“Art has been something I love doing as long as I can remember, it really doesn’t feel like work for me, it something that really feels like I’d go crazy if I can’t do.” – Lauren Tsai
How would you describe your artistic works?
Lauren Tsai: I’ve always been inspired by animated films, I love fantasy, and I love surrealism. I inspired by many things, and music too. I think I have my own little fantasy world in my head that I like to draw all the time, and slowly I start to see more and more. The more I draw, the more I understand what I’m seeing.
Who or what inspires your artwork, if you can drop names?
Lauren Tsai: I think I always forget to talk about this but I really love ‘Coraline’, I also love all the Miyazaki’s films, ‘Your Name’ by Kimino Nawa, Pixar’s film like ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, Disney’s, Marvel’s, Lucas Films, and more. I just love stories, they help people through tough time, and they help people to dream, so it’s my goal to make a film one day.
Who are you hoping to collaborate with in the future?
Lauren Tsai: I would love to work with big-name studios like Disney, Marvel, and Ghibli. I would love to do some work for them someday, that would be a dream. Big fashion brands too, for sure!
What are your thoughts on sustainability and how do you think this applies to not only wellness and living but also with fashion?
Lauren Tsai: I’m actually vegan, and my reason for going vegan is because of the environmental impact of animal and agriculture, it’s something that I’m passionate about actually. I think the conservation of the environment is the most important thing, you know when you fight amongst ourselves politically over anything, over money, over land it’s all irrelevant for me if the environment goes to shit. Basically, we need to do what we can do about it. The challenge that I’m facing right now is that I do work in one of the most harmful industry to the environment, fashion industry. I can give you an example, veganism is not eating meat but veganism does not mean to be like this all or nothing it could be people just eat less meat, or they can go vegan once a week or something, it would help a lot. I think people have this idea of all or nothing and say “I can’t do that,” “that’s not for me,” and or “me changing is not gonna make a difference,” maybe one can’t but how about a lot? A lot of individuals they do make a difference. I want to change just to believe that other people will change as well, so I think for fashion you know… once I’m able to build a larger platform I would really like to start to talk about this issues, but now with work!
Left page, shirt Rani Hatta. Dress Yasutoshi Ezumi. Bow tie blouse Akira Naka. Right page, long jacket Rani Hatta. Inner dress Sirloin. High-neck leotard Atsushi Nakashima. Skirt G.V.G.V. Shoes ombre.
What do you think of the fashion industry these days? What are some of your favorite trends to come this year?
Lauren Tsai: I think it’s fascinating that a lot of fashion brands is doing artist collaborations with illustrators recently. It’s really cool just like Gucci and Unskilled Worker collaboration, I thought that was really beautiful. I also like that the high fashion brands are getting into streetwear; I think the argument would be that streetwear essentially comes from the subcultures, from the street. I really want to see how’s the involvement of the high fashion brands going to change the street culturally, there’s a kickback from the streetwear brand too against the high fashion, it’s an exciting thing to see.