Daily Inspiration: Meet Kristina Karner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Karner.

Hi Kristina, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
singulier began on depop in 2018 with myself and my roomate/bff anna. we drove around southern california shooting on location with ikea bags full of bins gems which we sourced each week. we had never been to a wholesaler but frequently roadtripped to climb mountains and camp and stop to grab any pieces we saw value in. most of our shoots were outdoors in beautiful places with bad weather often shooting 90 looks before 9 am when the mojave sun would cook us. we were selling over 300 unique pieces a month on depop writing product descriptions, sourcing, measuring, and doing pop ups all over LA at flea markets, hotels, friends stores etc during the pandemic my friend left and i took over the shop full time. i continued to shoot in the LA River all pandemic with any model who would hop the fence and change under the bridge. most of our models willing, happily shoot in the studio at the shop today 🙂 the next phase of singulier was still ecomm and photoshoots but more in person events and a partial store on the westside. during this time i started travelling to europe to learn sourcing and offer pieces different from what i had been seeing at local markets and shops. i fell in love with the pace of business deals in italy, interrupted with cappuchino and gelato breaks and the quality of fabrics and different details fastners and silhouettes on each piece still wow me.
i spent almost a year looking at spaces for the shop and dreamed of having my own and finally landed in frogtown. we opened in october 2023 with a huge party (thanks to one popular surfer )and started as a small collective of curators which transitioned into its current form of myself curating womenswear and my boyfriend curating menswear almost exclusively european , with some designer but mostly rare and timeless pieces we couldnt NOT pay the import tax on & share with you

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
smooth in a sense that i am lucky to be in los angeles around so many humans who also see value in the past textiles and lucky to have had depop as such a low financial entry point lucky to have a customer base that trusts us and supports us for important dressing events and to build a longterm wardrobe they feel good in

growing a business is always a struggle, and when you are a sole owner without funding, you learn everything the hard way. and i have learned a lot about where to put my energy and funds, and how to always stay prepared for whatever the next chapter is resilience is really key

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
i feel like i specialize in helping people feel comfortable dressing for the life they actually live. its fun to dress people for special events weddings music videos artist openings birthdays etc i really love talking to people about HOW they live, what they like to enhance or blend in and then build a wardrobe that is interchangable, made of fabrics with a high frequency, that makes each person feel the feelings they wat put together, playful, sexy, mature, standing out, blending in, clothing can really affect this

im most proud of being able to have a business that almost exclusively makes no waste and uses a lot of waste NOTHING NEW

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
we love to host small textile artists / jewllery brands and we love to style events, photoshoots, vacation packing, wedding etc

Pricing:

• most items in store range from $120-400
• outside rack items mostly $30-40
• online via depop alllllll pricepoints and bundles available

Contact Info:

• Website: depop.com/singulier and depop.com/tippingpoints
• Instagram: @singulier_vintage