Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 36
Occupation: Designer.
Instagram: @laurenmanoogian
Hometown: St. Louis.
Studio location: Brooklyn.
Describe what you make: The collection is primarily knitwear, but also handwoven accessories, crochet bags, shoes… ever-evolving with my interests.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The Capote Coat and Bowl Bag are two really long-lasting designs that have also created whole families of other designs from their elements.
Describe the problem your work solves: How to integrate traditional craft and highly technical details and processes into hopefully effortless, modern, essential knitwear and accessories while highlighting natural materials and unexpected textures.
Describe the project you are working on now: Developing the Fall 2020 collection. Choosing yarns and materials, making swatches, mocking up shapes, doing technical drawings. We’re also renovating spaces in New York and Paris.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I’m researching my first collection of handmade rugs and home objects, experimenting and embracing the non-deadline.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: I must have natural light, dogs. Popcorn, yarn, quiet space, and people with a sense of humor.
What you do when you’re not working: That’s not very often these days. I also travel a lot, so when I’m free, I try to be a homebody and recharge. I walk my dogs, cook, sauna, read, look at furniture auctions, and try to do nothing.
Sources of creative envy: For knitting, Susan Guagliumi, and all our master sample makers in Peru: Maria, Adolfo, Lucas, Enrique, Leo, and Edith. They all have such a depth of knowledge but at the same time open minds. They can really make anything.
The distraction you want to eliminate: There are too many to name and changing daily when you’re a human running a small business and living a full life, so mostly fear and worrying about things you can’t control. It’s the worst distraction.
Concrete or marble? Neither. I’m more wood or plaster.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Light.
