Earlier this summer I wrote an article on Pamplona, Spain, and the Festival of San Fermín, featuring a label that designs t-shirts for the festivities of the events.Now, I would like to introduce you to a promising young designer, who is also from Pamplona. Her name is Karlota Laspalas, who moved to Barcelona to study Fashion Design at the Escuela Superior de Diseño y Moda Felicidad Duce.
Karlota is unique in that approaches design by transferring her life experiences and the emotions that they evoke—such as memories, fears, sorrows, and the like—in to one concept, which represents her internal and external being. Her recent collection exemplifies this approach.
Karlota’s father comes from a small Basque village called Ochagavía, which lies in the Salazar Valley of Navarre, Spain, where the Irati forest is located.Having spent 12 years in the area, Karlota nurtures strong childhood memories of the forest. A documentary on the land art of British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy triggered Karlota’s memories of the trees’ crooked branches, the feel of bark, and the smell of autumn leaves.
Two years after the completion of her schooling, Karlota presented at Ego Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week her first collection, which she named “Wood do Wow” and pointed to wood as a symbol of simplicity, purity, and longevity.
Karlota drew inspiration from one more source: the folds and wrinkles in the wooden sculptures of Venetian wood artist, Loris Marazzi. As Loris carves ornamental garments of apparel out of rugged wood, so Karlota has fashioned a collection of rugged menswear that is inspired by the grooves, knots, and grains of wood.
For more information on Karlota, have a look at out her blog.
Photo top center Irati Forest Copyright Karlota Laspalas.
Photo middle right & slideshow 2009 a/w collection “Wood do Wow,” photographer Salva López, Copyright Karlota Laspalas.
