Lost&Found, By Ria Dunn

  

Interview by Kevin Y.

H.Lorenzo had the pleasure to interview Ria Dunn, creator of the artisanal Tuscan label Lost&Found, to hear her meditations on design.  Lost&Found produces phenomenal menswear and womenswear, and we read a complex interplay of nonchalance, experimentation, and luxurious elegance in this season's offerings.  Like many things we esteem, Lost&Found is a label whose details are its most salient features, and so it should be experienced firsthand to be appreciated in full.   

How did the label “Lost&Found” originate?

Lost & Found originated from my desire to create something that could communicate to a customer more deeply and could represent something meaningful.  I had worked in the clothing industry for many years and I was stuck in this cycle of disposable fashion.  I was tired of it and decided that I wanted to do something opposite of that world.  I wanted to create clothing that would remain with time, clothing that was intriguing in a deeper sense.  I wanted to create a way of dressing that was more introspective and private.  So I began to think about discovery and loss...and it's cycle...and this was the creation of Lost & Found.

Using labor-intensive techniques, Lost&Found seems to reclaim romantic traditions with regards to how clothing is made.  What compelled you to choose this path?

It was not really a choice I made, but it was really the instinctive and natural way I've always wanted to make clothes.  I am compelled to go extremely deep in all of the research and development of a piece/a collection.  I am an emotional person, and I need that you can pick up a garment and find something personally revealed in it.  I can only do that by starting the creation process right from the first material.

I understand that your garments are made in old Tuscan textile mills, as an homage to artisanal craft of clothes-making.  Can you share with us a particularly interesting step of your design (or production) process?

I do work almost exclusively in Tuscany with many traditional companies or artisans who have been working in a certain way for years.  I suppose the most interesting part of the process is when I am developing a fabric for a collection.  My inspiration could come from even a scrap of antique cloth I found some place.  But my interest is not to recreate the past, but to take these old sensibilities and make them modern and interesting.  After a fabric is weaved, I take it to a special place near my studio where it is then finished and dyed.  It feels like some post-war laboratory, but magic comes out of that place!  The man i work with is like a modern alchemist...and through different washes, dyes and finishes (for example a treatment with a powdered glass or live enzymes) these amazing materials are brought to life. I find it all incredibly interesting. 

Could you please share about some of your research before collections (e.g. fabric choice, concepts, traditional garments, etc)?

I always begin with material.  It is rare that I design something without knowing what I am working with.  

And in many cases, these fabrics are custom developed based on the small pieces of inspiration I find.   It is hard to define my process exactly, because every season it changes.  I always draw upon my experiences of traveling abroad.  I have done extensive travel through North Africa and this is something that will never leave me; it will always be a reference for me because it was such an important part of my life.  I have large archives of the things I have collected over there, fabrics, garments or fragments of jewelry that I am always looking back at.  And sometimes I take a simple concept and go deeply into it.  This Fall for example, I focused a lot on taking the materials that are used inside a garment for construction and using them as the main material for the garment.  I have taken these relatively crude or simple fabrics and refinished and dyed them to be something really interesting and beautiful.  So my process always changes.

How do you desire that people interpret your clothing conceptually?

I don't want to tell people how to interpret my clothing.  In fact, I like to tell them as little as possible about it so that people can come to their own conclusions, see their own stories or be moved for their own reasons.  I want the garment to be a catalyst for their own personal expression, rather than adopting mine.  Sometimes that means that the influences I put into it are lost, however it is not the most important thing for me.  What is important is how a person feels when they interact with the clothes:  purely and without influence.  

Can you share with us typically how long it takes to produce a garment by hand?

Forever - I created a small pair of intensely knit gloves.   They took 2-3 days to create one pair.

I understand that Lost&Found is something that is ever-evolving.  Knitwear seems to be the current meditation of your designs.  Will this carry on, or will a new medium emerge?

I began with a strong focus on knitwear because it seems to me absolutely essential...the ease of it, the way it can mold or blanket your body.  And I was also technically very intrigued by knitwear as it is extremely different from work done with fabric.  Knitwear will always be important in my collection, but it evolves with every season.  There will of course be new focuses for continuing seasons. The mens collection is taking a lot of my time and focus as well, and my work in fabric is continuing to be more important. But new mediums must emerge, otherwise the project becomes stagnant.

For you, what constitutes beauty in relation to clothing?  (e.g. silhouette, movement with wear, change over time, etc.)

Beauty is subtlety, a piece of clothing aged on a person, where it takes there form, the shape of their body, where the wear and color are changed with exposure, where it becomes an imprinted by the person that wears it...that is beauty to me at the moment.

How do you perceive the relationship between structure and fluidity in your garments?

I find that contradictions are the most interesting of all and I do try to infuse both fluidity and structure in the collection.  I am constantly working with shapes and forms that collapse on the body.  I like to study how a fluid shape can change once it is worn, but structure is becoming more important to me and you will see more of that interacting with the softness.

Lost&Found collections are always very interesting to the touch.  How do you think the tactile experience of your garments communicates your aesthetic? 

So many of my customers, when they see the collection, pick up the pieces and bring it close to their noses, to smell or just to get closer.  It always makes me really happy to see this because it means that I have touched that person in the most raw and instinctual way.  I have always worked to convey these natural aspects that are haunting and revealing, and I hope they are transmitted through the most authentic way possible, through all of the senses.

Do you work in other forms of art, or has clothing design always been the medium of choice to convey your message? 

I have always thrown myself into painting, photography and writing and have done so for a very long time, but the natural evolution of those expressions has been in the form of design.

Is there a particular culture or era that fascinates you?

I am fascinated by Arab cultures and backgrounds.

Is there a certain emotion that you associate with this collection?

I leave that up to the person interacting with it to decide.

                        

all images courtesy of Lost&Found Design.