Meet
KYLE
An American Designer, Marketing Strategist, & Entrepreneur. Born in Chicago on Feb 25th, 1992 & raised in Rota, Spain.
Kyle's career began in Tampa, FL, where in 2015 he produced his debut ready-to-wear collection, earning him the city's "Best Designer of the Bay" award. By 2018, he'd combined his professional background in marketing with his creative talents and stepped into fashion as a business, opening Downtown Tampa's first designer showroom. All while leading brand strategy, building scalable revenue marketing systems, and designing campaigns for other brands as a freelance marketer. It was an intense, demanding year, but an exciting one! When COVID slowed things down in 2020, it gave Kyle the chance to reimagine his brand entirely. After a brief sabbatical, he pivoted to an online model and leaned fully into his own subversive creative instincts. Today, Kyle is back in Chicago, where he blends sharp art direction with marketing expertise supporting like-minded business owners by day, and producing audacious works for the love of the game by night.
MEET
KILGORE
Kilgore is the brand. A Black and queer-owned craftsman house, producing masculine lingerie, leather goods, made-to-measure gowns, and costumes. Built for those who want to buy better. Every piece is a handmade ode to Kyle's love of music, architecture, kink, and car design.
Kilgore began in 2015 out of a home studio, with a simple debut ready-to-wear collection and a polarizing point of view. That collection earned Kilgore its first "Best Designer of the Bay" award the same year. This collection was sold exclusively through pop-up shops, one rack and one city block at a time.
By 2018, Kilgore had outgrown the home studio. The brand opened its first permanent location in the heart of Downtown Tampa, the district's first designer studio and showroom. Before the year was out, that space had expanded again, this time into a public photography studio built to support the local creative community. Not just Kilgore itself.
A year later, Kilgore moved into a larger home in Ybor City, Tampa's historic arts and nightlife district. Proof that a brand built on craft and community could still scale. Today, Kilgore operates entirely online, based in Chicago.
Still handmade, still polarizing, still for the community and the people that get it.
