Kalina Gospodinova, XKALINA is Bulgarian born designer and artist currently living and working in Yucatán, Mexico. She graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany.

Over her 20 year career, she has worked interdisciplinary and in close collaboration with a prestigious list of artists in music, fashion, performance, film and photography from around the world.

While living in Berlin, Kalina cultivated a personal fascination with leather, upcycling vintage leather garments into ornate costumes and accessories. Through her practice, the artist has developed an intimate familiarity with leather as a textile with many different faces and personalities, experimenting with different techniques for cutting, knotting and dyeing the natural material, allowing her to implement more friendly methods and virtually zero waste.

KALINA strives to blur the lines between art, craft and design creating versatile, genderfluid jewelry and adornments that invite the wearer to a playful and creative interplay with the garment. 

She believes that leather has its very own spirit, that is not something to just look at and appreciate but a companion to interact and get involved with.

"Climb in someone else's skin and walk a while in it! That is an entirely different experience than dressing to impress. It is an act of performative expression that can eventually change your life" KALINA