The Peachy Field Guide to Kingi Carpenter!

Range: the fabric stores, boutiques, bars, and restaurant patios of Queen St. West, Toronto

Habitat: lives upstairs above her store and silkscreen studio with a vast collection of vintage paint-by-numbers art, a bathtub in the living room, and the love of her life: her daughter Digby.

Lives on: rooftop barbeque in the summertime; mattar paneer from Gandhi Roti; beer

Distinguishing features: electric blond tresses; bright pink lipstick; supercute high heels, worn even in 6 inches of ice-crusted snow on a -20 morning in February; a complete absence of beige or tan in any form; an anchor tattoo that reads “Dad"

Personal bible: Helen Gurley Brown’s “Sex and the Single Girl”.

Superpowers:

• The ability to be fired from fourteen “normal” jobs before her 25th birthday.
• Can turn absolutely anything into a silkscreen print (and that includes photocopied bananas).
• Cannot stop turning absolutely anything into a silkscreen print.
• Rebuffs recurrent fashion fads (minimalism: horrible! And it just won’t die!) by remaining true to her vision of World Peachiness.
• Commands a global tribe of Berserk fanatics, some of whom have been known to take a cab straight from the airport to the store. Others own at least one thing in every print.
• Spreads the joy through silkscreen workshops, a how-to DVD, and seminars on starting your own crazy creative business (“Biz Tips for Misfits”).
• Despite innate shyness, Kingi not only teaches but also appears on TV (including CTV’s Balance) and delivers keynote speeches.

“I first discovered screen printing at art school, way, way back in 1985, two years before I started Peach Berserk. I signed up for a Surface Design class, having absolutely no idea how silkscreens worked, but I had just been to Paris, and thought that the world (and I) needed dresses covered in huge Eiffel Towers -- amazingly, nothing like this was available in Paris at the time! What followed next was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had: I laid my screen down on a piece of fabric, squished some ink across with a squeegee, and lifted the frame to see the resulting print. All of my favourite things converged beneath that magic screen: my love of drawing, pop art, Paris, and of course fabric, because fabric means fashion.”

Kingi Loves:

• Barbie's Basement Jewelry -- Jewelry
• Paper People Clothing -- Purses, Belts
• BUST Magazine
• Exworth & Sons

Allan

Range: In winter, the rinks where his son Dylan plays hockey; in summer, his gorgeous cottage up north. Can also be found on trips to NYC and Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, and Berlin ....soon!

Habitat: The crazy apartment above Peach Berserk with Kingi and her daughter Digby, and their cat Chewy. He loves it when any of his four sons Dylan, Ben, Xander, or Maxim stay over.

Lives on: Gandhi Rotis; basically anything -- he is not picky at all!

Personal bible: The Economist; new-age theories -- if it is new and weird, he digs it!

Superpowers: Many! He can look at the wacky world of fashion with analytical mind of an engineer; NEVER get food poisoning no matter what ancient leftover he eats; can organize anything (he straightened Kingi's collection of over 125 framed paint-by-numbers paintings in a single bound!)