Essentials: Kara Messina of Y'OH Clothing

Y’OH Clothing represents Kara Messina’s aim to fill certain voids in the realm of fashion and streetwear with her eclectic skate, grime music and African pattern-inspired apparel. As such, her jackets, tees, and shirts enjoy playing with the whole gamut of bright colors and patterns available, a liberating experience to say the least — she began her designing days working strictly with neutral colors before taking the plunge with African prints she found at London markets. The Essentials she presents before us in this edition, however, continue to harken back to her humble beginnings as well as reflect her busy lifestyle. Right off the bat, we can see she still prefers to wear simple colored outfits accented by jewelry. Her tools are never far from her side, her research rests primarily on reading, taking notes and scheduling her life the old-fashioned paper way. She does, however, place added importance alongside the visual aspects of her life and work with select scents from Tom Ford. All in all, the simplicity and structure of her Essentials seem an appropriate foil for the free and outspoken nature of the items she produces, which can all be seen and ordered over at the Y’OH website.