Second Skin with
Kathryn Bowen

The Toronto-Based Designer
on Textiles, Tailoring, and
Collaborating with Kim Kardashian

Text: Naomi Skwarna
Photography: Aaron Wynia

For designer Kathryn Bowen, clothes have the intelligence of bodies: cut, draped, and pieced together with the intent to mirror that same opaque yet invisible sensitivity. This unique vision was what caught the eye of Kim Kardashian’s team, who handpicked Bowen to create three custom-tailored looks for the relaunch of her KKW fragrance, broadcasting the striking mesh pieces to Kardashian’s personal Instagram following of 311 million.

Devoted to European tailoring, which she learned at London’s Royal College of Fashion and further honed for two years with designer Yang Li, you’d think that Bowen, 30, would be creating sculptural coats and suiting in fine wovens. She has and does, but in her most recent collection, the Toronto-based designer moves closer to the bone, melding sinuous tailoring with the kinetics of performance athletic wear. Building a range of stretch mesh garments that flow around the body thanks to her canny seamlines, the resulting head-to-toe looks evoke outerwear and underwear simulcast; seams and linings create a double image that, at moments, lends the appearance of a sexy MRI.

After launching her eponymous label in 2018, the pandemic saw Bowen adjusting her designs, not just in accordance with our different world, but to her own changing lifestyle. A childhood figure skater, she returned to the sport with renewed vigor. She started cycling, too, favoring Toronto’s Leslie Street Spit; a 5km gently curving line that ends at a lighthouse. Her current bustiers, blouses, corset dresses, and bike shorts belie both a devotion to the indoor and outdoor body; muted boudoir colors mixed with silhouettes meant for action.

I spent a couple of hours with Bowen in her Toronto studio, modestly situated above an auto transmission repair shop and next to the city’s oldest gym. She handed me pieces from the new collection to touch and hold up to the light, alongside yet-to-be-constructed pieces sitting in piles on her chaotic but organized worktable. “I know where everything is,” she told me, and frankly, I believe her.

Naomi Skwarna

Kathryn Bowen

Your work often juxtaposes immaculate tailoring with lingerie-like garments. What is it that excites you about this kind of visual and structural conflict?

The juxtaposition stems from my personal choice to never steer towards garments that are extreme versions of feminine or masculine. I like to spend a lot of time in my design and styling work to create balance; simple versus complicated details on a certain piece, or hard and soft fabrics. I like that offset.

About tailoring and bespoke fit—what or who was it that made you interested in pursuing that in your own designs?

The obvious—Alexander McQueen. And Hussein Chalayan; all through studying fashion, I thought he was a genius. He has a really amazing way of making a garment fit, but he’s also so conceptual. We have this North American culture of wanting more all the time, we want new trends, we’re so obsessed with shopping. And that wasn’t really the culture when I was [studying] in London. There was Savile Row, you know? People were still getting suits tailored. They have this history of Vivienne Westwood existing in that world, with an extreme punk rock style. She wanted to go against the grain, but was still so obsessed with the structure and the tailoring.

What did you learn from working with Yang Li?

The fit of clothes was so important to him. We spent so long in fittings, trying to make everything perfect. That was really exciting, because I got to see how to achieve a really nice collection using traditional methods of tailoring. I went above and beyond to try to find the people who could help me, including a 70-year-old woman just outside Toronto named Ulla. She spent years working on couture designs for very rich women who only wanted their garments to be hand-sewn. She taught me how to tweak everything to, like, a sixteenth of an inch—the small, minor details that make something so much much better. It fits better, it looks better, it hangs better.

How did you move from that intensely detailed tailoring to the stretch mesh pieces of your current collection?

It wasn’t intentional! I did a sheer dress one season, which I thought was a nice contrast to the tailored pieces. I liked how the transparency of the fabric allowed the seams to show so visibly, and I thought, wow, I can really experiment with that. You can create new shapes just by adding seams, and it’s not architectural at all. For me, it’s more about creating texture on the surface, without actually having texture. Texture and detail that you can see, but you can’t touch.

The mesh diffuses light in such an interesting way, too, [there's] this moiré thing happening.

Yeah, it’s very angelic looking. And with the stretch, I could completely form to the body and have full control of the seam placement and what shapes I was creating. I figured out the placement of the seams, which is very precise and takes a lot of trial and error. I did a lot of tests.

How many seams are in that bustier? [Examines a red bustier] I counted 24 panels on the exterior, front and back, including the bust.

And then there’s the lining too!

Based on my count: 48 pieces in this little bustier.

When you put [the cut panels] on the floor, it looks like a puzzle.

You’ve mentioned your background as a figure skater, and I can see some of that referenced in your ruffle mini dress. Do you still skate?

Yes, I was a figure skater as a kid and I picked it up again during COVID. Right now, I’m completely obsessed with anything figure skating. I love the costumes, but I don’t like a lot of rhinestones and dazzle.

Have you worn any of your dresses to skate in?

I made something specifically to skate in for a friend. She’s a musician and we filmed a music video, and I really went all out. [Holds up phone to show a pink mesh skating dress modeled by Bowen, including skates].

You collaborated with Kim Kardashian last year, and you flew out to LA to fit her personally. How long did you have with her?

In the end, we only had half an hour because she was late from something else. I made her three looks, including gloves. They wanted the original mesh bustier dress, which is strapless, and it’s black and white. She wore three versions of Vivienne Westwood for the previous launch of her fragrance. They said, “We really like this dress. Can you make three versions of it for her next launch?” Which is insane, because you’re putting me against Vivienne Westwood, and she’s my idol.

And I read that you made every piece yourself!

Yeah, right here! But then went to LA to fit it on her and I brought this [Points to a domestic overlock machine on the table between us]. I took it in my carry-on because I was afraid of it getting crushed. And thankfully they didn’t notice that there’s a knife on it, so I got it through customs. I set it up in my twin sister’s bedroom—she lives in LA. I kept her up the entire night because I was sewing.

Kim Kardashian aside, who wears Kathryn Bowen, slash, who do you want to see wearing your designs?

I like to dress people, not just women, but people of all ages. It makes me happy when I have 60-plus women wanting to wear my coats, because they really cherish what they buy. I do make a lot of sexy clothes_[Laughs]_. But they’re not your average, fast-fashion sexy clothes.

Naomi Skwarna is based in Toronto, Canada.