Pins and Needles 2017 winner, Kat Gaume on the hustle.
“The St. Louis fashion community, thus far, has been very kind and welcoming to me. It is really difficult to be noticed and remembered in a creative art based community. The Pins and Needles win has defiantly helped me in my career by getting noticed, connecting me with the right talented people, and overall throwing my name out into the world.”
“When I design with Adara she always comes to me with a vision. She loves anything space related, futuristic, Star Trek inspired, and anything silver. She has distinct taste in her wardrobe and it’s great to discuss ideas with her that we can both get excited about. We sync pretty well as artists. We both hope to expand her brand and stage costumes to be as big, grand, and outstanding as Katy Perry (Adara loves Katy Perry).”
Kat has now claimed all of her prizes as the Grand Prize winner, including her professional photoshoot featuring her winning collection.
After her victory in Pins and Needles 2017, Kat has found herself back in Nashville on the hustle with her new line Pretty Grungy and freelancing work.
“I have started freelancing with a very kind and talented designer Lily Guilder who is a festival wear designer. Quite amazing work!,” Kat said.
Pretty Grungy first debuted the night on the competition, last August in the Lou and Kat now continues to showcase her collection in Nashville. Kat was featured as a local designer at her client’s first launch party, EDM artist Adara, on Sept. 7th at Nashville. The pieces Kat created for Adara were displayed as well as Pretty Grungy pieces.
“We hope to throw more EDM based shows like that annually,” she said.
“The photo shoot with Alan was very invigorating,” she said. “We ended up with a huge team of people that helped everything run smoothly. Alan went up and beyond for this shoot! It was incredible and greatly appreciated. The results so far are what I envisioned. I hope I can work with Alan and the team again sometime in the future! I had a blast.”
Kat is also excited to expand her imagination and creations with her new Brothers sewing machine: “I love my new machine and all the things it can do”, she said. “I cannot wait to incorporate these new possibilities in my future collections.”
Kat will show her Pretty Grungy pieces again at this year’s Notably Nashville on October 9th and will be creating a brand new collection for Nashville’s first silent fashion show SILENCE, hosted by designer rapper 3van 6ray on November 9th.
Photography: Alan Wang