For today’s Women Making History feature, we honor Kelly B. of Princess of the Posse.

Since the launch of their first collection out of NYC in the Spring of 2008, Princess of the Posse has quickly gained worldwide recognition. This fashion forward women’s brand offers limited runs each season, creating designs that swing freely between art, fashion, glamour and street. This Spring season Princess of the Posse returns to the basics, presenting a collection showcasing the simplicity and beauty of black & white.

Here’s what Kelly has to say about the collection:

This collection was inspired by the minimalism of Berlin street fashion & the allure of French royalty. Always reflecting upon their NY state of mind, P.O.P. honors some of their favorite musicians (Santogold and Ghostface Killah) by citing lyrics that inspire the designers. Princess of the Posse continues to bring you the best in quality fabrics and silhouettes with all the printing and cut goods made in NYC.

We have a lot more with Kelly B., after the jump, including a handwritten survey and M.I.S.S. Crew Q&A!

Great inspired statement!

Below you’ll find a short M.I.S.S. Crew Q&A with Kelly to help understand what makes her tick!

1.  What woman, besides your mom or grandmother, do you find inspirational?

While my Mom and Grandma were huge inspirations to me, I have always found Lady Pink to be an inspiration. From the first time I saw the movie “Wild Style” I was totally intrigued by her and wanted to learn more. Lady Pink made a name for herself as one of the only females capable of competing with guys in the graffiti world. Despite all the shit she went thru as a woman, she says “I needed to hold my head up and prove that I could do it for other woman.”

I actually contacted her to ask if I could use a photo of her on a tee. When she wrote me back and said she was down I couldn’t f’n believe it! I was soooo happy!!! But in the end we weren’t able to clear it with the photographer and the famous artist who made the tee she’s wearing, so it didn’t happen. While I was disappointed, I felt good that I didn’t just go ahead and straight take this image of this woman I respect so highly. Plus I know that she actually looked at my art and took the time to get back to me.

Lady Pink is a great artist and has a natural fly sense of personal style… tom boyish, yet super feminie which I love. She was also on the scene of my favorite time periods in NYC that I always wished I was around for… the early 80’s.

Her royal flyness:

2.  How did you get your start?

I knew I wanted to have a clothing line, but was thinking more cut&sew. I had alot of guy friends working at these sneaker/tee boutiques that were popping up in NY and that’s when I thought “Maybe we should start with t shirts.” My homegirl Jenn and I started throwing parties to get our name out and raise $$ to start the line, but it didn’t actually end up happening til years later. Shortly after I had my baby girl and had stopped working, I decided it was time to get serious. By this time I was seeing other women’s streetwear brands popping up and figured it’s now or never! We gathered enough $$ to come out with our first tee, the “Bamboozled” tee and just promoted it heavily on myspace. Following that I took the money made and combines savings to drop our first collection in Spring 2008, which was a collaborative effort between myself and 3 friends. We experimented with different silhouettes than the basic tee and continue to push it further every season.

Before the production of our first “bamboozled” tee we transformed our living room into a printing studio. When Kimani would go to sleep at night my boyfriend and I would stay up printing shirts and bandanas. These were things we started giving out to promote the brand. On weekends he would go to SoHo, set up a table and sell the shirts.!

***This also helped P.O.P. get some recognition on our first tee!!***

3.  What’s your favorite piece that you’ve created?

My fave piece so far is the Locas Oversized tee. The fit is amazing, it features ladies from one of my favorite movies, while also emulating a classic hiphop tshirt. It can be worn loose, or tucked into some high waisteds…Super thin and soft…

4.  If you could design a specific item for someone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would love to design something for Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s!!! I love their music. Her style is her own and she rocks everything from simple to over the top, so I would feel free to design for her with no restrictions. Plus she loves one-pieces and that’s my absolute FAVORITE steez! She is a strong women who doesn’t conform and expresses herself to the fullest… with a little bit of crazy!  If she was to rock P.O.P. I also think I would reach another group of girls who may not know about P.O.P. I don’t want to be pinpointed to just one style, because I am not like that myself. I want to create clothing for all types of fashion forward ladies!!!

5.  What part of the design process is the most challenging and do you dislike the most?

For me the most challenging part is production. After all the involvement of designing a collection, to let go of it into someone elses hands is tough. You have to depend on them to produce your vision, while doing it in a timely fashion. I am lucky to be working with an amazing printer who understands my vision and is willing to try our ideas that he may not have tried before. But still, waiting on and communicating with so many different people is hard. Getting into cut&sew, there is so much more involved. I love fabric shopping, but it is hard to do it with a 2 year old and go to meetings, etc. I’m tending to my daughter while at the same time making big decisions about fabric, etc. This can be really stressful. At the same time I am glad she’s being exposed to so many different things!

Above: The “After Hours” Bodysuit (Fall ’08)

Below: Kelly B. hearts Fafi! Love this picture! So fly!

Above: Kelly & P.O.P. have a lot of amazing supporters!

Below: Kimani and her Mami welcoming 2009…

You can expect a collabo between P.O.P. and Maikhanh of Rebel Dance in 2010 offering amazing men’s and women’s clothing. Check out Rebel Dance here: www.rebeldnce.com

The S/S 09 collection dropping this April, so stay tuned for that! For now, you can now shop directly through the P.O.P. website or stay in touch by clicking here: www.princessoftheposse.com!

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Kelly & P.O.P.! Stay tuned with us throughout the weekend. We’ll be posting some special Women Making History features.

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