Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/666142
Katie Kime lives in a color dream. In both her West Lake Hills home and her eponymous boutique downtown, the designer surrounds herself with whimsical, rhythmic prints in bright, bold colors, all with a global flair. In between home and work, you'll find her driving around Austin in her cherry-red 1975 Ford Bronco jeep. All in all, she has created a lifestyle brand that's unapologeti- cally celebratory—and one that's all hers. "As an interior designer, I couldn't find fabrics that I liked that much," Kime says. "So I designed my own prints." She has built her home and fashion retail business around these designs, featured on everything from wallpaper, furniture, and stationery to clothing, pillows, and cocktail napkins. Kime's signature collection features eight "classic" prints, such as the Dalmatian-inspired Seeing Spots; Drawn Lines, with wavy, irregular vertical stripes; and the Greek- inspired Ginger Jars, especially popular on notecards. She supple- ments these with new prints each spring and fall as well as a resort clothing line. For Austin Fashion Week in mid-April, she created one-of-a-kind pieces with handmade rosettes and intricate hand-embroidery. The North Carolina native and Duke University graduate lived in Atlanta before coming to Austin. Her Southeastern sensibility comes through in her prints—"My dad wore seersucker suits all the time," she says—and the pineapples and lemons on her pillows and full skirts are undoubt- edly rooted in that prep aesthetic, but there's a bohemian edge to it all. "My aesthetic—it's not Lilly Pulitzer," she says with a laugh. "Through my patterns I wanted to appeal to a wide clientele." Kime launched her retail website in 2013, and over the next two years, she expanded her line from furniture and textiles to include all manner of décor accessories as well as clothing. It was all a lead-up to last fall, when she opened Katie Kime on Lamar Boulevard and Fifth Street, a prime location to show- case her print and design options and offer gifts and accessories; a small section is also devoted to finds like artisan rugs and pillows from her frequent travels around the world. Kime also got married last year and settled into a spacious manse in West Lake Hills with her hus- band and three children, now aged 10, 8, and 5. îî PRINTS charming With her namesake retail store, atie ime has made her signature prints a must-have for interiors across toWn. by KATHy bLACKWELL AUSTINWAY.com 129 women of power