Katie Gallagher

Early life

Katie Gallagher was born in western Pennsylvania and spent her early childhood there. About her youth, Gallagher has said, “I never wore shoes, and I hated wearing clothes (but always wore my cat on my head)!" From seventh grade through high school, she lived in State College, Pennsylvania, and taught herself to sew during high school. She shopped for vintage clothes, and altered them on a little Singer sewing machine.

College and internships

Gallagher declared apparel design as her major after her Freshman year at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her first apparel design project at RISD was a dress fabricated from springs. Responding to an assignment to create a wearable article of clothing from unconventional materials, Gallagher chose springs as the medium. She, herself, made the springs using Plexiglas rods and an electric drill.

Gallagher interned for Anna Sui during the summer following her Sophomore year, and for threeASFOUR between her Junior and Senior years and also during winter break in her Senior year. Her Senior thesis project was a collection entirely in black. In a Dossier Journal interview, Gallagher commented about her color choice, “Everyone I asked would say that it’s really scary to do that because people always want to see color, but I didn’t really care.” The collection included well-tailored dresses, silk and leather jackets, and detailing that included silver chains and ruffles.

The work that Gallagher produced during her tenure at RISD attracted the attention of fashion magazines including Interview magazine and Vogue Italia, and buyers from fashion boutiques SEVEN New York in New York and I.T in Hong Kong. Magazine editors began to interview Gallagher during her Senior year. Katie Gallagher graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Apparel Design degree in May, 2009.

Katie Gallagher

After graduating from RISD, Gallagher moved to New York City and established, “Katie Gallagher”. She moved to the Chinatown area of Manhattan that provided proximity to the New York fashion industry.

Gallagher began work on her SS10 (spring/summer 2010) collection in anticipation of showing the apparel at New York Fashion Week in September 2009. She made sketches and also made paintings to establish the design for the line prior to fabrication. The SS10 collection, entitled “Veil”, was well received by the press.

When she had completed the SS10 collection, she submitted photos of the line to the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation for consideration in their 2009/2010 search for emerging designers. In January 2010, Gallagher was notified that she was a semi-finalist in the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation 2009/2010 search.

Since founding “Katie Gallagher” Gallagher has presented collections for SS10, AW10, SS11, AW11, SS12, and AW12 at New York Fashion Week. Her SS10 collection was called “darkly futuristic, sleek” in Refinery 29. “The Heart of the Woods and What I Found There”, her AW10 collection, featured “dark layered separates, with flashes of cream, grey and green”. Considered “sporty yet aggressive”, Gallagher's SS11 collection, “Arena”, was inspired by athletics, in particular running. “Gris-Gris”, her AW11 collection named after the voodoo talisman bag, featured “grays and blacks, asymmetries and paradoxical volumes”, and “heavily blackened eyes, and a cyborg-esque eye detail”. In discussing her SS12 collection, “Red Red Blood”, Gallagher specified that it was, “Not the blood of nightmares of brutality, but the blood that’s sanguine, living and the brightest red. Always moving, coursing, and restless inside us. All the while staying hidden to the outside world.” Detailing included makeup inspired by the bloodstream, and hair inspired by the heart. AW12 “Silent Soil” was inspired by the forest. The collection featured fabrics including boiled wool,shearling,leather, silk,and chiffon. The color palette was composed of earth tones including moss green, off-black and cream. Detailing included chaotic hair, lime green makeup around the eyes, nude lipstick, and grey fingernail polish with gold outlines. Gallagher’s “trademark” leggings were used in the collection, but not highlighted as in past shows.

Selected designs from Katie Gallagher’s work have been pulled, borrowed for editorial shoots, by Daphne Guinness, and on a continuing basis by Lady Gaga’s stylist, Nicola Formichetti. The list of stockists for the Katie Gallagher line has grown to include high-end stores around the world.

In explaining her method of designing, Katie Gallagher has said, “Everything I make starts with my paintings, which I’ve done every season prior to construction. I love to try to re-create a three-dimensional version of whatever I've drawn; it requires pretty unconventional pattern-making."

Providing a glimpse into her creativity and a sense of her design intent, Gallagher has offered, “I normally create a scene, a narrative, or sometimes a whole universe that I would be interested in making a reality, and then I fill these worlds with people. …The people just happen to be wearing what's appropriate to their surroundings and ideas. Clothes aren't really at the center of my interests; the people that wear them and their ideals are.”

Katie by Katie Gallagher

On November 5, 2012, Katie Gallagher launched the Katie by Katie Gallagher diffusion line of clothing that includes both separates and jewelry pieces.

Designer collections