XKALINA

Grey Sheep

xkalina.xk

Location

valladolid / mexico

University

udk - universität der künste berlin

Graduation year

2004

Main Manufacturing Countries

mexico

Contact

Kalina Gospodinova, XKALINA is Bulgarian born designer and artist currently living and working in Yucatán, Mexico. She graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany.
Over her 20 year career, she has worked interdisciplinary and in close collaboration with a prestigious lists of artists in music, fashion, performance, film and photography from around the world.
While living in Berlin, Kalina cultivated a personal fascination with leather, upcycling vintage leather garments into ornate costumes and accessories. Through her practice, the artist has developed an intimate familiarity with leather as a textile with many different faces and personalities, experimenting with different techniques for cutting, knotting and dyeing the natural material, allowing her to implement more friendly methods and virtually zero waste.

Latest Collection

Soul Cages

XKALINA honors leather as the most primal of all textiles, the "noble savage" of the natural fibers. Her approach is derived from a spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic crafting techniques, which is the lineage she lean upon to cultivate an unconventional take on contemporary leatherwork.
XKALINA strikes to blur the lines between art, craft and design creating versatile, genderfluid jewelry and adornments that invite the wearer to a playful and creative interplay with the garment.
She believes that leather has its very own spirit, that is not something to just look at and appreciate but a companion to interact and get involved with.