Exciting Designs Fueled by Basic Necessities
Designer Raffaella Hanley presented her most recent collection at Arsenal Contemporary NY, during New York Fashion Week in February. The presentation drew in an “artsy downtown crowd” to the art gallery on the Bowery. Hanley has created for her label Lou Dallas since 2013. Inspired by Bruce Willis's character Korban Dallas from the movie The Fifth Element, Hanley, a Rhode Island School of Design educated painter, turned to textiles and hand-sewing collections for others before coming to the realization that she had to make it on her own.
Hanley’s first collection was designed in part because she was "too ‘broke’ to buy herself any clothing." In fact, her first show in 2013 was in her mother’s apartment in New York, attended primarily by friends and by happenstance, DIS Magazine. Her second show was in the studio of a friend of her father. After pursuing an MFA at Parson’s for a year, Hanley returned to designing full-time, and, "her hard work has definitely paid off: her designs even made an appearance on the red carpet of the Met Gala last year."
Image Credit: Instagram / @lou_dallas
The look of Lou Dallas has been described as “downtown style” with a Renaissance vibe but with a “modern approach to sustainability” as Hanley produces "almost all her clothes from dead-stock (unused) interior fabrics." For Fall 2018, Hanley “expanded on her range of custom-dyed cotton frocks, introducing corseted minidresses with pouf-y sleeves." "The designer has a penchant for whimsical cropped jackets, and this season she added portrait collar coats that were laden with personal touches—feathers and sequins—to the lineup." Her collection “consisted of knits that were all loomed in-house and hand-dyed fabrics topped off with embroidery and sequins that were also done by hand—and worn with shoes hand-painted by the artist Will Sheldon. For many brands, this type of fastidiousness would merit labeling the garments "couture," but for Hanley, it's simply her process.” The newest collection was well received.
The Lou Dallas label is not ready for mass production as Hanley’s team remains small. Her work is “eccentric” and “personalized” making it difficult to be mass produced. Her concept tees that she has been developing, with anti-war slogans, are, however, more suitable for mass production and have the “potential to go viral."
Hanley’s "’main goal is now to ‘make it work with the deadstock material, because I'm committed to repurposing and reusing." In this era of committed conservation, Hanley may be on to something.
You can follow Hanley on her Instagram page for Lou Dallas.
