Meet the Brand: Kyra Kouture

photo courtesy of kyra surgent

Kyra Surgent walks into any room like she’s just had the best day and is about to make yours a whole lot better. She lives in a world of cotton-candy skies, iridescent wings, and prismacolor lights— an aesthetic that would feel nauseating on anyone else, but seems inexplicably badass on her. Her clothing brand, Kyra Kouture, is both a breath of fresh air and a giant “fuck you” to a year characterized by uncertainty and anxiety. It’s permission to let go, have fun, and take a very serious world just a little less seriously. 

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to create a student-run business like this, in the middle of a global pandemic no less, Surgent has the answers. Despite launching her Kyra Kouture at the height of COVID-19 this past March, she’s already earned herself a loyal fan base, created a successful social media platform, and sold over 100 personalized items. But more than that, Surgent is bringing a sense of playfulness and brightness back into the Syracuse fashion scene, and she’s not stopping anytime soon.  

“Kyra Kouture is basically custom tie-dye pieces, mostly loungewear… and every single order is different, so people can completely customize whatever they want,” Surgent tells me over the phone. She laughs while she talks and her voice is light and airy, as though she’s phoning in from above the clouds. “I would describe the overall brand as just fun and colorful and playful,” she continues. Trademark characteristics that could describe the creator herself just as well.    

But although Surgent appears almost otherworldly in spirit, her fashion savvy and ability to pick up on trends before the rest of us is what has allowed her to thrive in a chaotic and anxiety-ridden environment. “Basically, I made my first set with my best friend. We saw a TikTok over winter break, and were like, ‘Matching sets, I love that!’” Surgent says. Once she arrived back on campus from winter break, her first set, a hot pink number designed to compliment her best friend’s blue set, started to gain more attention that Surgent had anticipated. 

photos courtesy of kyra surgent

“When I told people that I made it, they were like, ‘You should start a business!’” Surgent remembers, although she says it was mostly a joke between her and a few close friends. As these “jokes” grew in number, however, so did Sugent’s desire to share her newfound hobby. She figured that making an Instagram account couldn’t hurt, so she began to post a few of her creations for her friends to see. Fast forward to now, and her brand’s account currently boasts over 470 followers. 

“Social media is so powerful, as we all know, I think that’s a super useful tool [to use] just in marketing yourself and looking for new people who might want to buy or just getting your name out there,” Surgent says. For her, what started off as a lighthearted account only intended for friends, is now the space where she conducts most of her business, takes orders, posts pricing, and shows off new designs for her followers to order. Happy customers also tag the account in their posts, directing more traffic to the technicolor wonderland that is @kyra_kouture. 

Based on this experience, Surgent says that getting on social media is one of the most important things for new student designers. “Early on, try to brand yourself and have a strong social media presence and figure out what vibe you want to be putting out,” she advises. “Then, people will come.” 

Of course, starting a student-run clothing brand from scratch is not all easy, even for a creator as positive as Surgent. Right after Kyra Kouture began to take off, tie-dye was inching its way into the mainstream, gradually becoming one of the biggest trends of the season. “Once tie-dye really did start picking up, you could not find tie-dye or white shirts anywhere!” Surgent explained. This created delays and shortages that caused Surgent to have to come up with some new business strategies, like buying in bulk and looking for pieces on wholesale outlets. 

photos courtesy of kyra surgent

On the other hand, the pandemic actually worked to Surgent’s advantage in some ways, allowing her more time to focus on her craft, teach herself new tricks, and build her brand. “[Quarantine] definitely helped me because I was doing nothing other than classes… and I obviously wasn’t seeing people, so that really took up all my time,” Surgent says. “Like I don’t know what I would have been doing if I weren’t tie-dying.” 

With more time to herself, Surgent began adding new customizable options to her Instagram, from bright butterfly patches to dynamic graphics from magazines and album covers. She even expanded her products to include masks so that her customers could keep themselves safe on campus. “I learned how to do the graphics, and I had never sewn before, [but] I learned how to sew a little cactus,” Surgent says. “I learned that I can learn anything!” 

After months full of negativity and let-down after let-down, it can be difficult to feel neutral, let alone optimistic about the future. This is part of what makes Kyra Kouture so unique. A brand that serves as a reminder that there’s still fun to be had even if things aren’t the way they used to be. That there can still be positivity without the kind of forced happiness we’ve all come to resent. It’s a brand that prioritizes kindness and laughter and play without the BS, and to us at JERK, it’s exactly what SU needed.