After visiting Edinburgh this weekend, and meeting a new acquaintance in a stunning dress and doing the girly thing of having to ask her who it’s by, I’ve been introduced to the wonderful work of Laura Lees.
Refreshingly original, fortunately not over-exposed yet, and something which gives the designers in the high fashion mags a run for their money, Lees is known and coveted for her embroidered icons – such as skulls*, dice, flowers, hearts, cherries – on her patterned women’s clothes.
Yes, the patterns and colours can be loud, but there’s still something endearing about them. The cuts of the dresses and the icons on the clothes are very 1950s and I can see the stuff crossing over into rockabilly or lindy hop/swing music culture.
Lees does two lines at the moment, expensive pieces, which are available at places like Asos.com, and a less expensive line for TopShop.
* In the interview below, Lees mentions that she her work has also been inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead, which the way her skull icons are drawn, exemplifies.
Further information:
Laura Lees (Official site)
Examples of Laura Lees clothing (Ebay – best resource to date)
Interview with Laura Lees (fuk.co.uk)
