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Italian Fashion Designer Pamela Quinzi |
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Pamela Quinzi, a fashion designer originally from Rome, Italy, via Milan
and who now makes her home in New York City, is considered to be one of
the rising young stars on the international fashion scene. Her
collection of couture shoes, Kilame is popping up in boutiques in
Beverly Hills and in New York City and since there are no two shoes
exactly alike you can also contact Pamela Quinzi directly through her
website and follow her on the official Kilame Facebook page. Pamela
Quinzi also has an accessories collection, but her main focus right now
is Kilame. In the past she has collaborated with some of the world’s
leading designers and fashion houses to design dresses, handbags and
other accessories and she still does create new designs for dresses,
jewelry and accessories. Kilame however is her baby and she works
feverishly day and night to grow the international presence of her brand
(the shoes) and it has earned her the nickname Cinderella of New York.
During our recent conversation Quinzi was in the southern part of Italy
on the coast of the Adriatic Sea for a month where she works closely
with manufacturers, creating new styles and in May she will be heading
back to Los Angeles for the second time in 2017.
“I had been before to LA for traveling and for checking out everything,
but this was the first time for the collection to be in LA and a whole
new world opened up to me.
I will be in New York and then in Los Angeles for a month in May. I will
be with the showroom (in Los Angeles) that is representing the shoes for
all of the celebrities. We had a connection with the Oscars through
Blanca Blanco the actress. We are (making connections) every day in
photoshoots and we have other possibilities. For Kilame shoes right now
it is really important to get into the celebrity world and that is what
I am focused on. Then I will come back to Italy, before heading back to
New York to get ready for September when we will be in New York Fashion
Week, then back to LA again. There is a lot of traveling.
Pamela Quinzi’s interest in fashion began as a very young child.
She recalls, “I started doing my first sketches and small dresses and a
mini collection when I was really young around five years old or six. I
also (still) have the sketches. I was very, very little. My first
designs were dresses and shoes. My
mom collected all the designs and she put them together a few years ago.
It was really funny, because we were going to elementary school and I
was already designing and imagining that I was in a fashion company (she
laughs). I don’t know why.
I have to say something really funny, because at that time in Italy, we
already had The Bold and the
Beautiful and it is about these two families who are in fashion and
we were watching this TV show when I was little. A month ago I met one
of the actresses. I told her that I know her, because the TV show is
very famous in Italy. We talked very fast on the red carpet. That was
funny, because when we were young we were really watching that. It was
probably the first thing that I watched when they were talking about
fashion.
Then you have to choose what you want to do before you go to university
and I chose to go to a professional school for fashion (same age as what
North Americans would be in high school). It was for five years. When I
graduated I was nineteen. I graduated as a fashion designer and as a
technician. Then I had to choose the university and I moved from Rome to
Milan and I went to Marangoni, which is a university for fashion. My
life has always been fashion and I was focused on the fashion business.”
During her last year at university, Pamela Quinzi focused her studies on
accessories and she says “I loved the shoes already.”
For the first three years at
university her fashion industry education was more general in scope as
she was introduced to collections, women’s clothing and lines.
In Italy Pamela Quinzi also had the opportunity to work with brands such
as Sorelle Fontana, Gattinoni, Sarli (all three as an intern) and she
later designed the women’s collections of evening dresses and
accessories, including handbags, shoes and jewelry for Nijole.
“The
school that I went to is really important in Italy and Europe and
through them I had interviews with big companies. For two years I worked
as a personal assistant of the designer Rosanna Buriassi and she was
working directly with Armani Privé, Dolce e Gabbana, Fiona Swarvoski and
Valentino. I was her assistant when I was twenty-three and I was into
these big brands through her and I worked with them directly. It was a
really good experience. We went to Paris Fashion Week for Armani. I
learned so much with her. Afterwards I went to work with Fiorucci and
Fiorucci was really famous in the world. Milan is where the headquarters
is for Fiorucci. I was the manager and fashion designer for the
accessories, shoes, handbags and all of the jewelry and watches,” she
says.
In addition, just prior to moving to America, Pamela Quinzi developed
the woman’s shoe collection for Paola Ferrari, in collaboration with the
Massimo Bonini Showroom. This was for their autumn and winter 2008-09
collection.
So, why leave what appears to have been a very successful career in
Italy?
“I was living in Milan and I was working for this company called Nijole
and then in 2009 in Italy the recession arrived. We had a lot of
problems with money and companies were closing. The company that I was
working for had to close down a lot of collections. So I was oh my god
what should I do now? Should I stay in Milan and look for work as a
designer with another company. I was very stressed and I decided to just
have a trip. I went to Canada, before New York. I have been to Canada
many times, because my cousins and uncles live in Montreal. I went there
many times in past years and then in 2009 I said I am going to have a
trip and go to Montreal and just to have some relaxing time after a very
tough year. Then I thought I will go to New York. I went from Rome to
Montreal and I planned to stay for two months in Canada. I had only been
to New York once when I was eighteen. I thought maybe I should go to New
York for just a week. I stayed in New York for a few days walking around
and checking the city windows and everything. That is when everything
changed. I went for a vacation, but I felt so much energy and the city
was so amazing. It was so different from when I went there when I was
eighteen. When I went in 2009 I was twenty-seven. I thought why not try
to apply for designing jobs in New York. I spent the rest of the week
sending resumes out in New York.
I stayed in New York for a week and they (companies) immediately started
to call me for interviews. I was supposed to go back to Montreal and
then go back to Italy, but they called me, so I stayed in New York and I
started to do interviews. I went to Montreal again and then back to New
York. For a few months I traveled back and forth between Montreal and
New York. After doing some interviews and getting in touch with fashion
companies in New York for positions then it was the time to come back to
Italy. I went to Milan and I closed my apartment, then I went back to
Rome and told my family, I am just going to try really hard to go back
to New York and stay there. In September I went
I started working with this company as a designer for handbags and they
sponsored my visa. I applied for an artist visa with this company. We
worked together for three years. During 2010 for fun I started to
embroider some shoes. I was working in the garment district in New York
and during lunch time I went into shops and bought some (things for)
embroidery and I would come back home and just for fun I would embroider
a few shoes.
One night I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Nikki Beach and
this girl from St Louis stopped me and she said I love your shoes. Where
did you get them? She had just been nominated as Miss Missouri. She had
a clothing line and she really like the shoes. She asked me if I had
more. After I connected with her she asked me if I wanted to be a part
of one fashion show that she was putting together in New York. I said
why not? For one month I worked on styling some shoes and dresses. In
April of 2010 we did this fashion show just for fun and invited some
friends. At that fashion show some stylists were there and they liked
the pieces and they started to contact me. They wanted to know if they
could have them for photo shoots. A few other venues in New York heard
about the fashion show and they asked me if I wanted to do (more)
fashion shows. That is how everything started.
After the 2010 New York Fashion Week show in which some of Pamela
Quinzi’s shoe designs appeared she was contacted by someone who had
attended the show.
Quinzi talks about what happened next, “She said Pamela we had a big
fashion show at the Plaza Hotel and the main actor from Sex and the City
2, (which was just being released)
is hosting the night and the designer needs shoes for the fashion show.
That is how I was put into the first New York Fashion Week. It was
amazing. We had this fashion show and a lot of interviews and pictures.
I saw that things were changing and I was contacted by many people
interested in doing collaborations. I did that for another two years
until 2012. At the same time I was still working for the handbags
company. It was pretty intense, because I was working all day for the
handbags company and then going back home and making my shoes and that
is why they call me Cinderella of New York. They knew that I was working
at night, doing everything at my daily job and then (at night) I was
working on these shoes like crazy. I was doing so many fashion shows and
events. After doing events and fashion shows people were starting to say
to me that they wanted to buy my shoes. I just wanted to work for myself
and I could see there was a lot of potential. I opened Kilame in 2012.”
As for the typical woman who buys Kilame shoes, Pamela Quinzi describes
her this way, “She is a woman who for
sure has a strong personality and she knows what she wants. She is sexy
and beautiful. Kilame shoes are very particular and very strong, so you
need to have (the type of) personality that you are not afraid and that
you do not want to hide. When you wear Kilame everybody will see you and
you are going to stand out. The shoes are full of colors and crystals,
so everybody will see you.”
Ladies if you want to be seen and you want to stand out in a crowd in a
good way then hop on over to
Pamela Quinzi’s website where you can contact her
about your next pair of shoes.
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Right
now this whole new opportunity in Los Angeles is important to me. Things
in Los Angeles have been happening really fast and I am really happy how
people have been reacting to the collection the past month. During my
time here in Italy I am focusing on what happened (on my last trip) to
LA,” she says. 
back
to New York again and the day after I arrived I found a company that
hired me and the whole adventure began. That happened in 2009.