‘Meaningful and purpose-driven beyond mere aesthetics’ - designer Lara Klawikowski on sustainable fashion
Besides her incredibly intricate and avant-garde designs, Lara Klawikowski is well known as a sustainable fashion designer.
Klawikowski is both a fashion designer and illustrator of Polish and Russian heritage, based in Cape Town.
She studied at Cape Town College of Fashion Design and launched her eponymous label in 2010 after graduating and winning the SACTWU Condom Dress Design Award.
She showcased her first ready-to-wear collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town in 2013.
“I've been fascinated by fashion, clothes, and especially how clothes are made since I was a child. I spent most of my childhood dressing up and draping, wrapping and tying my clothes, my mom’s clothes, even my doll’s clothes on myself and my sister,” says Klawikowski.
When it comes to her design process, she says that it’s fabrics and the use of unusual materials for clothes that inspire her the most.
“I start each collection by creating bespoke, handmade panels of material using industry waste (fabric off-cuts) and combining the bits with other recycled materials,” she explains.
“This gives way to limitless new textures that influence the structure, drape and fall of the fabric, and directs the silhouette and proportions of my designs. It feels unforced and almost collaborative, with a creative energy,” she adds.
She says that it’s a process of working with the available resources and transforming them into something surprisingly beautiful.
“It’s time-consuming and labour-intensive, but it gives me joy knowing I'm redirecting waste away from the earth,” says the designer.
Klawikowski uses fabric off-cuts, collected from her own designs at her studio, and also buys fabric off-cuts from Rewoven (they collect fabric off-cuts from big fashion retailers), and recycled plastics.
She combines all the bits in creative ways to form materials of upcycled materials for her collections.
Sometimes the pieces from Rewoven, labelled as waste and destined for a landfill, are metres long, and she is then able to cut full garment patterns.
But most of the time, they are smaller pieces, and more challenging, creatively.
“I'm able to create my own textile prints or fabric collages from the fabric ‘waste’,” she says.
She describes her designs as feminine, textural, artisanal and intriguing.
“They are imaginative, intriguingly sculptural and tactile, and have an other-worldly beauty and edge. Unexpected proportions, unpredictable use of fabrics and re-fabricated materials, and meticulous finish and construction are key traits of my work,” she says about her work.
“I’d like the beauty of my designs to inspire a greater appreciation and respect for clothes, materials and resources, and show that what we call waste is, in fact, a resource, and with design integrity, waste can be transformed into something good for humans and the planet,” says Klawikowski.
When it comes to the importance of sustainable fashion, she says that having a conscious, sustainable angle when she designs, makes her work more meaningful and purpose-driven beyond mere aesthetics.
Klawikowski will be showcasing her latest collection at Week of Fashion in Cape Town in April.
“I’ve collected a medley of green off-cuts and designed a collection of mostly cocktail and evening dresses. After viewing the Statement Sleeves exhibition at the Museum at FIT in New York, I've been inspired to explore sleeve shapes,” she shares.
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