Woman of Color Blog

Kezia Frederick creates lush colourful prints through silk screening. Read on to find out more about her and where she gets her inspiration.

Who are you in two sentences or less? I am a Fashion Print designer living in London. I create textiles using silk screening and also design and make clothing.

Tell me a bit about your background: Where are you from? What was it like growing up there? I am originally from Ipswich which is a little town in East Anglia. It was a very nice place to grow up, I would spend the most of my childhood playing in a little tree house with my friends in the backgarden. It was alot of fun! Ipswich has quite alot of nationalities (compared to other town/cities nearby) which I think is important to grow up around.

Do you think your background has influenced your work? If yes, how so. Defintely! I think my work reflects the journey I have gone on, exploring my two heritages. I am half English, half St.Lucian so it was a very natural direction for my work to go in, this idea of mixing different cultures and creating something new.

Tell me a bit about what inspires your work? I find that I am very inspired on my way to work! I take the bus down Kingsland road in London and seeing such a unison of different culutres all on one road, I am so inspired by it. It’s real, it’s relatable to me that’s very important. Film and photography inspire my work – but also it needs to have a sense of ‘realness’ to it, and not something that has been photoshopped or glamorised. I took alot of reference from the French film ‘La Haine’ which I think is one of the most beautiful representation of ‘Youth Culture’.

What are the main themes/ ideas behind your work? To capture something that is truely me, wherever I may be as a person at the time.

Do you seek to convey a particular message with each piece? I just want to portray something truthful and honest.

If you could be doing anything else other than textile design, what would that be and why? It would probably be doing something to do with music. My Dad is a musician so I get that side from him! But I took my mothers route in the end and got into fashion like her!

Any favourite artists/designers? How have they influenced you? I really love Suno, they mix prints beautifully! Comme Des Garcons is so inspiring, constantly pushing boundaries with no limits! Junya Watanabe has to be one of my favourites, I love how ‘streetwear’ references are always apart of his work, yet still creats something new, and pieces that are wearable. Wearable fashion is very important to me, I always want to know that people will be able to wear my clothing.

What’s your vision for where you’d like your work to be in 5, 10 and 20 years? In the next few years I would like to have my own line of printed bags and shirts. Hopefully in the future it can then evolve into other printed pieces. I dont want to ever loose the sense of who I am in my work. I want to stay true to my aesthetic and show something different to what is constantly being fed to you in alot of the mainstream fashion magazines.

Where can we see more of your work? You can see more of my work on my tumblr http://keziafrederick.tumblr.com/

Parting Words/Thoughts? In the future I just want to carry on and just do things that make me happy, whether big or small that is irrelvant, but happiness is not.