I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Kara Liu a few
months back and had a preview of her creations that reflect her love for detail
and the philosophy that ‘less is more’, which also happens to be my favourite design philosophy whether it's designing interiors of spaces or jewellery. I admire the perfection in
her minimal colour palette, perfectly constructed forms and beautiful lines that she has achieved in her designs at
such a young age. Read on to learn more about her and what she has in store for
us in the next few months.
1. Tell us a little bit
about yourself
I was born in Shanghai
and raised in Melbourne. I don't particularly see myself as being super
creative, I'm just very good at organising my thoughts into the visual
design.
I treat the creative
process like 'controlled experiments'.
Some of my likes
and dislikes...
I like clean things and
big spaces.
I like lines more than
patterns.
I like 'less' more than
'more'
I like squares more than
circles.
I like textures more than
motifs.
2. Describe your
background in fashion before you started your label.
I was trained as a
fashion designer at RMIT's Bachelor of Design (Fashion), graduated with honours
as the top of my class in 2012.
During uni I interned
with Australian designers LIFEwithBIRD and Lui Hon. I also took part in MSFW
2012 and LMFF in both 2012 and 2013.
Then I proceeded to
intern with Alexander Wang in New York. I worked the Womens RTW Department on
the Fall Winter 13 Collection and the Resort 14 Collection.
Won a few awards here and
there, including Glue Store Australia's One Percent Design Competition, which
lead to a collaboration collection that will launch in Glue Stores nation wide
in April.
3. Where do you get your
inspiration from?
Details. Not details of
anything in particular really, it can be something as interesting as the leg of
a great pieces of Danish furniture, or something as mundane as the handle of a
water kettle. I like to document these things in my daily life and sketch or
drape from them.
And textures. A lot of
times a designs starts from an interesting fabrics. I always spend sometime in
fabric markets overseas trying to source unique fabrics and trims.
4. What is the style you
try to portray with your garments?
Minimal perfection would
be a good way to put it. A very quite, refined, distilled aesthetics. Function
is also very important. I don't add embellishments of the sake of it, it has
the serve a purpose, either aesthetically or functionally.
5. What is the most
important lesson you've learned since starting your label?
Know your audience and
design what you believe in and they believe in.
And also learning how to
step away from your work and look at the designs from afar, it helped me to see
a lot of things that would have missed.
6. How do you see your
label in 10 years time?
I don't have a plan by
design. I'd like to see where it takes itself. For example I did a footwear
collaboration with Belmore Bootmakers last year, which will launch in March. I
have never thought that I will design shoes this soon but the opportunity
presented itself so why not. The products are amazing!
7. What advice would you
give to aspiring fashion designers?
Make sure this is really
what to want to do. Because it is not an easy profession. But if this is truly
what you love, then work hard, and have fun.
Kara is a very passionate and refined designer with a very impressive resume and line of work. We can't wait to see what her very own label has in store for us in the near future. You can check out Kara's work on her website and through her facebook page.
