Designer You Should Know: Kal Williams of VII Collection and CB Vior

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!
Today I wanted to bend your ear to a designer you must know: Kal Williams, the designer of VII Menswear Collection and co-Designer of Cynthia Bailey’s CB Vior handbags.

The serial entrepreneur grew up on the East Coast between Providence, Rhode Island and New York City before moving to Atlanta for Junior high school.

He says,”My background growing up as a first generation hip hop kid in New York, I watched fashion take off as a big cultural influence after working in the Entertainment Industry. It has armed me with a deep sense of understanding the background story of the 80’s & 90’s era to now, so I feel blessed to have been apart of that to give me a great foundation of understanding of fashion and street trends from all aspects.”

He continues, “I’ve always had a passion for fashion since I was young, my mom & dad owned a clothing store called “Freaky Fashions” so I was kinda involved as a kid helping out when my mom would go purchase inventory for the store. Being a breakdancer back in the day you had to be fresh so I always felt like I had good taste for putting things together visually and knew one day I would get my chance to design my own brands.”

His idea for the CB Vior line came about when Cynthia expressed a desire to create smaller bags at affordable prices. He says, “I came up with the name CB VIOR which means Vision & Interpretation. The CB are Cynthia’s initial’s.”

He adds, “My design philosophy is to about quality & function combined. Often nowadays we see nice designs that are poorly made so they don’t last long for the customer, this is not what I ever want for any of my design work. Our target audience is broad due to the appeal of the collection so that ranges from 18-50 yr olds, half women half men. Todays consumer lead’s a very active on the go lifestyle so our products help them to travel hands free while being stylish in either a messenger bag, fanny pack or mini backpack.”

In conclusion, he says, “We are currently offering a limited edition CB VIOR sportswear sweat shirt, so looks like we are moving into apparel selectively. You can stay updated with the brand on IG @CBVIOR or sign up for our email list for special offerings on our website at www.cbvior.com.”

For the fellas, also be sure to check out his VII Collection collection at VIICollection.com.