THE VAULT

So named to give intention to the wealth, within the Vault, of virgin textiles from Mother Earth and the hope to change your perception of second hand ‘trash’. 
On occasion I invite the curious into the inner sanctum of the Vault where I proudly give the visitor a guided tour of the many salvaged textile treasures. 
I purposely guide visitor entry to the Vault via the veil of wooden beads which temporarily disarms their focus as the beads hit their face. This gives me time to situate myself to enjoy seeing the visitors eyes inevitably go out on stalks as they gasp on sighting the vast ‘trash to treasure’ stockpiles within. 


Fashion businesses, before the kimbralou salvaging process, have already taken from the world’s resources to create the ‘virgin’ fashion pieces.
Clearly, there are no supply disruptions here in the Vault. Thrifting fashion items has been my way of life for nearly 40 years.
Twenty years before kimbralou, as a family side hustle enterprise, we operated a Sunday Market stall selling second hand toys and fashion. My skills out on the hustle salvaging combined with the creativity in processing to market, created a quick turnover, made kids cry and fashionistas disappointed when we had a Sunday off. 

Purchase, whether by me in the Salvaging phase or the ‘owner’ buying their kimbralou customised piece, is the biggest key to bringing back discarded virgin textiles into the garment lifecycle. 

I have come to realise I’m an instinct based concept artist. That is, as kimbra, back in late 2017, I found myself accidentally ensnared within the role of Fashion Designer within the namesake brand name of kimbralou.

The best way I can explain it is that when I’m in the zone focused on salvaging, my process is conceptually an idea on top of an idea. I categorically don’t buy unless I have an immediate aesthetic vision of customising layer, on top of layer, on top of layer.

 

The Vault is the engine room of Salvaged Style, Fashion Reinvention and seriously validated kimbralou Eco Chic. 

I hope this fly on the wall episode, filmed by my visitor Music Artist Slicker @slicker_1 , illustrates the value that can be collected by just one person on a mission to illustrate how high end discarded fashion can be. 

#staywoke