New York, NY (Chinatown studio; glassware made in Brooklyn) · Est. 2010 · Founded by Kalen Kaminski
Kalen Kaminski moved to New York at 21 with no plan, became a prop stylist, and in 2010 started dyeing scarves in her apartment bathtub. What began as a passion project became Upstate, then evolved into Gone -- a multi-disciplinary design studio in Chinatown where every textile is hand-dyed in small batches using experimental natural dye processes, and every piece of glassware is hand-blown in Brooklyn. There is nothing quite like it.
Kalen Kaminski grew up riding horses in Colorado and cooking in the garden with her mother, learning early that transformation -- of ingredients, of materials, of color -- was its own kind of alchemy. She moved to New York at 21, started assisting a prop stylist, and slowly built a freelance career dressing sets for campaigns, cookbooks, and editorials for clients like MoMA, Four Seasons, and Grey Goose.
In 2010, from her apartment bathtub, she started dyeing scarves. She named the brand Upstate -- not just for the place, but for the feeling. The idea of escape. The state of mind that opens when you step away from the noise and make something by hand. The scarves became wraps, then apparel, then glassware. In 2019 she brought in hand-blown glass, produced in collaboration with local makers in Brooklyn. Every piece in the collection is designed in her Chinatown studio and made within the tristate area.
The brand recently evolved into Gone -- a name that carries the same spirit forward, now framing a fully multi-disciplinary practice that moves between textile, glassware, sculpture, installation, and objects for the body and the home. The studio functions as a living workshop and gathering space: part showroom, part classroom, part community. Natural dyes, local glass, slow production, radical color. On a registry, a piece from Gone is the kind of thing a couple looks at every day and can never quite explain -- except to say that it feels like something found rather than bought.
