The Studio.

Who is behind the studio?

Floriane Lavrut, I am working freelance since 2018

What is your background?

I graduated from ESMOD fashion school in 2014 and took a specialty in graphic design throughout my first jobs.It’s during my stay at Saint Laurent where I was assisting the Textile Accessories’ team that I discovered an interest for prints and textile design. In order to broaden my skills, I took a two years night course and added life drawing workshops on a regular basis, including sessions at Beaux Arts de Paris.

Describe your style.

I love to mix digital colourisation - which is great to push the chroma of colors and play on strong contrasts - with handmade strokes and texture effects. To me it’s important to keep that hand feeling.I think today’s tools such as graphic tabs combined with CAD softwares are also super interesting to give that rough touch and have incredible rendition.I think that hand/digital association is something that is coming back quite often in my work…

What are your main inspirations / influences ?

I am fascinated by the imperfection you can detect in very organized systems. I love to look for the raw in a manufactured environment, and spontaneity in the « mistakes » within.I am an advocate of the Japanese Wabi-sabi aesthetic principle, Wabi = refers to the feeling of fullness and humility whenever you face natural phenomena and beauty ; Sabi = the manmade creation feeling.In a graphic way of speaking, I would say that I translate this principle by using organic shapes to which I oppose texture effects.

Which place inspires you the most?

Ideally I would love to nourish myself with the peacefulness of nature in a little wooden house close by a lake in Sweden…But I also need to observe the city as an indicator of sociological trends and modernity.

What sets off your passion for prints?

Honestly, the 80s are so responsible !

Your first print memories.

The silkies boxes in the archive of the textile museum in Lyon where I had lessons during my studies.

Describe your creation process.

I’m taking lots of pictures of random scenes from my daily surroundings in which I see something aesthetically pleasant. It could be related to the color palette, the rhythms… etc. that I do like to use then in my graphic contents.The problem when you live in Paris, is that the most things I see is : forgotten mattresses, landscaping projects, or ripped posters. So whenever you look at my phone it might sound that those are unintended snaps.Not striking at first, but we learn to see beauty in chaos.

While working, what do you listen?

I’m a fan of Spotify’s recommendations based on my tastes, so I’m always up to be pleasantly surprised by new discoveries.But depending from the mood, it goes from post-punk… to reggaeton.

What is your job's favorite part ?

A constant change

What type of product / sector do you mainly work for ?

Womenswear ready-to-wear & Children.

What do you want to accomplish in the future?

To be fully rooted in my personal, as well as professional, values.

The biggest challenge you had to handle as a designer?

Designing an object or a print causes a responsibility in what you communicate through it and in the way it’s manufactured.I am very scared to do unconscious cultural appropriation sometimes and not paying enough tribute to the birth of my inspiration… but I am pleading for an absolute transparency of iconographic credits whenever I can communicate on it.

What advice would you like to give to new designers who are just starting out?

Patience and never give up <3