Kingsley Walters: How Making Makes Me Feel
Last year, we hosted an All Day Communion with lots of wonderful guest speakers. We had some of these talks transcribed and published in our first ever newspaper, which celebrated one whole year of Communion. 100% of the proceeds from the paper go to Papyrus UK, a charity that works hard to prevent young suicide in the UK. You can buy the paper here, and listen to all of our previous guest talks here.
We know that watching videos and buying publications isn’t always accessible to everyone, so we thought we’d put the transcribed talks up on the blog too. We hope you enjoy them.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a designer and a maker. My main thing is leather, and now moving to canvas too. I kinda want to turn into a lifestyle brand which is just like reflecting myself as a person, as a human being. I make stuff that’s like - if I'm going to buy a bag, this is the kind of bag I would buy. This is the kind of candle I’d have in my house. The whole brand sort of reflects what’s inside me. I started with leather and now I’m slowly branching out. I'm sat in my studio in Farringdon, I recently moved - before I was in Soho.
Where were you born - London?
I was born in Jamaica and I moved to London at the age of 11. So I’ve been here quite a while. I'm Jamaican and that’s really a lot of me - the upbringing, what my parents taught me, the culture of Jamaica has kind of shaped me so much.
What did your childhood taste like, sound like and smell like?
It was a very simple childhood, a simple life. As a kid I used to play football a lot, but it was much more like as a group, with the other children in the community. We’d all put money together and stuff and go play football together. It was just like simple joy. Whenever I think about that, I can't help but smile because it brings me so much joy. Jamaican culture can be very disciplined, but also very free. It wasn’t until I came to London that I realised how beautiful Jamaican culture was. There's so many different communities here and so many different cultures, it can take a while to figure out where you belong and how you interact with all of these different communities.
What did it sound like?
Musically, there was Bob Marley and Peter Torch and you know, very vibrant music. My Mum and Dad would play these songs all the time, but it wasn’t until I was older that I listened to and appreciated the lyrics. I didn’t appreciate it when I was young, it was just always on in the background. When you truly understand the message in the music and how beautiful it is, it’s so joyful.
And what did it taste like?
Jamaican food is very spicy. My childhood tasted like jerk chicken and mango.
When you moved to the UK, whereabouts in London did you live?
I moved to Lewisham, so South East London. I moved there with my Dad and that’s where I grew up until I was about 20. There’s a bit Jamaican and Caribbean community there.
Where was Mum?
Mum was also here but then my parents separated, but she also lived in Lewisham. I’d go to Mums on the weekend but she’s more religious, so she’d play a lot of Christian music and was a bit more of a Churchy person.
How did you develop and grow? What did you get up to after school?
When I was in school, one of my best friends started being a bit more expressive in the way he dressed. So that initially started getting me more interested in clothes and stuff. But I wanted to be a chef at the time. I wanted to learn how to give us more than just food presented on plates. I wasn't necessarily in love with food, maybe more so the industry. In my early 20s I was getting more and more into clothes, I would just challenge myself, try to push myself. I just wasn't enjoying it as much - I didn't love food like I should have. I wanted something new and then I decided to study bespoke tailoring. I studied that for 2 years and then that's where I learnt to appreciate making stuff by hand. I started to notice the small details, learnt to appreciate British grown fabric etc. I just needed to try and find where I belonged in the making industry.
I'm getting this image of this man who fell in love with food because of the way it looked and the presentation, but then got bored and maybe found it too easy?
I wouldn't say easy - I just fell out of love with it. I just started thinking about what I wanted to do in my life and what kind of life I wanna have, and when I was in the kitchen with steak at 8 in the morning and didn't get home til sometimes 2am, that just isn’t the life I want.
There’s bravery in that - in the searching for a different path. What was it about fashion that made you go “oh yeah, that’s for me”?
My best friend Nico was a massive part that I believe. He was just always into stuff and that influenced me. I started to try to express myself in clothes. The interesting thing was, when we were living in Lewisham, the fashion was just skinny jeans at that time So we did stand out. I went through a stage where I dressed very loud and tried to get the most attention. Right now I'm just like super minimal and very practical but I had to do all the experimental stuff to find out what I like.
Did you find yourself in clothes? Did you find out who you were in this process?
Yeah in some ways. It's just the process of finding what you want to represent, what message you want to share with the world. It can be so difficult when you're in your early 20s, there's so much going on around you and you know you don't know where you belong in the world. I thought I wanted to be a tailor, I spent two years learning how to understand patterns and shapes and if I didn't do that, I wouldn't know what I do now. I wouldn’t be able to make these bags. I just appreciate quality - so that process was so important, even if I didn't end up being a tailor.
So cooking, then tailoring and then suddenly changing again - what was your parents response to this?
My Mum wasn't happy about me dropping the cooking cos I was slowly moving up in the kitchen. My Dad just kind of let me do what I wanted. In the end though they were both quite supportive.
So you wouldn’t have done tailoring without cooking first, and you couldn’t make bags without tailoring. What is it about bags and leather that you love and how did you find out about that?
I kind of fell into it. So I was studying tailoring and I had a part time job in Levi’s in Carnaby Street. A guy called Jonathan Static, a Polish friend of mine, was working at Levi’s at the same time. In Poland, his whole family does leather work. We became quite close and because I was doing tailoring, he asked me to come help him work with leather because I understand patterns. So I got into it by helping John and then I thought maybe I'll get a few tools, I kinda like this, It just developed that way, through just enjoying it and slowly I realised people liked it and wanted to pay for it.
When did you become number one, the craftsman, and number two, when did you become the leather worker? How do you define yourself and when did it happen?
I think I've been doing it now for like 4 years, but I didn't really believe in it until 2 years ago. That's when I looked at my work and I thought okay, I'm proud. I can see why I was making what I wanna make. It takes quite a while. I realised this is what I wanted to represent me, this is how I can build a brand and this is how I can give back to Jamaica. I can do workshops to try and help the kids and then that's when it kind of kicked in for me. I realised okay, if you get good at this you can go back home and you can actually pass on the skills to the kids - show them something new, something that they might not know how to do.
What I love about you Kingsley, is that you’re just not daunted by the scale of what you’re doing. Your work is incredible.
I still question myself a lot though. When I was moving to the studio in Soho, when my friend first approached me to ask if I’d be interested in renting it, my first thought was fuck, am I doing this or am I actually doing this? I think you have to be quite structured, and keep your thinking clear in order to make the right decisions.
And clearly you make amazing leather goods but what you do runs so much deeper than that. You take skills and you learn them and then you pass them on.
That’s what I want to do. That’s the main goal. I'm still building the structure here to then go back to Jamaica with these skills. If I can I’ll approach the High Court or the British embassy in Jamaica, or if not I’ll find a way to do it myself. I believe it will be like a domino effect of people passing on skills. And sometimes if you don’t see someone doing something, you don’t think you can do it either. It takes seeing someone you relate to doing it to realise you can too. A great example of this is Usain Bolt. Once he went to the Olympics and became famous for what he did - the next 4, 8 years Jamaica was back in the game. Back on top in terms of running. Because the kids saw it and thought “well Bolt is from where I’m from, if he can do it I can too.” I think if I manage to go back and show these kids actually I'm from where you're from, and I went to London and got this opportunity and I want to share with you and you can develop this skill too. I can show them that all you need to do is get these tools and practice and practice and you can become good and provide for your family that way. I want to share this with kids not only in Jamaica, but kids here, people here.
You absolutely sparkle and are so enthusiastic about what you do, I don't doubt for one minute that you will save children, you will save people who were going to be lost. I think you've got a chance to do that in Lewisham as much as in Jamaica. Who influences you most? And outside of people, what else influences your making?
I get strong influences from the pre-war era, so like military clothing and the bags they used to wear. I look at it and try to see how I can bring it into our generation and improve if it needs to improve. That's where I get my main influences from. But it's also kind of just London. really. Everyday architecture and space - like the V&A, which is not my favourite museum, but the shape of the building and the space inside it inspires me. If I’m making something, I want you to buy a bag and give it to your daughter, or pass it on to your son, I want the bag to become a story that’s told as time goes on.
How does making make you feel?
When I'm not making, I feel like I'm not getting my emotions though. I’m not sharing my thoughts. When I’m making, I’m constantly thinking, and it’s almost like I’m sharing my thoughts and opinions through what I make.