Lucia Chain | FASHIONCLASH Festival 2017

Meet Lucia Chain, a fashion designer from Argentina. She originally comes from Bernal, a town located in the province of Buenos Aires. She graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (U. B. A), from the department of Architecture, Design and Urbanism. She realized she wanted to be a fashion designer in her early childhood when her grandmother taught her how to sew and embroider. Ever since then she viewed it as a fun game of playing with fabrics and imagining a runway full of her collections. Then when she grew up, she decided to pursue a career in fashion. 

"I realized that fashion does not only mean 'making clothes' and that we can use fashion as a medium to express ourselves or to criticize something we don’t like of society, then I really fell in love. " 

This is how Lucia describes her love of fashion. Her career took off from winning the SEMILLERO UBA prize, which gave her an opportunity to present her collection on the Buenos Aires Fashion Week, upon graduating from the university. She is currently involved in preparing the collection that she will present at the FASHIONCLASH Festival, and teaching design at the university she graduated from, twice a week.
To see Lucia's and many other collections, book your tickets to the FASHIONCLASH festival here.

FC: What do you love the most about your profession?
I love the challenge of preparing a collection for a show; making all the garments with time thinking about a strong concept that defines the state that I am in.

FC: How would you define fashion? 
Fashion is a tool of expression which gives us the opportunity to be ourselves and change the world.

FC: What fascinates/inspires you and why?
I find inspiration in committed people who work everyday for a better world, respecting the environment and standing away of the system and questioning it. Commitment, simplicity, honesty,
origin, respect, unity, strength and consistency are what inspire me the most.

FC: Finding your own distinctive voice can be difficult, where and how do you find your personal creativity (before you start designing/during the design process)? 
I constantly return to my origin. Creativity comes when I know who I am and where I come from. That gives me enough tools to build my own speech.

FC: What challenges did you face during the design process? 
In Argentina we don’t have the ultimate technology or the most sophisticated fabrics, so we have to be intelligent and know what we can produce in an original way. The key always is to return to our origin, return to nature. That gives me the possibility to learn about natural pigments and organic fabrics.

FC: What do you want to communicate with your work in general?
I work to communicate my discomfort about the system and generate a change of consciousness that makes us strong and independent and allows us to respect everything around us. To respect nature and human beings is the new Punk Rock attitude.

FC: Can you tell us something about the project you will present at the FASHIONCLASH Festival?
“Salvaje Silvestre” is inspired by the rebirth of handcrafts, as a return to our origin and a reconnection with the human essence. Deconstructing the body, the uniform flow through it, imprinting it and taking a new sense. The collection is colored with the use of organic waste (e,g. onion skins, shiso leaves, black beans, etc.), having as a result, a worn out palette, with stresses as vibrating traces. Based on the human principles of work, collaboration, occupation and effort, the embroideries trace this new construction of the body.

FC: What do you try to communicate with your project?
The importance of this new movement called Craftivism, as a social process of collective empowerment, action, expression and negotiation that works out of the system.

FC: Why have you decided to participate at FASHIONCLASH Festival? 
It is my first time to participate at FASHIONCLASH and I take it as a big challenge, because it is my second time presenting my work in another country which means a huge growth for my brand. FASHIONCLASH is a festival that questions the fashion system, it’s an honor for me being part of this edition.

FC: Does fashion make sense to you? 
I think that fashion should not be thought as an ostentation frivolity and a leisure activity.

Fashion has skills to empower people to be themselves, to show off their unique beauty and to use their influence to empower change in the world. 

FC: What are your thoughts on making ‘fashion’ more environmentally-friendly?
I think that as a fashion designer I have to be seriously committed to the environment. My designs are made by hand in my little and shiny studio with organic and recycled materials. I use eco, and sustainable fabrics, all natural plant-based fibers and recycled plant-based dyes. Zero waste patterns, a-gender fits and sustainable production are important methods of my work.

FC: What senses are engaged in your creation process?
I hand dyed the garments with plant based dyes and organic waste that came from food. When I’m in the process of experimentation I enjoy much of the scents, colors and even flavors that arise from the research.

FC: What’s a standard day for you?
Work Work Work. Go to college to teach and return to my studio and work work work.

FC: Vegan, vegetarian, healthy diet or any food will do? 
Vegetarian

FC: Best Tv-show/movie at the moment? 
Spring, summer, fall, winter and spring – Kim ki duk

FC: What is your bad habit? 
Chocolates and ice-cream

FC: Are you a people's person or a loner?
I love silence and being alone.

FC: Do you have a pet? 
A lovely dog named “Rulo”

FC: What’s your favorite city?
San Javier ( Córdoba, Argentina )

FC: What/Who do you miss the most when you are not at home?
My little dog and my plants.

FC: What do you enjoy the most in life?
Working on my projects.

FC: Who is your biggest example/idol? 
Jeong Kwan

Read more about Lucia's brand here.