Karolina Laskowska

Sample auction

Karolina — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:47:22 +0000

SAMPLE AUCTION IS NOW CLOSED. Please visit the online shop in the links above for other designs by Karolina Laskowska.…

Happy Easter!

Karolina — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:53:01 +0000

Five people have now found all the eggs and the hunt is over, thank you everyone for taking part!

Happy Easter everyone! I went a bit mad today and ended up making my eggs rather lingerie themed, as you can see in this facebook album... So then I thought why not carry on with the egg theme and run an egg hunt? I’ve hidden 16 Easter eggs around the website. The first five people to correctly find and email me (to info@karolinalaskowska.co.uk) all of the locations will get a 25% one-time discount code for the webshop whilst the first one will receive an extra lingerie-related surprise in the post. Happy hunting! Please only email when you have found ALL of the locations! xx

P.S. This is what you’re looking for (and no this one doesn’t count!) – they could be any size!:

Competition time again!

Karolina — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:44:01 +0000

It’s competition time again! I finally hit the 2000 likes milestone on my facebook page so I figured it was time for my fans to have another chance to win exciting knickers. Once again there’s a few ways to enter, as well as a more creative side – I decided to go for illustration as it was so successful last time, and I feel as though it would encourage more creativity than asking you to just design something! Read below for more details on how to enter…

How to enter:

On facebook - share this image on your wall (make sure your privacy settings are set to public so I can count you in!) – 1 entry

On twitter - tweet about this competition and link this post, make sure you mention @karolinazl – 1 entry

Reblog the competition on tumblr (link here) – 1 entry

Leave a comment on this blog post saying how you’d style a Karolina Laskowska design – remember to leave an email! (2 entries)

Submit a photo of you wearing your Karolina Laskowska design for the customer gallery (if you have already sent one in then message me and you will be counted!) – 5 entries

A blog entry about Karolina Laskowska (please email me the link, must be a recent post!) – 5 entries

And finally…

Illustrate your favourite Karolina Laskowska design – this area of the competition will have its own separate prize (for the one I choose as my favourite!) as well as counting for 10 entries. I’m not looking for a life-like copy of one of my photos – experiment! It doesn’t have to be realistic, it can be as exciting and impressionistic as you want it to be. Check out the last competition’s entries for some inspiration.

The prizes:

Both winners will have a choice between a £100 voucher code for my shop or a one-off pair of vintage kimono silk or couture lace appliquéd knickers.

The competition will end Sunday the 31^st March at 20.00 GMT. The winner will be picked by random number generation. Please send any images or illustrations to info@karolinalaskowska.co.uk and please note that by sending them you consent to me sharing them on social media and on my website. If you have any questions then let me know. Happy competition times!

Karolina xx

The Corset Project

Karolina — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:39:46 +0000

This was a project I already wrote about briefly in my column for The Lingerie Addict. I only recently received my marks back for it (and consequently was only just able to collect the work itself!) – I thought it was about time that I gave a bit more of an in-depth view of the creative side of the project, particularly the sketchbook and illustration work – I have a feeling that technical files and market research would just bore most people

A quick note about my sketchbook – I don’t claim rights to any of the images other than the drawings and textile samples. I am happy to provide sources for individual images if there are any queries but it would simply take too long to go through each individual page and type credits! They are written in the sketchbook itself but unfortunately that isn’t visible at web resolution. I also have a bad habit of ‘layering’ my sketchbook pages, which can make it incredibly difficult to photograph! I’ve ommited my design development sketches due to personal embarrassment, drawing realistically isn’t one of my skills!

Sketchbook:

Moodboard:

Collection line sheet:

Final illustration board:

Final garments on the catwalk:

I am of course happy to answer any questions about inspirations/the design process/anything else related that you can think of and would love to hear your opinions

Karolina xx

Nutricula

Karolina — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:06:00 +0000

It’s been quite a while since I updated this blog with my university goings-on! I finally received my marks back for one of the first projects I handed in this year this morning and I was very pleasantly surprised with my grade. Those of you who know me well will know I have a few issues with self-confidence so a boost like that was very welcome! I thought I’d take the opportunity to share the creative process in a bit more depth (you may have already read about the project on The Lingerie Addict but it was not complete at the time of publishing). The creative areas of this course make up a much smaller part of what we learn than most people would expect, though I don’t quite see the point of sharing my technical folders, market research or basic garments on the internet. Additionally, I don’t really want anyone stealing my patterns or designs after the work that I put in

The initial inspiration for this project was jellyfish and the incredible colours and shapes they created. I’d like to think my sketchbook is fairly self explanatory as to my thought process, and I’ve photographed it as best as I could (I tend to work in quite a messy fashion so often ideas get layered onto the page – not the easiest thing to capture in a photo!). Enjoy and feel free to ask me any questions down in the comments below

Click on thumbnails to go to the full image. Please note that many images in the sketchbook and moodboard do not belong to me and were simply referenced as inspiration. All print designs, illustrations, garment designs and final photographs are by Karolina Laskowska. Many thanks to Natasha Mei Ling Chung for modelling!

Sketchbook:

Moodboard:

Illustration boards:

Final garments:

Final photoshoot:

I had very limited resources (and time!) for this photoshoot so ended up spending a lot of time on it on photoshop (incorporating some of my experiment photography) and by hand. This inkjet print was rather abused by me in the end but I rather like the effect it’s had!

I always have mixed feelings towards my work but I don’t think it was a bad start for the year – I’ve learned so many things from it and I’m enjoying sinking my teeth into all of our new projects! What do you think of this project? Is this the sort of lingerie you’d like to wear?

Karolina xx

Illustration Competition

Karolina — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:08:56 +0000

Illustration by Cristiane Tano of the Elzbieta pentagram playsuit

I’m delighted to announce Cristiane Tano as the winner of the illustration section of my recent competition. I absolutely adore the mark-making and painterly style of this illustration, with such a gorgeously subtle depiction of my lingerie. Congratulations Cristiane! I will be in touch soon to discuss your prize – either a mystery one-off piece of lingerie or a shop voucher.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the illustration competition, there have been some truly wonderful entries and I almost wish I could give prizes to everyone! Click on the thumbnails below to view the entries.

I love how so many people were inspired to take part and would love to hold another similar competition in the future. I’d also love to hear what you think of the entries in the comments below – which ones are your favourites?

Karolina xx

September 2012 Competition Winners Announced

Karolina — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:48:10 +0000

Competition winners for my 1000-fan competition have been drawn! All entries were compiled and winners were drawn with a random number generator.
First prize – Calamity Amelie (illustration)
Second prize – Lucinda (blog comment)
Third prize – Dysharmonya (tumblr reblog)
Fourth prize – Sian Rookwood (illustration)

Congratulations! I’ll be getting in touch with all of the winners shortly about their prizes. I will also be announcing the winner of the illustration competition very shortly so watch this space! xx

Competition time!

Karolina — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:07:28 +0000

My designs in the window of Justine & Juliette

Oh my goodness, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the amount of support from everyone recently! It’s been quite a humbling experience the amount of lovely comments and gestures that I’ve seen from all of my friends, family and fans and it really helps to cement in my head that starting this brand was a good idea (that and the fact that I’ve seen my pants in a shop window, which was quite frankly pretty damn awesome). I’ve been promising it for a while on facebook: that once I hit 1000 ‘likes’ I’d have a competition. So here we go with competition time! There are going to be four prizes:

Either a £100 voucher to my online shop OR a mystery bespoke piece of lingerie – one-of-a-kind and made to your size!
Either a Zuzanna frame bra or Kordelia harness
A set of embellished leather pasties or a lace eyemask
A 25% off discount code for my online shop with no expiry date

There’s a few ways to enter this competition and ways to get more than one entry – everything is listed below!

Leave a comment on this blog post (make sure you include your email!) – 1 vote
Tweet about me (@karolinazl) and link this giveaway on twitter – 1 vote
Repost my giveaway post on Tumblr (http://karolinalaskowska.tumblr.com)– 1 vote
Share my page on Facebook (http://facebook.com/karolinalaskowskadesign) – making sure that you tag Karolina Laskowska and make the post ‘public’ so that I can see it! - 2 votes
Write a blog about Karolina Laskowska lingerie and link to this giveaway (make sure you let me know about it!) – 5 votes
Write a blog post about how you would style your favourite piece of Karolina Laskowska lingerie (again, please make sure you let me know about it!) – 5 votes
Illustrate your favourite Karolina Laskowska design (please email your entries to info@karolinalaskowska.co.uk) – 10 votes

I have a feeling this might all be a little excessive but I really am so happy to have reached this landmark and truly want to celebrate it! I hope you all enjoy entering this competition and the very best of luck to you all <3 The competition will close Sunday 30^th September so get your entries in!

Karolina xx

Welcome to the new website!

Karolina — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:27:16 +0000

Hello there and thank you for visiting the new Karolina Laskowska website! I’ve been um-ing and aah-ing over whether or not to keep the blog for quite a while, before finally going with the former. I’d like to have somewhere to write about my ideas, projects and adventures. There’s also the fact that the posts from my previous websites, such as the one about my Contour Fashion application portfolio, have actually helped people - I wouldn’t want to take that away (especially as my reason for uploading it in the first place was the lack of such online resources). Even though I want to start being a ‘brand’, I am still just a student and want to be able to share my university experiences! Feel free to browse my blog archive for a little window into my life as a Contour Fashion student.

Anyway, this will be my special corner of the internet for rambling, be it about knickers or sparkly things. Suggestions for what you’d like to see here are very welcome, and please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!

Karolina xx

University: Fashion Illustration – first project

Karolina — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:19:58 +0000

I don’t have a good relationship with drawing. I seem incapable of understanding body proportions (in humans either way) so when we were first set this project I was terrified. I managed to get into the swing of things towards the end (though clearly not in the typical ‘fashion illustration’ sense) even if I did manage to get paint everywhere. The brief for this project stated that we had to choose 2 designer collections and 5 fashion illustrators to study. By the end of the project we were to have 6 final images – 4 in 2 illustrators styles and 2 in our own.

I looked at Rachel Freire and Iris Van Herpen’s AW10/11 collections and the illustrators Mats Gustafson, Aurore de la Morinerie and Francois Berthoud. I’m actually quite pleased with the outcome of this project. Luckily my tutor was too and getting my grade back today has made me feel rather pleased with myself…

Sketchbook:

Final Illustrations

Style of Mats Gustafson:

Style of Francois Berthaud:

Own style: