Inspiring Conversations with Brenna Knicole Bryant of Designs By Knicolez® and KoncreteKlay

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenna Knicole Bryant.

Hi Brenna Knicole, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I began taking sewing lessons from my great Aunt Alice when I was 8 years old. My late great-grandmother Addie who was my great Aunt Alice’s mother was well-known as an exceptional sewist in the small town that she lived in, Princeville, North Carolina and I believe that I have been blessed with the same gifts that she was blessed with for many years before she retired. My father is a former NFL player and I also believe that I have been blessed with his natural athletic ability. I began playing tennis at age 11. I trained and played competitively during my middle and high school years so I was not able to sew as much as I wanted to do but my love for fashion still remained. I won the NC Individual State Tennis Championship for my high school’s division in 2017 and accepted a tennis/academic scholarship to play at NC A&T State University where I played for one year before dedicating my time to sewing and learning more about fashion design. I am a 2021 honors graduate of NC A&T (B.A. Liberal Arts) and a 2024 honors graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA Fashion) Atlanta campus.

I credit my experience at NC A&T as being invaluable to learning about my culture and influencing my design aesthetic and my experience at SCAD Atlanta with providing ne the opportunity to gain high level technical skills and fashion experience. My Senior Collection “Degrees of Change: A Celebration of the Journey of HBCUs” was selected for inclusion in the highly acclaimed SCAD annual fashion show. Each look in the collection was inspired by a stage of the journey of HBCUs, an area of great interest to me, someone whose parents attended PWIs (UNC-Chapel Hill (dad) NC State University and Duke University Law School (mom) but are now HBCU donors and advocates.

I founded Designs By Knicolez® while in college at NC A&T where we offer high end custom garment design and construction services for clients all over the Southeast including Atlanta and Charlotte. My design aesthetic revolves around the use of luxury fabrics with architectural or structural elements as focus. Appointments are taken both virtually and in person.

I am still an avid tennis player to this day and have been interested in the design and construction of tennis apparel since I was a teenager which ultimately led me to found KoncreteKlay (ecommerce only) – a women’s tennis/tennis-inspired apparel brand – a few months ago. The brand’s tagline “More Color Belongs On The Court” is symbolic not only of the lack of diverse participation by players but it is also symbolic of my resistance to wearing the traditional tennis whites that would be required or expected at many of the places where I grew up playing tennis. Ironically, after graduation from SCAD, I moved to LA for a fashion design internship with Wilson Sporting Goods on the women’s sportswear team (tennis), the same brand that I regularly wore as a middle/school high school tennis player! After the internship ended, I accepted a contract position in product development and was finally offered a full-time position as an Assistant Designer but I made a bold move and declined the heritage brand’s offer because I knew that I wanted to start my own tennis apparel brand and that I wanted to do so in the Southeast.

I am still actively engaged in business with Designs By Knicolez® and starting to build KoncreteKlay. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Althea Gibson breaking the color barrier in tennis by being permitted to play in the 1950 US National Championships held on August 28, 1950. Brenna Knicole was strategic in starting the brand in May which is National Tennis month and in this the 75h year since history was made. She has started with a limited collection with one of the garments being named “The Gibson” in Althea Gibson’s honor with a full collection of on-court and off-court garments coming out this fall. She has also been educating young people on Althea’s phenomenal story through her 501(c)3) 4All4Life Tennis which promotes exposure to tennis in underserved communities as well as being involved in community service with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (Rocky Mount Alumnae Chapter).

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been very fortunate to have a solid support system which has helped paved the way for me but I still face the challenge of getting exposure so that potential clients and potential customers get to know that my brands exists and that they can be trusted. Having a great fashion business mentor in Lenese Calleea, owner of LC Apparel Consulting in NY has also helped tremendously to pave the way.

Having patience is a daily struggle. It takes time to build a brand and that can be frustrating.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
In addition to finding a business mentor, I found a sewing/design mentor is Rosalyn Womack, Rosalyn Womack Fashion Designer & Dressmaker in Greensboro, NC. She has been my mentor since I was at NC A&T my freshman year and has taught me a great deal about expert craftsmanship.

I began by looking online for fashion designers/sewists in Greensboro and read up on a few of them and reached out to see if they gave lessons and/or were interested in mentoring. You just have to put yourself out there and make contact with people who are doing the things that you aspire to do; put in the work and believe in yourself!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://designsbyknicolez.com/ and www.koncreteklay.net
• Instagram: @designsbyknicolez @koncreteklay

Image Credits
Bill Goode Photography
Wisdom Warner
DeonJPhotography