How burnout led a Czech woman to launch fashion brand AMK Definition

Just a couple of years ago, Czech designer Anna-Marie Křížová didn't even know how to thread a sewing machine. Today she runs her own brand, AMK Definition, remaking old shirts, jackets and ties into original pieces — and it's already her full-time livelihood.

The story didn't start with a business plan, but with professional burnout. Křížová spent years working as a photographer, shooting for brands like Vasky and Footshop, before taking a job as a photo editor at the Czech News Agency (ČTK). The work swallowed up all her time: shifts starting at eight in the morning, fifteen-hour weekends, no sleep and no time for friends. “I suddenly realized I wasn't eating, I was sleeping badly, and I wasn't seeing people. I was just living for work,” she recalls.

The exhaustion landed her on sick leave — several days in bed next to a pile of old clothes. Out of boredom, she decided to alter or paint over a jacket. Within a week, having never sat at a sewing machine before, she hand-sewed her first reworked jacket. “It was great therapy. Your mind switches off, but at the same time it starts working in a completely different way,” the entrepreneur says.

After returning to work, Křížová quit ČTK and took a part-time job as a waitress to free up time for her creative work. In March 2023 she launched the Instagram profile AMK Definition. From the start, the brand has been built on upcycling: men's shirts, jackets, waistcoats, denim jackets and corduroy clothing from secondhand shops are transformed into reworked blazers, asymmetric unisex shirts and bags made from old ties.

This isn't a cosmetic makeover — Křížová radically changes the silhouettes: cinching and draping shirts with strips of fabric, adding contrasting panels to jackets and waistcoats, and turning ties into bags. Every piece is one of a kind, and she sources her materials from carefully chosen secondhand shops.

Today, sewing takes up about 80% of her working time, and AMK Definition is now her main source of income. For the past year she has worked not from home but from her own studio — without that space, she says, she would have “gone crazy” from the amount of material and creative clutter around her.