(upbeat music)
- Growing up in Malibu, California,
Katharine Polk always thought she
would ride horses professionally.
Instead, her father urged her to go
into a more practical direction, art school.
Upon graduating from California's
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising,
Polk moved to New York City to become an assistant
Couture Designer at the mega fashion house,
Badgley Mischka.
She then spent a few years styling celebrities
before in 2012, starting her own label, Houghton.
So named for Katharine Houghton Hepburn.
- It's timeless, but it's modern.
It is sexy without being revealing.
It's comfortable.
- And it's comfortable for more than just
those who can fit into a size zero.
Polk is part of the fashion industries
collective move to embrace more realistic body types.
- I've made dresses for super models, and
I've made dresses for size 20.
(upbeat music)
Everybody needs to be served and accommodated.
- But this commitment to inclusivity
is more than just good business.
For Polk it's personal.
In 2016 she penned an article for Harper's Bazaar
sharing her decade long struggle with an eating disorder.
She says her bold choice to come out
was fairly straightforward.
- If I wasn't able to speak about what I went through
it would feel a little fake for me.
I would be abdicating for something without
being honest about it.
- And in this age of the private brand,
Polk's choice to blur the line between
her private and professional lives was strategic,
like many of her choices thus far.
Houghton made its New York debut in 2012.
Despite the all ivory color palette,
Polk decided against the obvious move
of showing at Bridal Fashion Week.
Instead, she opted for Ready to Wear Week,
where her collection stood out, and captured
the critics' imaginations.
- The clothes would have never changed.
It was purely just a matter of timing of
being shown in February versus April,
which is stupid, if you think about it.
But...
- But it made a difference.
- It made a difference, and they discovered it
as a cool ready to wear collection that
everyone could get married in.
- But typically, I mean both things happen, right?
People do wear this as
both bridal - Absolutely.
- and non bridal.
- Absolutely, and that was always the concept,
and my idea of the brand.
Typically, unless you're lucky, you pick one look,
and that look says a lot about you.
It's a lot of pressure to kind of say like,
what one outfit is gonna represent me.
It's an honor to be part of that day, and have a girl
pick and say like, this is my look,
and this dress represents me.
- And this is who I am. - Yeah.
- For Katharine Polk, staying ahead in an industry
where good ideas spread fast, requires constant vigilance.
Have you seen your stuff ripped off?
- Yes.
- They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.
(laughs)
it's also something that's most likely to anger you greatly.
- It is. I mean we find it daily, but like,
I mean you just kinda have to take the attitude
like, we just have to do better.
I know that my patterns are better, our construction is
better, and our customer will come to us
for the real thing.
- Right, the original version.
- I just have to keep staying, you know,
five steps ahead, and create the next trend,
or the next better concept, and the next better design.
- In truth, clothes are as much about how you feel as
how you look.
And Polk wants you to feel hot.
- I want someone to put on a garment and
feel sexy in it.
A garment just isn't sexy.
It's more of a way of being, and a way of feeling,
and more of a spirit.
- A spirit that Katharine Polk is chasing with
every bit of leather and lace that she can find.
(upbeat music)
For more infomation >> Krasses Überfall-Trauma: Kim K. fehlt bei Paris Fashion Week - Duration: 2:24. 
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