That distinctive style

THERE is no denying that K2K’s style is distinctive. That style has strutted itself across many Savannah stages. The K2K Alliance and Partners has won many band of the year titles because of its unique style.

It is now going to extend that style to a new clothing line called Normi & Normi Inc. It has also been described as K2K’s sister company and its focus “as being almost identical to K2K’s, i.e., she is committed to producing artfully crafted garments for her clients. However, her core difference is that she will provide effortless yet glamourous wardrobe statements for women,” a release said. The sisters used the female pronoun her to refer to Normi & Normi.

The line will be launched online while K2K’s 2020 Carnival collection will be launched on August 30 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann's. The theme of its 2020 collection is The Greatest Show.

Normi & Normi’s genesis also grew out of the sisters wanting to provide escape. “Normi & Normi Inc was created from the need to carve out a sense of escape – escape from the mundane; escape to a magical experience, escape to a sort of paradise marked by a sort of Trinbago-ness: sea breeze, coconut trees, and waves crashing on the shore, with the garments and campaigns behind NORMI, designed to transport you to that magical place,” the release said.

But it also morphed out of the iconic style of the past and the women who embodied that style. In the release K2K’s founders, sisters Karen and Kathy Norman were quoted as saying Normi speaks to women they admire such as their mother, Althea Norman; creative industry stalwart, Greta Taylor and the late Ethiopian/American designer Amsale Aberra.

“These are real-life-gloriously-beautiful women who are poised, elegant, articulate, classic and humble,” the sisters added.

They said they also remembered looking at TTT when they were younger and seeing television presenters like Josanne Leonard and the late Allyson Hennessy who were “so articulate and poised.”

For the Normans, women like Leonard and Hennessy “inspired a generation of girls to be confident in their skin, to express their points with respect, but with eloquence.”

Normi, for them, is “a reflection of all of these women, sophisticated, timeless, articulate, refined, and confident.”

The brand, they added, was “created to make all brands of women feel like she owns those qualities – sophistication; timeless elegance; power without foregoing femininity.”

Normi also “captures romanticism,” the sisters said. Capturing the romantic feeling one got when looking at the stars of old Hollywood like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn.

"It inspired you to wonder about the oh-la-la that comes from stolen kisses and love stories. With that said, the garments in this capsule each have an air of romanticism,” the sisters said.

In its first capsule there are only gowns and kaftan gowns but, the sisters said in e-mailed responses to Newsday, that the portfolio of work is intended to grow year-on-year.

And although K2K and NORMI are sisters, they said, they are completely separate entities, with their own focus, branding and identity.

K2K’s main focus will remain costume design, with her website remaining k2k-carnival.com while Normi will reflect more lifestyle choices, with her website being normi-normi.com, the Normans said.

“She will initially focus on luxury resort-wear for women, with a vision of branching out into home goods, books, and other items that encapsulate the theme of ‘escape’,” they added.

Another branch of Normi, they said, will be coming soon called NORMI privé. This branch “will house one-off more avant-garde designs for formal occasions,” they said.

The capsule is currently available online at normi-normi.com.

Photographer: Gary Jordan

Hairstylist: Kerry Mohammed, KÓR Salon & Spa

MUA: Analese Redman

Model: Tanisha Lalla