KERISMA, Knitwear with a Luxurious Edge
Known as the “third culture kid” Lihui Ke created KERISMA Knits with global sensibility and luxury in mind. The fashion line consists of a variety of knits including sweaters, dresses, pants, and more. Made with high-quality materials yet sold at a lower price point, KERISMA has something for everyone.
The line includes a variety of colors, patterns, textiles, and cuts. Founder Lihui Ke is described as having a unique perspective on knitwear. She was born in a small village outside of Wenzhou China and then moved to the suburbs of Paris before living in Brooklyn, New York. She currently resides in LA. To dive into the brand and the exciting life of Lihui Ke, I asked her a few questions.
Lihui Ke
What led you to LA after living in New York?
I was 27 and ready for a big chance. I loved Architecture but I was drained by the enormous scale and speed of the residential projects. I longed for a more intimate approach to design where knitwear fashion continues to embody for me. Looking back to my mid-twenties in NYC, working as a young architect for various boutique design firms, including 2 years on Gucci's Store planning Design Team, which is what propelled me to leave New York for Los Angeles for these 3 things: First, I was heartbroken by a Frenchman. Second, I was growing more and more disconnected from the wealthy clients' architectural needs at each agency. Third, I wanted to help my parents get out of their demanding "sweatshop" work schedule & environment. Their business was producing garments for NY fashion brands which meant they worked 6 days a week and 10-hour workdays regularly. My mom and my dad’s 5 sisters were all seamstresses. Shortly after Thanksgiving of 2009, I quit my last full-time job in Architecture and packed up my things to drive cross-country to LA with my dad. He and his 3rd sister had offered me a partnership position to start our own fashion line! This felt like my calling and a perfect opportunity to merge my passion for fashion and architectural design.
What is the inspiration behind KERISMA Knits?
I wanted to create an accessible knitwear line for the professional creative woman to build her closet beyond fast fashion. I felt there was a gap in the knitwear market for high-quality designs that would last season. My challenge was to create year-round collections full of unique designs. Over the years, I've shifted to designs for women of all generations; from the daughter to the mother to the chic grandmas. Dressing women to uncover their true charisma has no age limit! As for inspiration, I draw regularly from man-made to nature's architecture and everything in between. Nature is teaming with life and wonderment at every phase of growth and decay. The incredible array of shapes, colors, textures, and movement are a constant source of inspiration. Also, our human imagination, especially coming from local artists, designers and musicians who get to express through their unique medium in their locality. An artist’s work is a direct response to his physical, mental, and spiritual environments. It is all enmeshed through Eme and space. It is the great responsibility and honor of the artist to create from their unique circumstances and express something greater than themselves. I can riff off an interesting shape or pattern, sound or smell... from these myriad sources and often combining them interestingly, I am able to get excited and conjure up new collections that encapsulate what I am moving through in those months of incubation.
How does your brand ensure a high quality while maintaining a lower price point?
In the early years, we worked with various knitting factories all over the Canton region and as far as Hohhot, Inner Mongolia before narrowing it down to 2 women-run factories. We've been consistently working with them to achieve consistency, high-quality construction, and in-house design standards. Although our prices have gone up in recent years, we've maintained that sweet-spot range of $80 to $180, to be affordable without a discount. We are in this business for the long run, 14 years strong, so we believe in our accessibility formula on all ends from quality to price point, to design originality.
What was the process of creating your own fashion line?
Once we settled in LA, we found a space in the wholesale fashion district for our first showroom, which I designed on a tight timeline and budget. We began sourcing for our first knitwear line by attending the Canton Fair that year. Then we signed up for our first trade show at MAGIC Las Vegas. We were learning everything on the job with advice from industry consultants and from my dad’s entrepreneurial friends in the Wenzhou LA community. Step by step, I gathered a tiny sales team, a pre-production and post-production team, and a design team while my father focused on fulfillment and overseas production and logistics. There was no shortage of excitement in those early years! My brother and mom joined 2 years later which changed our setup into a family-owned and operated business. Looking back, I am so thankful that I trusted my intuition and that I took that leap forward. It was scary but it was scarier to stay and keep doing the same thing that I stopped believing in.
As are in Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, can you describe what it means to represent the AAPI community in the fashion world?
It's a huge honor since I have felt disconnected from my Chinese heritage for most of my life. I was plucked from my hometown of Yongjia in Wenzhou China at the age of 7. Since then, I've tried to find my place abroad on 2 continents, Europe and North America in various neighborhoods. We lived in NY for 16 years, mainly in Brooklyn and Queens, before moving to LA (South Pasadena, Downtown, Echo Park). There is a strong Asian community in each of those cities, but I didn't know how to connect with them. I felt I had a strange Chinese/French accent which kept me from fitting in with the other ESL students directly from China and other Asian countries. In my first year of college, I even joined an Asian cultural sorority to try to make more Asian friends. None of those friendships lasted because I uprooted as soon as I settled. It's been a recurrent theme in my life. So, staying put in LA for 14 years and focusing on building one brand has been a huge challenge and a blessing full of life and family lessons and they are inherently intertwined in this case. In the AAPI community, I hope that my international aesthetic, passion for all things design and my longevity and persistence in growing KERISMA steadily and healthily, can inspire others to pursue their dreams and follow their grand intuition. It's led me here and I honestly feel that this is only the beginning! There's so much more I want to experience and co-create. I know that I am not an island, more like a peninsula that craves intimacy and cultural connection. I have so many talented friends and family members who want to share their magic as well. I've never been good at asking for help, but I now understand that help doesn't mean that I am helpless, it means that I am hungry for something bigger than myself and that it is even more fulfilling when it can be become accomplished with the right support and partnerships. So, let's open our hearts and minds and get our creative juices flowing brighter than ever!
You describe yourself as a 'Third Culture Kid', what exactly does that mean to you?
I've been uprooted twice as a child (7 years old from China to France, 12 years old to the US) and once as a young adult (NYC to LA) so adaptability and resilience are necessary survival and growth-thrive skills that I acquired organically over Eme and space. I've assimilated into the local culture each Eme and churned out my own version that works for me. Each city and neighborhood are more diverse than the next, so I kept my positivity and playful lens up to embrace the best of each destination. A third culture kid originates from the enmeshing of a culture of origin with a new local culture in a foreign country...so at this point, I'm a Fifth Culture Kid.
Can you share with the readers of BELLA anything about the Kerisma Knits SS24 collection?
We celebrate the bold & the brave in each of us this Spring season and upcoming sizzlin' Summer'24. SHESHE is here for it all!! It's our most VIBRANT & DYNAMIC Spring/Summer collection to date. I named each pattern and stitch aka "mini collection" as a re-duplication word which was extra-playful. With the success of our 1st multi- colored jacquard pattern, the RUMBA series from SS23, we created 3 new jacquard knit patterns. Namely, the KUKU pattern is inspired by Yayoi Kusama's dynamic dots. The WAWA pattern is a moiré 3D wave inspired by a floor tile pattern and the SHASHA pattern is inspired by lava lamps. The 70's and 80's are two of my favorite fashion and design eras so it was fun to marry these bold shapes with our signature silhouettes while also generating new ones. It felt full circle somehow. The result is a fun mix of standalone and layering pieces that will take you from the office to a gallery opening, from a gal brunch to a dinner date, and even from to the beachfront to the nightclub. To top it off, we shot our SS24 Lookbook Campaign at the expansive Zhorthian Ranch in
Altadena, an artist colony founded by artist/builder Jyrayr ZhorEan on 45 acres of land. He is a Renaissance man who apparently threw the wildest parties of his Eme! If I could travel back in time, I'd love to attend one of them and learn from the great artists in residence.
Where can readers go about purchasing Kerisma Knits?
Please checkout shopkerisma.com to view our knitwear collections online. Additionally, we are carried in specialty boutiques nationwide. For brick and mortar locations, feel free to msg us on IG or email via hello @shopkerisma for local stockists near you by zip code.
Thank you for this opportunity to reflect on my path. Each time I work on a Q&A, I discover more of myself and our creative community. Much gratitude to Team Bella Media.
