Karen Walker (designer)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Infobox fashion designer
Karen Elizabeth Walker Template:Post-nominals (born December 1969) is a noted New Zealand fashion designer.
Private life
Walker was born in December 1969.<ref name="here comes Karen">Template:Cite news</ref> She grew up in the Auckland suburb of Remuera and attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Aged 21, she married Mikhail Gherman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Career
Walker began her fashion label in 1987, and opened her first store in Newmarket, Auckland, in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She began selling to Barneys New York in 1998, the same year she showed her first runway collection. In late 2011, she signed a partnership with New Zealand retail chain Anthropologie.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
She has designed clothes worn by Björk, Sienna Miller, Natalie Portman, M.I.A., Alexa Chung, Beth Ditto, Michael Haneke, Liv Tyler, Rihanna, Claire Danes, Zooey Deschanel and Jennifer Lopez.<ref name="awb">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name="scoop">Template:Cite news</ref> She designed clothes worn by Kate Winslet in the Michel Gondry film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.<ref name="scoop" />
In the 2004 New Year Honours, Walker was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the fashion industry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was promoted to Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to fashion design, in the 2014 New Year Honours.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2009 Walker received a World Class New Zealand Award <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in the Creative category.
Walker is also an expert on colour for interiors and has partnered with Resene to produce her own line of paint colours.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Walker was appointed to the board of Creative New Zealand in December 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>