LAB Collection: Diary of an experiment

I began working on the LAB collection with several ideas in mind. On the one hand, I wanted to try a different way to design.

So far, I had the feeling that I had been "drawing" on the garments. This time I would set new rules: putting pieces together, adding ingredients, as in an experiment! Hence the name of the collection.

I would start with basic elements: simple prints or textures, and the "game" would consist of combining them.

Second step: Color, always essential! But this time it would not be an "explosion", but subtle touches, brushstrokes in certain places, like electric sparks!

With that decided: it was time to seek inspiration. Gathering clippings that resonated with these ideas and creating a collage, which is the way I like the most lately.

Observing it, trying to imagine the garments "waiting to be discovered" behind this skein of ideas and images.

(References collage-moodboard images: ART. Painting: Lake Attersee, Gustav Klimt | Painting: Charing Cross Bridge, Claude Monet | Painting: Murnau, Vasili Kandinsky | Paintings: The Prints y Model at rest, Henry Manguin | Paintings and sculptures: Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao | Digital sculpture: Santi Zoraidez | TEXTURES, EMBROIDERY, AND COLOR. Embroidered illustration: Urania design | Embroidery: Liz Payne | Embroidery: Trini Guzmán | Crochet: susanaprez79 | Fashion: Prada | Fashion: Gucci | Fashion: Jun Takahashi | BIRD PORTRAITS: Leila Jeffreys | MAGAZINES: Sicky | Yoyorama | BLOG: Anna Roslily )

And other images, whose authorship I couldn't identify, obtained via Pinterest.

Another rule of the game that was immediately clear to me, was that the garments would be formed by "adding parts".

Actually, this idea goes way back when I was researching for the Botane collection and discovered the Voynich manuscript:

<<There is a very funny concept, related to this manuscript, that caught me when I first heard it: the FrankenPlants. That's what they call the botanical illustrations found in the manuscript, and it's because even though the individual parts can be identified with some known species (leaves, flowers or roots), it's impossible to determine what plants they are or which climatic zone they could belong to. It's like creating a Frankenstein with plant matter! by joining pieces of different plants.>>

(You can read more about it in the blog entry about the Botanel process if you're curious.)

I imagined something similar for the LAB experiments, but with garments.

With all of this in mind, it was time to sketch. How could those "trolecitos" (Trol garments) be?

One more collection, the labels are an important part and serve to tell the story behind each garment. They feature the LABoratory, with the prints and textures in experiments, and throughout the room!

Dress ZIGZAG:

Jumper OCHOS (Eights):

Each garment is the result of an "experiment" with its own ingredients, that's why each label is different!

Dress OCHOS (Eights):

Jumper CUADROS (Plaid):

Cardigan PÍXEL:

And this is the complete LABoratory, where the prints and textures of the collection coexist. This drawing served as the first clues about LAB, and it is also the postcard that accompanies the shipments ;)