Gutsy Endeavour: The Designs of Kalina Hornsby Take the Stage

She can shred. She can sew. She’s from Hawaii but calls Whistler home. If anyone can do it, Kalina Hornsby can.

A longtime Whistler local and pro-snowboarder, Hornsby lives for the call of the wild; for both first chair and last call. Committing the last decade to enriching her life through mountain living, she has finally put her passion for fashion and her flair for the extraordinary into play. After realizing her talent for dreaming up beautiful and wearable attire, Hornsby studied fashion design in order to capably produce her visions. She flourished in her chosen field but found it hard to launch a personal line in Whistler, predominantly due to the small number of clothing outlets in the town and the err towards functional as opposed to fantastical.

Every year the TELUS festival holds a competition for up and coming designers in the Sea to Sky to promote and encourage new designers to follow their dreams and create the designs they’ve been sketching for years. Designer Search and Expose provides a launching pad for otherwise unrecognized talent to strut the world-recognized catwalk at the Schick Fashion Exposed Show, alongside established names such as Orage, Voleurz, Columbia and Sorel. Previous winners of the competition have gone on to promote and sell their line across the globe, and Hornsby hopes to do the same.

With an eye for the mystical and feminine side of mountain-life, Hornsby has taken Gore-tex out of the equation and designed a gorgeous line of clothing to help women realize their own beauty with outfits that evokes whimsy and femininity. Guts and Guile, the ingenious and remarkable label, showcases layers of soft taffeta gracefully acting as a longer ballet skirt: a tutu with a purpose. Paired with a gorgeous silk camisol, highlighted with inserts of lace, and backed with a funky striped sailor-esque pattern, Hornsby has taken the romantic essence of dressing up and matched it with the up-to-the-minute trend of hard vs. soft.

The idea of masculine coupled with feminine has universal appeal, especially for most mountain dwelling women. With a physically demanding day-to-day lifestyle and lack of opportunity to express their womanly ways, the chance to metaphorically float down the Village Stroll in a world of silk, lace and fine taffeta has the equal appeal of a cold beer and a hot tub following a full day on the hill. Hornsby has experienced first hand the repetitiveness of street-style in Whistler and aims to create an opportunity for women to focus on projecting their own personal style by using her pieces in whatever way they find comfortable and appropriate.

Her debut at the Schick Fashion Exposed show last night was a resounding success, as the most applauded line on the catwalk and the hands down winner for the allegorical ‘Best in Show’. Despite moving to Vancouver in order to reach a wider audience with her inventive designs, Hornsby may find that her vision and talent has deeply impacted and impressed the discerning Whistler crowd, and her launching pad may well be the one from which she started in the first place. -Jess Smith