7th December 2023
Designer Profile
What the F**k does Artificial Intelligence have to do with Berwick-Upon-Tweed?
Everything, according to Laura Ida, first year Womenswear student at CSM. From her Spanish heritage and Scottish upbringing to Artificial Intelligence and technology, Laura’s Reset Project, previously known as the White Show, is all about the digitalisation of reality.
Many looks stood out, all for different reasons. Some because of their sheer scale, others for their racy bondage styles and some just because of the clear design genius and craftsmanship. Laura Ida’s look stood out for the latter. She incorporated pleating, bows, corsetry, embroidery and an orchid flower obscuring the models face. It was executed in a method that didn't look busy, but classy, considered and well made. Laura highlights the pleating saying it’s ‘part of the concept of us running out of time and having to digitalise everything’ and references her father’s family who are Spanish by looking at their ‘holy communion traditional dresses that have the same style of pleat and bow at the top which fall from beneath the bodice’.
Laura tells me about her childhood, growing up in Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish border ‘surrounded by mostly farms and castle ruins’ or in other words, ‘the middle of nowhere’. Because of this a lot of her work is inspired by nature, specifically, ‘looking at the silhouettes and shapes found in plants and seafood’. Despite this she assures me that most of her work is ‘super digital based’ as she explains,
‘I was, in a way, deprived of technology and the future’
when growing up, so as a designer she strives to bring this to the forefront of her work, always looking one step ahead. This fantastic amalgamation of the natural world and technology lends itself to recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence that is now available worldwide. Laura explains how she puts her ‘pattern designs and embroidery silhouettes into AI’ and ‘it identifies them as plants or flowers, which is funny because they aren't’, showing not just her capabilities as an artist and designer but this incredible evolution of the technological world.
When first confronted with the Reset project brief Laura chose the 24 hour theme because ‘we spend so much time developing technology that makes life easier, which makes things quicker, therefore giving us more time and making life last longer’. It's rather apt that Laura struggled with her time management when working on the project but she justifies it saying, ‘my concept is all about how we spend our lives trying to gain time’. She exposes this deep rooted obsession our society seems to have with time, be it rushing to catch the train or speed walking to be on time, Laura provides a new perspective on our hectic city lifestyles.
Laura claims to often work sculpturally but for this project she did a lot of pattern cutting. She says ‘creating patterns from scratch took a long time and I had to keep correcting them’, but claims it was ‘worth it!’ The garment is made from ‘suede and cotton taffeta’ and she explains how ‘my garment has been constructed to be easily taken apart and recycled, it can be worn in different ways’. This is mainly to stay in line with the sustainability aspect of the brief but also reflects her time-conscious concept.
While watching the Reset show runway, with its flashes of white garments and strobe lights, it occurred to me that Laura’s look and concept highly juxtapose the whole idea of the show. The Reset show is all about movement and pace, some models even ran along the runway, yet Laura’s work symbolised stillness among busy day-to-day life. I felt rather peaceful in that moment of reflection, considering how we digitise the natural world. I think we can all trust in this new generation of designers that they will not disappoint us, if anything the level of maturity they showed. And most importantly their consciousness and understanding that the fate of the fashion world as we know it, is in their control.