Trish and I have been fans of our next interview-ee, Laura Dawson, for as long as she’s been around. She has a great style, modern yet simple, timeless and ageless. So, we were excited she would sit down with us and let us get to know her a little bit better. She has a fantastic way about her that comes across in her answers, and we are so excited to hear that yet another Darling of ours is engaged. Like anxious parents, we can’t wait to get the wedding photos!
Speaking of photos, here’s one of Laura (photo courtesy of alex norden), in case you haven’t met her yet.
We are starting our interview with a question from Lara Miller. She asked a great question of Laura and, like yourself, we were wondering what the answer was. Well, it’s finally here!
Read on, and after your done, go check out both Laura Dawson’s and Lara Miller’s store. They have some great products that you would be lucky to wear!
Lara Miller: I’d say hello! and ask her if her styling experience still influences her ready to wear line?
Laura: i would have to say that yes, ways of seeing are things that one learns and are then infused into a new reality. it is something that is learned and carried always. the user of the end product is always the first thing in my mind so that the end begins the process and makes a neat full circle.
SD: How did you end up in the fashion industry?
Laura: i had always been interested in it, since reading “big bopper” magazine when i was 8. i’m interested in alot of things though, and was starting to figure out that i was going to have to narrow down to something that i liked. i was in college, and trying to transfer out of the university of cincinnati to go to columbia for journalism. u.c. didn’t have journalism as a major and their english department is almost as attractive as going to prison in terms of quality and accomodations. the college counselor was trying to get me to stay at uc and asked what i WOULD like to do at u.c. i said the only thing they had that i was interested in was the design school – d.a.a.p. college of design, art, architecture and planning, with a brand new building by peter eisenman that was pastel colored and had no right angles anywhere and contacts to major destinations worldwide.
she replied this way:
“i’m sorry, i don’t think you understand. daap is for very good students.” i don’t take dares lightly, so then i had to graduate at the top of my class of course.
to really end up in the industry… i had a friend who moved to new york several years before i did. i came to new york for a visit in 1997 and adored the east village. there would be times when what i had to do to get here was either long or difficult. i just kept thinking of what i wanted and kept going to get there. i moved to new york and at first didn’t know anyone and was quite lonely. i figured that i would be bored to not come here, but allowing the place i wanted to go to be like a blank wall to me was unacceptable. so i took the part of me that was introverted, sat her down and said she had to stay home while i went out for a while. i went out to some parties and proceeded to meet 65 people in 30 days. it was very helpful.
SD: What was your first job?
Laura: oh wow. my first job was working at a handbag design company. they made product that was under other people’s licenses and private label things for department stores. i had a bit of luck and several of their full time designers had left just as i arrived. so i was able to do design of a ton of product within my first week. the owners really loved what i was working on and were very surprised that some of the things i was designing were exactly what they had just seen at trend forecasting presentations in europe – but i was fresh from out of town and hadn’t seen these presentations, i just had the sensibility. they offered me a full time job very quickly. i stayed for a season but ultimately decided to return to university and complete my degree.
SD: What inspires your designs?
Laura: people. i’m insatiably curious and nearly everything interests me. people’s behavior and motivation can occupy my imagination for a long time. i could study, pick apart, put myself in the shoes of, pretend to be and otherwise obsess about people forever.
SD: What is your design process?
Laura: um, chaos? 
i usually look at how larger factors might influence people’s behavior and attitudes. i pull in influences and trends from art, politics, furniture, nature, streetwear, film, music, accident, magazines. just life really. i bottle it and let it all distill for a few months and determine what the essence is so that i can strike through the heart of what people are feeling next.
SD: Describe your philosophy behind your designs?
Laura: be the change you wish to see in the world. i have one person on staff whose primary responsibility is to discover and develop organic materials and greener alternatives. my company recycles, keeps the electric lights off in the day time, uses non-oil public transit and recycles.
SD: What does your average day entail?
Laura: well that depends on which day you would like to talk about doesn’t it? working days… sometimes i get up at 5:30 a.m., begin my process, break for lunch for 15 minutes, skip dinner, have a break at 9:30 p.m., and then work a bit more until about 1:30 a.m. rinse. repeat.
some days i work from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and then walk around the city, look at the sunshine, sail paper airplanes, marvel at skyscrapers or the view from the williamsburg bridge and i’m so glad i live in new york that i could kiss the sidewalk.
some days i start playing in the afternoon, go to a cafe with friends for a few hours, play video games, then go out for a banger of a club night until the sun is coming up and enjoy everyone’s sensibility when their heads are a bit twisted. as i like human behavior, watching them stumble around in the dawn is pretty amusing to me.
SD: If you knew then (before you started your business) what you know now, what would you do differently?
Laura: everyone has strengths. find out what yours are. hire someone to take care of the rest. delegate.
SD: In your opinion what is the best and worst current fashion trend?
Laura: the best fashion trend is this harmonious, peaceful, soft, happy silhouette and feeling that is coming on. it’s quite post war. it’s the sort of shape that you could observe coming on when people have grown tired of strife and are moving towards a time of stability, and a flourishing of creative forces. it reminds me of the good periods of modernism but its edges are colored entirely differently and reflect the mash up of cultural influences that we have now due to the ease of travel and the internet.
i was looking at the cover of elle with a model this week. we were looking at the people who are in the media right now. what i can’t figure out is if i just don’t get it anymore because i’m no longer 13 years old or if these people really do have the nutritional value of a marshmallow. in a lot of people who make headlines i am frustrated. their one job is to inspire people. they aren’t doing their job. it’s disposable and forgettable. i want somebody who is ready to take our whole pop culture and put it in a blender on the highest setting. a lot of actresses are doing a mediocre job of imitating marilyn monroe (and forgetting entirely the grace of marlene dietrich) and a lot of music videos are doing a mediocre job of studying the dance moves of the jackson family. (that’s michael and janet and their siblings). i love the new.
SD: Who is your greatest influence and why?
Laura: john and yoko because they said something and said it so well they actually frightened the greater forces surrounding them. they showed the whole world that while dominant paradigms seem very stable, they are in fact as movable as sand on a beach.
i love lady sov and m.i.a. and the new london that is mashing up a brazilian sound and adding the crispy metallic edges of cities that have winter. the imagation space they’re making is like a neon snowflake under a microscope.
i heart adult swim – particularly aqua teen hunger force and harvey birdman and space ghost. there, i did it. i publicly admit to occasionally watching television, although it’s twisted cartoons.
SD: What do you think the hardest aspect of your industry is?
Laura: it’s a very slow craft and a very long game. having patience and resilience and unyielding determination is key.
SD: Do you have any events you are getting ready for in the near future?
Laura: um, a wedding.
SD: What’s next for your line?
Laura: let’s just say that i’m looking at brand value gained by controlling distribution channels and the equity involved in brick and mortar retail space.
SD: If there was one person on Smashing Darling you were curious about questioning…who would it be and what would you ask them?
Laura: hmmm…. probably the founders and their web mistress! how did you get started, how did you figure out the value in beginning such a cohesive web community? it’s like you’ve made your own channel and it’s really great for holding attention and maintaining traffic. people typically don’t just want to go shopping – they want to play and watch things and shop and go out all at once. mashing up the media is great. what were your aims in starting the site? what do you want it to become?
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Great interview. Laura is very insightful and I agree whole heartedly with her interpretation of what is happening in Fashion. It will be interesting to see how fashion is influenced by the next election.
I also completely agree with Laura on the cheesiness and lack of depth of celebrities right now. It disappoints me to see people with so much media power either make fools of themselves, or do nothing positive for the world.
Great interview girls!
Hi Laura,
Thanks so much for asking us a question. Here ya’ go:
We built SD because it was the exact thing we ourselves needed … and we knew there must be tons of others people out there just like us .
A little over a year ago, Trish and I started a line of baby products together. However, after we made the line we realized how much it would take to keep going. We needed a workroom, but couldn’t find one. We needed a website, but it was hugely expensive AND once built who would go to it without knowing us? We needed PR and sales help, but where do you go for that? There was just so much more to do than the two of us could ever imagine doing on our own.
Then the idea came to us: what if we built an online community where we could help other people like ourselves: a place where they would instantaneously have that community of not only like-minded designers, but also like-minded consumers to buy their products; a place where they could quickly and easily start selling their products; a place where they weren’t held hostage by a web developer for site design and maintenance. We built SD because we knew what an amazing resource it would be for designers, but also because we needed it, too!
Now that we’re up and rolling, we want the site and its designers to become a force to be reckoned with!!!! We want to shake up the industry and give power back to the designers to do things their way, whatever that way may be. Maybe, just maybe, the industry as a whole will start to learn that there is more than one way of doing things.