Melbourne fashion label Kosi Kosi is the collaborative effort by Kane Barri and Kyle Mac. The two young fashion designers have just released a youthful label that includes the staple wardrobe clothing items.

Australian Fashion Review caught with the pair for another exclusive ‘interNETview’.

Q1) Who are the name/s behind the label? What is/are your backgrounds?

Kosi Kosi is the creation of two young designers; Kane Barri & Kyle Mac. Kane holds a degree in multimedia but is also pretty good with numbers. Kyle is currently finishing the last stage of his graphic design degree, his yet to be any good at anything else. Together we run the entire process from designing right through to delivery of stock to stockists. That way we can ensure its done the way we want it and its also an easy way to keep a constant high standard. Kyle has only just recently joined forces with Kane Barri, Before joining Kyle had been regularly freelancing for streetware label Mooks, and on the side hand printing limited tee’s and distributing through his personal website. We both seem to share the same level of dedication and passion for what we do!

Q2) When and where did the label all begin?

The label is currently based in Bendigo/Melbourne. Firstly the label was established by Kane Barri a few years back, releasing various ranges and stocking throughout Victoria and South Australia. Then after a short hiatus overseas throughout Europe and US in the second half of 2008, KK returned with fresh ideas and joined forces with new label-mate Kyle to reform the new Kosi Kosi. The current spring summer range for 2009 titled ‘We Of The Never Never’ is the very first collection since Kyle has become apart of the label!

Q3) What do you hope to acomplish with your fashion label? What is the dream!?

As a label we aim to produce high quality clothing that looks great and is something that people are proud to wear. We want to take our label back to the roots of fashion. Back to the times where the owners still produce and run their label. We strive to do as much of the process as possible, keeping our touch at all times! We also hope to increase in our stockists, to help build our label for the future.

On a ‘where will we dream to be in five years time’ approach, we would confidently say Paris fashion week sipping on some over-priced alcohol and eating some disgusting, yet expensive form of seafood. Not really, I think we like the idea of working out of a warehouse in New York with an exciting team of designers producing full ranges for a range of labels that we had created. Ah and eating pizza.

Q4) If you could pick someone famous that best represents your labels style, who would it be? Alternatively, what famous person would you want wearing your label?
It’d would be great to see Karl Lagerfeld own our gear. He has produced some of the most ground breaking designs over the past few decades and is still continuing to do so, If he were to wear our label we’d have no problems with that at all! Maybe we’d need to add a few rings and jewelery to an upcoming range to spark some interest! But on a local level, the forces behind local labels such as Trimapee, Claude Maus and Bassike, To see the designers behind these labels wear our gear would be just as cool. These are young fresh designers who work hard and strive to get to that next level constantly.

Q5) Who are your favorite fashion designers and what inspires you?

Jonothan Zawada from sydney. I guess you would say he’s more of a graphic designer than a fashion designer but he does do a lot of fashion graphics! On a more of a fashion level its easy to say the guys from Trimapee, as mention above! We are both massive fans of this Melbourne label. We also take inspiration from things we have experienced in our lives, whether it be childhood memories, situations we have overcome or just our everyday lives.

Q6) Complete the following sentence: You should buy our fashion label because…..

You should buy our fashion label because it will feel real nice on that lovely skin of yours!

Check out other recent fashion profiles