We have a new talented designer, Katarzyna Wasilewska, in the shop, and we really dig her work. We immediately feel in love with her cactus family and you can meet them for yourself here.
Tell us a bit about the person behind Kasia Lilja.
At the present time, there is only two people working in the company – me, Katarzyna Wasilewska, and my wonderful personal assistant, Amalie Hentze.
I have a hard time describing myself, so I’ll try doing it through thing my friends have said about me.
I am a very open and outgoing person, who’s always happy and positive – not a simply-thrilled-Ole Henriksen-kind-of-happy, but more a realistic-Ole-Henriksen-kind-of-happyJ.
It is extremely important for me to illustrate the real world – not the polished and pretty one often exposed on social media. It all good that you want to stage yourself as a perfect super human – who doesn’t want to show the best version of one self? Everybody want that, myself included – there are just things where filter is unnecessary. Things that don’t need to be refined or polished. Those things are often the ones I capture in my stories on social media – the true things. I try to make thing that are complemented with a story – or an event from my own life. Basically we are all the same and roughly we go through the same challenges in life. The challenges are the ones I find interesting to talk openly and honestly about. It is exactly that, the honesty, which people complement me and the company for.
Besides putting honesty and transparence on the agenda, I am a very family orientated person. My three kids and my boyfriend mean extremely much to me. They are the ones, who manage to bring me down to gear, when things are too hectic and I need peace and quit – my family is my base and where my reassurance lays. You can have tons of ambitions, and work a 100 hours a week to maintain the dream of being a career woman, but when it all comes down to it, you just want be loved by somebody. Since I started the company, it has always been my first priority, but as time has gone by, I’ve realized that my kids and boyfriends means everything to me.
Underneath this shell of a career woman, I am very fragile – I’m truly a very sensitive person, but – unfortunately and luckily – only a little handful of people ever gets to experience that side of me.
My friends also see me – very rightfully - as a very ambitious, determent and powerful woman, who – mostly -achieves her goals. Of course with bumps and bruises along the way – but I believe they are unenviable to become stronger and wiser. I am extremely stubborn, but my stubbornness and defiance has also driven me to where, I am now.
Kasia Lilja’s products reflects my passion for drawing and visualizing all the things that surrounds me. Experiences, taboos, relevant challenges in everyday life together with a sense of humor is reflected in various ballpoint illustrations and minimalistic graphic posters. Most of my ideas have their own story, which is often expressed in very honest and personally posts on my blog.
When did you start Kasia Lilja?
Kasia Lilja was established in 2013, because of the increasing demand for my drawing on Instagram. One thing led to the other and after going to one single trade show the brand had spread itself. At Kasia Lilja we also develop other things than just posters and drawings and we will keep on doing that until we are able to establish us on the home- and interior marked with our own designs.
