Karen Walker | |
|---|---|
 Walker in 2017 | |
| Born | December 1969 (age 52) New Zealand |
| Education | Epsom Girls' Grammar School |
| Label(s) | Living with Cannibals and Other Adventures, Dough and Dynamite, Liberal and Miserable, Karen in TV Land, Queenie Was a Dog, Victory Garden, Karen to the Rescue, and Young, Willing and Eager. [1] |
Karen Elizabeth Walker CNZM (born December 1969) is a noted New Zealand fashion designer.
Walker was born in December 1969. [2] She grew up in the Auckland suburb of Remuera and attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School. [3] Aged 21, she married Mikhail Gherman. [4]
Walker began her fashion label in 1987, and opened her first store in Newmarket, Auckland, in 1995. [5] She began selling to Barneys New York in 1998, the same year she showed her first runway collection. In late 2011, she signed a partnership with United States-based retail chain Anthropologie. [6]
She has designed clothes worn by Björk, Sienna Miller, Natalie Portman, M.I.A., Alexa Chung, Beth Ditto, Michael Haneke, Liv Tyler, Rihanna, Claire Danes, Zooey Deschanel and Jennifer Lopez. [7] [8] She designed clothes worn by Kate Winslet in the Michel Gondry film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. [8]
In the 2004 New Year Honours, Walker was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the fashion industry. [9] She was promoted to Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to fashion design, in the 2014 New Year Honours. [10] In 2009 Walker received a World Class New Zealand Award [11] in the Creative category.
Walker is also an expert on colour for interiors and has partnered with Resene to produce her own line of paint colours. [12]
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