ABOUT

 

RUA CARLOTA ~ ‘CHARLOTTE STREET’

Founded in London, RUA CARLOTA by Charlotte Rose Kirkham is a brand that uses only pre-loved/deadstock materials as a basis. RUA CARLOTA gives life to the forgotten ones. It challenges waste culture. It says that there is potential in everything. It deconstructs and reconstructs with a quiet confidence, and with freedom of creativity at its forefront. It begins with something rendered useless by society and ends with something beautiful.

 

RUA CARLOTA began as a personal project, a series of experiments, intended to be a creative exploration of what was already there. As a purveyor of pre-loved clothing, Charlotte began wondering how she could do justice to the pieces that didn’t fit the aesthetic of the meticulously curated vintage feeds - that were becoming heavily repetitive - and saturating online marketplaces. Charlotte felt that truly sustainable fashion was becoming claustrophobic and predictable.

Identifying more as an artist than as a designer, Charlotte is an avid portrait painter and approaches each piece as if it were a kind of art. A mathematics graduate, Charlotte has lived most of her life with an internal fight to intertwine these disciplines. Fascinated by geometry and the beauty of mathematics beyond the preconceived mundane, RUA CARLOTA is as much an exploration of shape and pattern as it is texture, and this construction-led approach can be seen throughout Charlotte's work. 

Heavily inspired by the pioneer of the lettuce hem, Stephen Burrows, Charlotte views the fabrics she uses as if they were her palette, with the stitching acting as her paintbrush. Her pieces exude energy. RUA CARLOTA's experimental style soon gained recognition, being named as a "NEW KNITWEAR BRAND TO OBSESS OVER" by VOGUE. The beauty of Charlotte's method is that it's impossible to make the same thing twice. Charlotte offers RUA CARLOTA customers something different - the opportunity to own something as entirely unique as they are. Charlotte finds inspiration everywhere. Entirely self taught, she continues to grow and learn with each drop she releases.