January 2012
Audrey Kitching for GLASSbook Magazine Online
Note: This interview was done for a local Toronto magazine. It was the first time I got to talk with Kitching and it is also one of the rare instances I set a story up in Q & A format. I felt her voice was a powerful one and really wanted to highlight her fairy tale life. Also, I ask questions about her pink hair.

Born in Philadelphia and discovered at the age of 14 while getting her hair done, Audrey Kitching, American print model, has exploded on the Internet as a model, blogger, fashion journalist, and fashion designer. Nylon magazine in December 2010 called Kitching “the princess of pop culture website Buzznet” and up in the ranks the social media queen began to rise.

As Kitching started to brand herself online she also made a name for her many do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and unique vintage and thrift store finds. As she developed as a creative director on location while shooting, Kitching’s fans were drawn to her home-spun items and demand led to the creation of three clothing lines: Tokyolux, Coco de Coeur and Lazybones Vintage.

This animal loving, jetsetter is traipsing all over the world to bring her followers something fun and whimsical. GLASSbook scored an exclusive interview with Kitching who tells us she’s making big moves in 2012

Alexa: Can you tell me a little bit about your personal style? The way you mix pop culture and a more vintage, thrifty vibe?

Audrey: Growing up my mom would take us to thrift stores a lot and I grew up doing that. I guess that’s where I get my thrifty vintage inspiration now when I mix some of my pieces, and designer pieces.

My style is just a mix of the things I’m inspired by on a daily basis, anything from Marie Antoinette to punk rock culture to My Little Pony to Barbie to Dolly Parton – anything in or from that era.

Alexa: You really love cats, and furry, fluffy animals. How do you incorporate that into your sense of style?

Audrey: I love pastel colored things that aren’t necessarily real. I also like bunnies and kitties, puppies and deer. So, my love for that is kind of what I do in my clothing line. I’ll take a kitten or a deer or a pony and I’ll make them a pastel colors. I’ll do cat sunglasses and a big headband cause I’m a big cat lover.

[With a little pep in her raspy voice, for which she later apologizes. She’s getting a cold you see, but she’s still absolutely fabulous]

Alexa: Can you tell me about how you went from being a model to being a blogger to being a fashion journalist?

Audrey: Growing up I didn’t necessarily want to be a model or anything but in Philly there was an agency that worked outside of New York and someone came up to me when I was getting my hair done when I was 14.  They had asked me to come by and get some test photos and I thought ‘Sure, why not?’ So, from there I got involved in a modeling course and I went to New York and worked with a bunch of agencies and did newspaper ads and very girl-next-door stuff. I did that for a couple years and then I just kind of grew out of it.

When I graduated high school a lot of my friends were photography students and they always needed a model or someone to fill in. So, I starting doing that and it was kind of like a hobby but then I started getting recognition for it and I started doing paid jobs. Then I started to put the photos online and that’s how the blogging started.

Throughout all of this I would make my own clothing. I would make clothing for the shoots and I would bedazzle stuff and then people wanted to buy it! That’s how it trickled into the designing aspect and it comes down to the things that I personally want to wear that don’t exist or that I haven’t seen. It’s basically the style I want that I can’t get.

Alexa: Are you inspired by work coming out of high-end fashion houses?

Audrey: Totally! I look up to people like Jeremy Scott. I think that what he’s doing by mixing pop culture and throwing it in with something you haven’t seen before or he takes it to a new level where he over-exaggerates it. That’s kind of what I want to do what on a different scale.

Right now we [clothing lines, Tokyolux, Coco de Coeur and Lazybones Vintage] are doing a lot of comfy pullovers and shoes, shirts and vintage style, ripped up t-shirts and from there slowly we are going to go into a little higher end. We’re going to go into knitted sweaters and dresses so that way it’s kind of for everyone. So if you don’t have a lot of money but you want a t-shirt you can afford it or if you want something more intricate more high end you can buy a dress.

Alexa: How long have you been designing and making clothes for?

Audrey: It’s fairly new. My lines have only been out for about a year and a half or two years so I’m still in the branding and growing process. The brand has actually blown up faster than I was expecting. Now I’m at the point where all these retail stores and all these people want to buy high quantities of it and we’re still working on the production angle. So, I had to scale back a little bit this year and not release as much so I can get the wholesale aspect under control.  People don’t realize when you design clothing all the behind the scenes stuff that is going on to be able to produce it – the sampling, the showing, the cut making, the screening, the tagging, the packaging.

Alexa: You’re very hands on in designing your own lines, is there something that drew you to clothing design that you maybe like or enjoy more than modeling? Is this something that you always wanted to do?

Audrey: Yes, the vision aspect was. When companies hire me they don’t just hire me to model, they usually hire me to do the art direction.  I normally pick the location, pick the style, pick the hair and the make-up and the vibe of the shoot. What I do like an art director and that’s normally what I do for 90 per cent of my photo shoots. It is similar to designing the clothing – giving the shoot a vibe and a feeling.

Alexa: Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement in Buzznet?

Audrey: Buzznet was a really small site when they contacted me about six years ago and they found me online. They saw my LiveJournal and liked what I was doing and liked my followers and my fans. Then they had me come out to California so I went out and I met with them and they kind of told me that they wanted to do the site and explained what it was and that they wanted to build it around who I was and what I was doing.

They signed me on board to host the site and direct the content and that was about five years ago. And since then they’ve been building the site around what I’m doing and who I am. That was for about two and a half years and now I’m the style editor of Buzznet, which is really awesome! It’s kind of grown with my career and now it’s a huge media house.

Alexa: Can you talk about the importance of blogging and free speech especially in the face of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)?

Audrey: The reason the Internet is as big as it is, is because it’s this big self-expression. You can be an activist. You can be a designer. You can be a YouTube star. Whatever your passionate about the Internet is like this blank canvas offered for you to show the world. I think the fact that they are trying to censor that is going to create a huge backlash because you are taking away our artistic right and as a person our right to express ourselves.

Alexa: Is there anything fans and our readers can keep an eye out for? Any new projects you’re working on?

Audrey: I have two books coming out this year. One is a personal diary, if you’ve seen the Courtney Love book where it’s all old photos and diary entries. Mine is kind of like that – it’s never before seen personal photos, polaroid’s, film strips and a whole bunch of personal stuff mixed in with high fashion. That will come out hopefully in the spring.
Then, I’m working on an iPad magazine, which is ‘how to live like a fashionista on a budget’, and it’s basically going to give all my followers and readers advice on how to live a high fashion lifestyle but on a very low budget.

Alexa: Was there a big difference going from blogging to creating a book or a magazine?

Audrey: Surprisingly not really because I show the world what I’m passionate about, what I’m doing at a specific moment, what I wore that day, where I am going, what I bought. So, I think it’s more making it into a specific format and compacting all my information from over the years.

Alexa: And my final question: why the pink hair?

Audrey: I remember being 15 years old and at my parents house looking at this website and there was this girl. I don’t even remember who she was but she had this black and pink hair. It was when the Internet first came out and it was on this site called Melodrama, which was before LiveJournal or any of that. I would read her blog was the coolest thing and I just thought – one day I am going to have pink hair. And I did it and now here I am six, seven, eight years later and I still have pink hair.

Follow Audrey on Twitter or Buzznet to keep up to date on all the latest news and views of everything from pop culture to fashion to fantasy and beyond.

 

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