Guest Blogger: Simone Janson, Berufebilder
BERLIN – KORHANI home
Fashion promotes home accessories
A truly innovative marketing idea by Kirsten Korhani, Creative Director of KORHANI home, is that she uses design to inspire home decor. In Canada, and now also in her country of birth Germany, she sends the model down the catwalk, while the home decor of the company produces and markets for Retailers – with resounding success.
While others may a find trying to blog about wooly rug images too time consuming, we went a step further. Here’s why: Living in Toronto, Canadian-German designer Kirsten Korhani not only created a new way to advertise KORHANI home products, she created a whole new form of design – and successfully captured her imagination using the catwalk.
At first people just shook their heads at the concept
A creative, almost shy, native of Hamburg, takes the stage after the successful catwalk show last week at the Canadian event in the ITB in Berlin. She shortly comes out, beckons, then disappears behind the scenes.
During our interview, Kirsten mentions that in the beginning, many people shook their head at the idea of rugs being a fashion statement. Just 200 People were at the first show but once they saw the vision, it quickly caught on! KORHANI home opened this year’s World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto with its Deco collection of Moda Mongolia, Glam Punk and Venice Carnivale with great feedback.
From the two-dimensional catalogue to the three-dimensional catwalk
Kirsten has always been interested in fashion. While studying business administration, she was always interested in the industry but she really started her passion after migrating to Canada in 2000.
This passion began after her marriage to KORHANI home President Moji Korhani and joined his rug business with a keen eye to design. The product range has been expanded to home accessories and Kirsten Korhani has taken fancy robes, carpets and other home decor materials, integrating the products of the Company from the two-dimensional catalog to the three-dimensional catwalk.
Indian-style ensembles from carpets
“I want to show that each season can bring fresh air, even with relatively little money, into a home – so how to even do that in fashion [is the question]”, tells the Creative Director. And of course if you look at origins by looking to garments – But exactly that she has created, such as the Indian-style ensemble as seen above, accounts for the charm of the whole concept.
Overall, the reference to Canada in the collection shown on the ITB was more than clear that Kirsten Korhani has been able to leverage her fashion and design experience as a German in Canada.
Canada – Germany compared
Canada, she says, is multi-cultural and it is easy to become one among many. You must prepare yourself for the friendships. “I got married there and that made it much easier.” She went on to describe that Canada is more conservative and family-oriented than Germany.
“People work much more [in Canada] than in Germany, [often] have two or three jobs. Leisure time is a very high priority – and that time is spent with the family preferably, the designer reported on her experiences – before she rushes to the show!
About Simone Janson
Simone Janson is a journalist (including for ZEIT-ONLINE, Süddeutsche and the Financial Times Germany) and an expert on new forms of digital work through the Institute of Communication in Social Media in Berlin. She has been a lecturer at various Universities, wrote more than ten books and foundedBerufebilder.de, the leading German blog on education & new forms of employment in digital.
