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The exuberance of the designs, the glorious color and the rich texture of the materials make it easy to miss the fact that
the real secret of Basia's success lies in her studied approach to form as it relates to a garment's function.
"I try to design clothes that not only look good in themselves, but that flatter the wearer, too," she says. "It's
easy to get carried away with color and pattern for their own sake, but I think a garment has to make the person look good,
otherwise it might just as well be a wall-hanging."
Working from her studio in upstate New York, Basia Kaminski has been doing precisely this for more than twenty years. By
combining a keen awareness of contemporary fashion with a painter's trained eye for the real shape of people, she has created
an unending line of knitted and crocheted sweaters, vests, jackets, cardigans and coats, all distinctive for their color,
style and quality. As much as pattern and texture, it is the technique of using a variety of stitches to provide each garment
with its own integral structure that gives these pieces shape and form, rather than relying on the perfect proportions of
a fashion model to display the piece to its best advantage. It's this built-in shape that makes the wearer look good by emphasizing
what's attractive and minimizing less desirable features.
A SIGNATURE SHAPE
The peplum vest, one of her signature pieces and a shape that she has made repeatedly in many variations over the years, is
a perfect example of the marriage of underlying structure and flattering design. The vest is deceptively simple. Based on
a classic turn-of-the-century design feature, it has won praise from a wider variety of body types than probably any other
garment since the full-length cloak. It achieves its flattering effect not by hiding any less-than-perfect proportions but
by emphasizing what it is that makes people feel good about themselves. The loose, blousy body is knitted in seed stitch
to produce a uniform texture. The waist section is ribbed knitting, that hugs the wearer comfortably almost regardless of
size. Out of this form-defining shape grows the peplum: a gently flaring small skirt, knitted pearl and plain, that practically
guarantees a shapely profile for even the most ample figure.
But structure and shape are not limited to flattery alone: her seaters, jackets and coats can also sport ruffles, cuffs,
collars and capes that transform colorful but otherwise ordinary garments into unexpected fantasies.
A WILLINGNESS TO EXPERIMENT
Born in Europe, Basia came to America at the age of six, her family settling in a tightly-knit Poslish community in Brooklyn,
New York.
"Where I grew up everyone spoke Polish. I was the first to learn English and I was almost thirteen before I discovered
that outside Brooklyn there were real places called 'Main Street' and 'Elm Street', and that these weren't fictional places
in the books I had learned to read since coming to this country."
After attending Pratt Institute, where she studied painting, she began designing her own clothes, which she sold to boutiques
and specialty stores for several years. But when a particular buyer expressed interest about a sweater she had knitted for
herself, she quickly changed her approach and began designing knitwear.
"It's a more forgiving medium," she explains. "It frees you from the tyranny of straight seams and delicate
material. If you make a mistake or change your mind you can always undo it and start again. It's a designer's dream."
Never one to follow instructions, she is loathe even to write down her own patterns. She is an irrepressible knitter, constantly
trying out new stitches, new combinations, new ways to get the effect she wants. Her greatest successes often come from disregarding
traditional approaches and doing things commonly regarded as 'incorrect'.
"They told me you couldn't cut knitting without destroying it," she said recently, referring to a design that consists
of layered epaulettes, each formed from a section of knitting cut lengthwise and then resewn. "But what did I know?
I've had terrible arguments with people who insist that things have to be done a certain way, otherwise it just won't work.
They ignore the fact that most rules are the result of someone having tried something new in the first place."
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