We have had quite a busy season here at Kylla Custom Rock Wear, so I will post about some of the highlights of the last 6 months! Fall was great because one of my all-time favorite bands, Judas Priest, was on tour in the US, and not only did I get to attend many of their gigs, but I helped repair some of the stage wardrobe on site, and made a new set of leather for Andy Sneap, who is shredding in Glenn Tipton's absence. The JP crew and band are great people, and it was an honor to spend time around them- and work on their legendary wardrobe made by Ray Brown, who is a huge inspiration for my work!
This winter, I traveled to Bergen, Norway, to meet with legendary band Enslaved about the new stage wardrobe we are designing and making for them! Norway is beautiful and one of my favorite countries, and also home some of the best metal bands in the world! I did an in-person fitting, and got to know the guys and their design preferences for the new look! When working with clients around the globe, it's always a treat when I get to do things "in 3D" rather than just sending emails! We will be delivering the wardrobe to Decibel Metal and Beer festival in Philadelphia in a few weeks, and doing the final fitting then! Very excited to see it all come together!
January is a bleak month for many, but for us, every year it brings 70000 Tons of Metal which is my favorite week of the year! 70000 Tons is the world's largest heavy metal cruise- 60 bands play on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, and this year our destination was the gorgeous Labadee, Haiti! Each year we design and fabricate a custom wardrobe for the 70000 Tons of Metal Pool Girls team. The pool girls are Metal Ambassadors who greet cruisers with programs, hand out sunscreen to pale metalheads in the tropical UV rays, interview bands, and act as the face of our brand! This year we made custom bikinis, skirts, leggings, and tops for each of the 12 team members, and luckily, I got to bring along my awesome assistant Loryn to help with all the sewing! I also take part in interviewing bands for 70000tons.tv - the onboard tv station, as well as our YouTube channel and website! My metal comedy character was an elitist Scandinavian metal fan, who asked "wrong questions" ala Ali G on the "True Metal Report"- coming soon to YouTube! I always have an amazing time onboard, and it's an honor to work with this festival!
We just completed a full band wardrobe for legendary UK metal band Cradle of Filth, and I flew out to LA to deliver the wardrobe and do an in-person fitting. We created several outfits per bandmember- both to wear on stage and to wear at the Meet and Greets, so it was a lot to ship overseas. I was able to set up the sewing station on the tour bus, and ride to Vegas, where I caught the first gig of the tour live! They are great people, and it was killer to see our hard work come together on stage!
We have been back in the studio for a while now, working on lots of exciting projects- as always- WWE has been keeping us sewing nonstop- and looking forward to seeing our pieces at the biggest show of them all in a few weeks- Wrestlemania! Here are some pics of some new gear we made for Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose aka Fire and Desire! I loved the gold accents we put on these!
The biggest news in the Kylla Custom Rock Wear world is that our plans for the manufactured Ready-to-Wear collection have finally been funded, thanks to help from the Central Virginia SBDC and the VSBFA! I have had a dream for years to have a collection manufactured, so that we have things that people can buy off-the-rack in addition to our Custom Line, which obviously takes time to create. We will be starting with 5 of our most popular leather and denim designs- jackets, vests, and jeans. Partnering with me on this endeavor is Alt-Fashion mogul Allister of Verillas and Ayyawear! We have been designing samples for his brand, and then he is going to have our collection manufactured! The samples came back from the factory and look killer- they are now being graded in a range of sizes, and hopefully we will have everything live online for purchase by this summer!