewing course. She felt that this way everyone in the class could be her teacher and help her fill in the pieces as she went.
Passion met drive and she was unstoppable! Kingi knew that she had found the elements that would form her career and make her mark. She went to school to learn, and taught silkscreening at the Academy in her determination to attain a level of perfection in her field of choice. She worked out of her small apartment on College Street, and started to silkscreen designs and make clothes with any extra time she had.
Once she had sold a couple of pieces, she took her first few earned dollars and had business cards printed up. Student no more, Kingi had now officially branded herself as a designer, and postured herself that way from that day forward. She said that it was business cards and a document declaring her a sole proprietor that took her to level where people looked at her differently, respected her and gave her a few more minutes airtime than they would have before. It was that simple. It was so simple in fact, that without a great deal of forethought, that this young woman entered herself in the Toronto Festival of Fashion–and ended up a runner up to the grand prize! Fate? Luck?? Hard work? A belief in herself and a refusal to look at limitations were all ingredients in this recipie for success.
Kingi’s father died when she was only 15. Her mother was unable to step in as a role model for Kingi, so she immersed herself in the Helen Gurly Brown classic “Sex and the Single Girl“. That became her guide book to life, and Helen Gurly Brown (whose letter to Kingi is framed in her store), was Kingi’s mentor.
As a persona, Kingi–ok the truth is, her real name is Kemble , is funky, far out , and would make anyone feel good about themselves. Is she a Queen Street diva—? Most certainly all who know her would say she is. What she also is, however, is a heart of gold; a strong minded business person and a fiercely loyal and steadfast career woman and mother.
Helen Gurley Brown, as Kingi so remembers her, said that if a woman had a career and could define herself and her place on this planet before all else, she would be well on her way to success. She has never held anyone else accountable for her personal happiness. For that she is proud, and for that we should all very much admire her. When I asked her what she felt her personal key to success was, one word fell off her tongue–FUN. With all of the stresses of ordinary life that that surround us, we must never forget the value of that enormous three-letter word!
Kingi has now made it possible for anyone to learn to silkscreen in her new book , Peach Berserk’s Silkscreen NOW.
For a closer look at Kingi, please click on the links below .
***Peach Berserk is offering any readers of theperfectconnections a 20% discount on merchandise and workshops. Please mention that you are a perfectconnections subscriber when you book your workshop or shop in the store.***
