Profile: Kingi Carpenter/Peach Berserk

If you’re taking a stroll down Queen Street, chances are you’ll spot the store Peach Berserk.  At 507 Queen Street West, the store is located in the heart of the Fashion District.  Run by the divine Kingi Carpenter, Peach Berserk operates as headquarters for young Warholians and eccentric Fashionistas alike.  I recently got the delightful chance to interview Kingi about Canadian Designers, Music, and of course, Toronto Fashion Week.

How did you come up with the name Peach Berserk?

It’s from a nail polish color that’s in a book that’s my Bible, Sex and The Single girl.

Do you have a main Inspiration behind any of the patterns or clothing that you create?

You know, there’s not one inspiration for anything.  It’s more just what I feel like drawing or collaging at the time.  Just influences from everywhere, like Art Galleries, which I love, Travel, which I love, Fashion, Art, Pop Culture, Girliness, sense of humour.  When I draw a print it’s just because it pops into my mind to do it.  you never know what the root is, necessarily.

Are you going to have any involvement in our Fashion Week?

Well, not alot, because we tend to sort of go by our own path.  We’re doing a dress for the Dare To Wear Love Fashion Show finale, because it’s a fundraiser.  So, we’re working on a hopefully fabulous outfit with original prints that we did for it.  It’s going to be amazing.  We made a print of old women’s faces.  Sort of like Grandmothers. I think that in textiles you always see prints of young women.  Why not old women?  So I think what we’re doing is pretty cool.  (Note: The lovely Kingi then proceeds to offer me a ticket if she has any spares.  This is why I love her.)

Do you think that Toronto will gain as much popularity and reputation as a Mecca like, New York or Paris Fashion Week?

No, I don’t think so.  I just don’t think that it’s run properly.  It seems so corny, our Fashion Week, to me.  It always has to have a sponsor, like you don’t hear Paris Fashion Week with a company name in front of it.  Like “LG Fashion Week?” I went to one Fashion Show last year, I actually didn’t even stay because I was annoyed.  But there were Washing Machines everywhere in the room.  What’s that? Washing Machines?  We (referring to her and her daughter, Digby) went to Greta Constantine’s show, but it wasn’t part of Fashion Week , and it had an Audi Sponsor.  But I thought that it was a good show, so i’m not going to complain about that one.  Digby was getting in all the cars.

So, you think that Greta Constantine was smart to pull out of Fashion Week and show their collection a few days early?

Oh god, I thought that was so cool!  Fashion should be about being different and doing things your own way, and not following the corporate agenda and rules of Fashion Week.  I thought they were brilliant.  And to do it a few days before, they got all the publicity themselves.  The way they were able to pull it off, and get their own sponsors.  Really, it was amazing, and put on so well and so opulent.  Everyone was there, and there was such a crowd that I was impressed out of my mind.  Smart, smart guys.

Do you think that Canada is still, as some would say, “lagging behind” or has “caught up” with the American Music scene?

Well, I don’t think there is such a thing as lagging behind or catching up.  I’ve always been a music person and was really into the whole Punk Rock scene back in the 80s.  I just think that Canada has its own thing, and the States has its thing, so I wouldn’t even think of those as being terms.  Like, we had a great Punk Rock scene.  Americans of course, had theirs, but ours was amazing in its own right.  I really think that we have our own look.  And we have a much more English influence than the Americans do in their music.  English as in Punk Rock, or The Pogues for that kind of Celtic thing.  The Americans have a more isolated world.  They don’t think anything exists outside the States.  Canadians have their own thing; we’re not catching up with anybody.

Do you wear any Canadian Designers?

Oh man.  I’ve never thought of that. Maybe John Fluevog? I Can’t thing of anything else!

Do you have any advice for young and aspiring print makers or designers that plan to start a business?

If you want to start a business, you have to have something unique to what you’re doing, which is so hard today.  You’ve got to have your own edge on the market, which Peach Berserk does.  Be prepared to work really  hard and make no money, basically.  But that’s all going to change!  I know this is really corny advice, but have fun with what you do, because life goes by so fast.  Any job you do, whether it’s Fashion, or any field, if you’re not enjoying your day, what’s the point?  Because you wake up one day and you’re 47.  And do it your own way, because the worst thing you can do is follow the path of someone else.  I think true successes make their life by forging their own path and being different than everyone else.  Don’t think, ‘Oh that’s how that person did it so that’s the route to success.’ Use your own intuition to follow your own thing.