Welcome to the new Kylla Custom Rock Wear blog! In addition to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, I will summarize all of the exciting things we are working on right here on kyllacustomrockwear.com in a bit more detailed prose! 2017 was a very exciting year full of lots of growth for us, trips to some beautiful places, and collaborations with many bands, wrestlers, and festivals!
In January, I flew to Switzerland to fit Eluveitie in their Kylla Custom Rock Wear full band wardrobe! It's great to be able to get some face time with my clients and to tailor things personally rather than go by remote measurements! Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and I had never been in winter!
February brought 70000 Tons of Metal, which not only is my favorite metal festival in the world, but it transcends being just a festival, but rather a week floating in paradise surrounded by friends, clients, and some of the best bands in metal! For several years now we have been creating a custom wardrobe for the lovely pool girls! It's great to see this come together on the team, as well as get the opportunity to interview bands and host events like our much-loved Belly Flop contest!
I also traveled to Las Vegas and Los Angeles in February to do some research for our upcoming manufactured Ready-to-Wear collection. I went to the MAGIC trade show and found lots of great suppliers and manufacturers to talk to, as well as meeting with our denim supplier Pacific Blue Denims, our distressing house Universal Dye House, and Robb Flynn of Killers and Kings and Machine Head - both of whom we create pieces for!
Spring came and with it came WWE Wrestlemania in beautiful Orlando! We created pieces for Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton's match which was one of the main events! It was an honor to be able to do fittings in person and see the incredible show live!
We also traveled to Philadelphia to bring some new stagewear pieces to this year's headliners, thrash legends and my longtime friends, Kreator! They have been wearing Kylla Custom Rock Wear on stage for 5 years now and the original garments are stil hanging in there!
Every May brings Maryland Deathfest, another one of the metal festivals that has been a part of my life every year for a decade now! It has been great to be able to make Kylla Custom Rock Wear a small part of the fest by creating a run of licensed merchandise for the official festival merch booth! The past 3 years we have created a "Maryland Deathvest" design and sewed a run of 10 of them. This year's vest was a leather biker style- one of which is now worn by Mats Leven, singer of MDF headliner Candlemass!
In June, we moved the Kylla Custom Rock Wear studios out of the Dylla Villa into our beautiful new space on West Main in Charlottesville! This was a huge milestone in the growth of the company, and has greatly increased my daily focus as an artist running a small business!
This summer brought us back to Europe for festival season! I decided to try some new festivals that I had never been to, and was lured by the beautiful photos of Slovenia's Soca Valley to MetalDays! The setting was incredible and we fit Death Angel into some new stage gear, as well as saw Kylla clients Firespawn, Chontaraz, and Abbath, and many good friends from 70000 Tons and Sweden! I also visited Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic for even more metal- what a great setting for a festival in an old fortress, and extremely hospitable staff! Our clients Eluveitie, Einherjer, and Mayhem played as well as many friends from all around Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, and back home in the US!
This fall we produced many band wardrobes including full new looks for Arch Enemy, Machine Head, and Pain from Sweden, as well as making some pieces for Alice Cooper's stage show- jeans and vest for guitarist Nita Strauss, and a new nurse costume for Sheryl Cooper! I was able to attend lots of our client's shows around the Mid-Atlantic region including a few WWE dates! We did fittings for the new gear we made Tamina and the Bludgeon Brothers tag team (Erick Rowan and Luke Harper)! We also created a new stage robe for Necrobutcher of Mayhem!
Continuing in exploring new places this year, I ventured Down Under where my dear friend and Kylla Custom Rock Wear supporter and client Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom got married! We had the honor of custom making the flower girl dress! I saw lots of kangaroos, tried Vegemite, met long-lost online friends, got sunburned, and learned HEAPS of Aussie dialect! Australia is the 4th most common place we ship to behind the US, the UK, and Sweden, so only fitting that I finally visit! I also took a mini vacation to New Zealand, went hiking in a rainforest and visited Hobbiton!
It has been an incredible year full of new experiences, new ideas, new clients, and growth- one of which is this blog! I want to thank all of you for your support, and we will be updating monthly instead of in yearly tomes from here on out!
Wishing you a great 2018! - Kim Kylla