Norma Kamali on her first and last job in fashion

This story is part of ‘My First Job in Fashion’, interviews with fashion insiders on the roles that made them who they are today.

London is why I started my own company in the first place. I wanted to be an artist and I was into anatomy, Michelangelo… that kind of drawing. But my mother said, “I am not paying for any of this. Figure out what job you’re going to get.” So I took fashion illustration at FIT in New York, and after graduating, I got a job at an airline company because I wanted to travel. I wasn’t a stewardess, I was working in an office. But this was the early ’60s, which meant that because of my job I could travel to London every weekend for just $29 — round trip. And that’s how I got into fashion.

London was everything in the ’60s. Something new that you never saw before was happening every single day. For instance, nobody prior to that time in the history of fashion wore skirts above their knees. We were wearing garter belts, girdles... not wearing stockings and the garter belt was a big change. That’s when tights became part of the fashion language. Everything was a first. And the music...

Norma Kamali at 18 years old, around the time she started travelling to London. Photo courtesy of Norma Kamali

Here’s an example of fate putting you where you should be: there was a girl at the airline who said, “When you go to London, you can stay at a boarding house on Sloane Street for $6.” I did, and I remember walking down King’s Road and at the time everything was grey — the sky, the buildings and the way people dressed. All of a sudden, I see this door — it’s got a kind of canvas cover and it’s painted with lots of colours. I was like, “What the hell?” And this sound was coming from it — it turned out it was The Beatles. This was really early and I felt the hair on my arms go up, and I went in like a moth to the flame. I was mesmerised. It was a shop called Dandies, and it was owned — I found out later — by the Stones. There was a big motorcycle inside, and the clothes were like, whoa! I’d never seen anything like them before.

I spent every weekend in London, and it was very much like I lived there full time — I was immersed. I would bring the clothes I found in London back to New York for my friends. So then, in 1967, I decided to open a shop. I found a little basement in a sort of townhouse in New York, I painted the floors, added snakeskin wallpaper and furniture from the Salvation Army, and started putting the clothes in there that I was buying in London.

Norma Kamali in her first store at 229 East 53rd Street in New York. Photo courtesy of Norma Kamali

I was selling vintage clothes, too. A friend of mine would bring me big bags of vintage dresses and things, and I would wash and sell them. By the way, I can now wash any fabric — from my experience of cleaning and washing vintage. Then, I started to make some things myself, like hand stitching, whip stitching... The first thing I ever made was a suede skirt, and I remember how great it felt to make the skirt and get it to fit properly. I didn’t know how to put a zipper in anything. I used to go dancing with a seam ripper and just sew myself into my trousers, because I didn’t know how to put a zipper in. After I did that, I realised there were lots of things I needed to learn how to do.

I remember probably about 20 years ago, I was walking down the street on a very sunny day and I saw this girl, a young girl in her 20s, wearing this amazing skirt. And I kept looking at her, walking towards me, and it was the skirt. It was that skirt. It was obviously so much later — probably about 20 years after I made it, more than 40 years now. So she either bought it in a vintage store or her mother had it or whatever. She wore it with a T-shirt, and she had blonde hair and it looked so amazing on her. I knew that skirt was mine — it’s been embedded in my brain.

Norma Kamali adjusts a look on model Lorrane at her Madison Ave boutique. Photo by Lynn Karlin/Getty Images

WWD/Getty Images

For some reason, especially at the beginning, I had a tonne of musicians, male and female, as customers. That allowed me to pick up the vibe of whatever was going on in that scene at the time. It’s something that’s been carried forward in the brand to this day. I never gave away free clothes, people just bought them and I think it was word of mouth that grew my brand and my little basement store.

A little later, I opened a second-floor store in the same building. An editor from Harper’s Bazaar happened to live in the neighbourhood and would pass my shop every day. She ended up giving me a full page in the magazine. So within the first six months I was in business, I had a full page in Harper’s Bazaar and in Vogue. I mean, that’s outrageous, right? I thought they’re gonna find me out; that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, that I didn’t know how to put a zipper in still. But it was encouraging to get the recognition. Press is a major source of support for young designers. For me, I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay in business another day, if I would be able to pay my rent. And here I was getting full pages in fashion magazines.

Norma Kamali at her Spring/Summer 1997 Ready To Wear advance and boutique presentation. Photo: Thomas Iannaccone/Penske Media/Getty Images

Penske Media/Getty Images

The fashion industry has always been unpredictable; but in reality, it never changes. The fashion press, the fashion stores, the fashion designers; we’re all connected to each other. If one of us falls, it’s a domino. Staying in business in this industry is really hard. And if somebody is funding you, you basically have to do what they want. I wanted to live a creative life. I never wanted to be the most famous, or the richest. My company has always been 100 per cent mine, and I’ve kept it for 58 years. There have been countless times where I almost lost it — the latest examples have been Covid and now the tariffs. I think my New Yorker attitude has helped, as we are all about survival. I’ve also been lucky and open to opportunities.

I don’t see retirement as a comfort zone. I never think, “Oh, some day I’m going to retire and have a garden.” If I wanted a garden, I would have one now. I like learning new things and feeling stimulated. And I think for women especially, keeping the work pattern in your life is key. I don’t have children, I know nothing about being a mother, but I’ve had generations of women work for my company. Some got pregnant while working for me and now I know their grandchildren. I’ve seen the arc of their lives and how important it is to have something that gives you purpose, once your children are grown. I really do think longevity has so much to do with learning. Perhaps what you are doing now will evolve into something else, and it’s always going to be harder for women — for the roles to change it will take years — but it’s important to keep growing.

Norma Kamali. Photo: Mark O'Flaherty, courtesy of Norma Kamali

This is why I started experimenting with AI. The business is doing well — we have a following that surprises me. I also have a great team of people who could actually carry the business forward if they have the product. So I had this thought that we should build a custom AI programme and train it to design patterns according to the archive, which is the heart of the company.

I’ve always had an interest in technology. I was very into augmented and virtual reality, and the idea of exploring parallel universes — things like that. So when the idea of AI became available to me, having conversations with people about the things that could be done, I thought: “Oh, this is what I should do with my archive, which I’m constantly updating and tagging and filing.” And as fate would have it, when I needed a programme like this, nobody was doing it. But I went to this conference and Cyril Foiret, the founder of Maison Meta, was speaking. He had just started his company. And I thought, “Oh my God, that’s the guy who can build this programme for me!” And I stalked him and he was very excited to do it.

Image from the NKxAI campaign, which explores generative AI using the NK custom AI archive to design multiple creations from the iconic Stud Collection, prompted by Norma Kamali.

For example, all the grey terry cloth stuff I made in the ’80s; I keep getting people asking me to redo it. But I’m currently trying to remember how to make the same styles, because we don’t have all the patterns. Luckily, I still have some people in the company who were with me during that time who also remember. So we started working on a new line using prompts based on the original styles. The pieces are starting to come together and they look awesome. They’re not going to be exactly the same as in the ’80s. The fabric and some other parts will be different; in some ways better.

I liken it to when Karl Lagerfeld was brought on at Chanel to bring the brand forward and perpetuate it. Of all the designers who were brought into a brand, he by far has done the best job. And to do that, he went into the archive and brought it to life as if Chanel did it herself. I’m not going to find a Lagerfeld; the chances of that are very small. But if we can train AI to do it… The whole idea is to keep the brand as pure as possible.

Scroll down for more photos from the Norma Kamali archive:

Norma Kamali Autumn/Winter 1983 campaign image by Justin Pitman. Courtesy of Norma Kamali

Spring 1989 Coney Island Lookbook, image courtesy of Norma Kamali

Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

More from this series:

How Rick Owens met Michèle Lamy

How Edward Buchanan became Bottega Veneta’s first-ever design director

Remo Ruffini on the 20-year apprenticeship that led him to Moncler