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Studio updates.

Newspaper article in E Magazine in the Portuguese newspaper Expresso

O fim dos espartilhos foi uma revolução na moda e na vida das mulheres

21 MARÇO 2024    22:57

Anabela Becho

MODA, O FIM DOS ESPARTILHOS

O paradigma da relação entre o corpo

e o vestuário mudou para sempre no

início do século XX. Constrangido

durante séculos, prisioneiro de um

ideal muitas vezes próximo da

alienação, o corpo foi libertado e

assumido na sua real fisicalidade

Para Lara Torres, doutorada em Moda e professora no Departamento de Moda e Têxteis do London College of Fashion e na School of Arts, Design and Performance da Universidade de Portsmouth, também no Reino Unido, a menor representatividade das mulheres em cargos de topo na moda está ligada ao facto de vivermos numa sociedade pa­triarcal, na qual os homens detêm o poder primário. “O patriarcado está tão enraizado nos sistemas sociais que tem sido ensinado como algo natural que não deve ser mudado ou questionado. A história não é linear; houve, de facto, um período em particular onde muitas mulheres estavam à frente das grandes marcas de moda, principalmente no início do século XX. Há uma certa ausência masculina nessa época, devido ao recrutamento militar entre as duas grandes guerras mundiais, e nessa altura há também o desenvolvimento dos movimentos de emancipação feminina. Muitas vezes, a participação nesses movimentos era possibilitada pela substituição dos homens no mercado de trabalho numa série de profissões que até então eram masculinas, representando a oportunidade de autonomia financeira. Nem sempre há uma relação direta, mas eu creio que estamos a falar do espírito dos tempos — essa mudança da condição feminina foi encabeçada por mulheres muito independentes.”

Lara Torres
Costume Design Collaboration with Sónia Baptista

SÓNIA BAPTISTA

SWEAT, SWEAT, SWEAT (UM CONJUNTO DE PEQUENOS AFRONTAMENTOS)

RESIDÊNCIA / ANTESTREIA

Se, há vinte anos atrás, a minha primeira série de peças curtas, foi a do fim da juventude, esta segunda série de peças curtas será a do fim da idade adulta. Se a minha primeira série de peças curtas celebrava o verão desabrochante de desejo e possibilidades, esta marca o fim do verão, do cheiro do outono que vem, de mudanças que se adivinham, no corpo e no espirito, de um habitar um corpo que se transforma e um estado que se instala, que se aceita, que se acolhe. Na filosofia chinesa é observada uma quinta estação do ano, o verão tardio, um período expectante, de preparação para um novo estado, sereno e reconfortante. Nesta minha cronologia de vida é aí que eu me sinto, me revejo, vivendo um verão tardio, preparando-me para a outra metade da minha vida, fisicamente, emocionalmente, artisticamente.

Diz-se que o verão é nostálgico, que traz muitas memórias, memórias de outros verões. Estes pequenos poemas performáticos serão talvez, no fundo, postais de verão. Wish you were here… _SÓNIA BAPTISTA

Lara Torres
Taking part in the Bienal Sur 2023 - Opening 9 August 2023

SHE DEVIL

Image: Ana Gallardo, Casa rodante, 2007

Opening: Wednesday August 9th 12pm

BIENALSUR presents SHE DEVIL, a project launched in 2006 by STUDIO STEFANIA MISCETTI in Rome, where the 13th edition will be held this year. She-Devil, or Shanna the She-Devil, is the name of an adventurous Marvel heroine, one of the first whose identity features break with stereotypical roles of femininity. Inspired by Shanna's mischievous, irreverent, and incisive spirit, SHE DEVIL is an ongoing female curatorial collective. The gender perspective is defined by the theme chosen for each edition: the body, power, the struggle, the mirror. Each curator selects an audio-visual work, introduced by a brief description. Additionally, all the participants jointly contemplate and discuss the work of the artists chosen by their colleagues, following a format reminiscent of the women's salons of the 19th century. At that time, the domestic domain was the primary space for the political education of women, who were excluded from public debates. SHE DEVIL serves as a reminder that the salon model and the informal gathering are still tools of empowerment through "the feminisation of conversation as an intellectual, artistic and political practice".

In the halls of the MUNTREF Museo de Artes Visuales, BIENALSUR presents a selection of 14 videos of the SHE DEVIL project, which will offer a transversal reading of its different editions. At the end of the tour, two video loops summarising each edition will be presented, and the auditorium will screen a loop with historical videos that were part of the proposal. Finally, in line with the constant expansion of SHE DEVIL, the project in Argentina incorporates new voices: four curators from the BIENALSUR team invite four local artists to present their work.

Benedetta Casini

Venue: MUNTREF Artes Visuales sede Caseros I

Address : Valentín Gómez 4838

City : Argentina

Artist(s):

Eugenia Calvo (ARG)

Ana Gallardo (ARG)

Lida Abdul (USA-AFG)

Lia Chaia (BRA)

Nil Yalter (TUR)

Emilija Škarnulytė (LTU)

Bertille Bak (FRA)

Zoulikha Bouabdellah (ALG)

Johanna Bruckner (DEU-AUT)

Anetta Mona Chisa (ROU)

Kathryn Cornelius (USA)

Lilibeth Cuenca (DNK-PHL)

Silvia Giambrone (ITA)

Marta Dell’Angelo (ITA)

Maria Di Stefano (ITA)

Ellie Ga (USA)

Kate Gilmore (IRL)

Margherita Giusti (ITA)

Laura Grisi (ITA)

Nilbar Güres (AUT-TUR)

Shadi Harouni (USA-IRN)

Kristina Inčiūraitė (LTU)

Jess Johnson & Simon Ward (USA-NZ)

Flo Kasearu (EST)

Nina Lassila (FIN)

Loredana Longo (ITA)

Jumana Manna y Sille Storihle (USA-NOR)

Rachel Maclean (GBR-Escocia)

Katharina D. Martin (DEU)

Nandipha Mntambo (ZAF)

Tamara Moyzes (CZE-SVK)

Ariel Nahón (ARG)

Trine Lise Nedreaas (GBR-Escocia)

ORLAN (FRA)

Luana Perilli (ITA)

Mariuccia Pisani (ITA)

Anna Raimondo (ITA)

Julika Rudelius (DEU)

Larissa Sansour (PSE)

Marinella Senatore (ITA)

Tracey Snelling (USA)

Lerato Shadi (ZAF)

Elaine Shemilt (GBR-Escocia)

Irene Sosa (USA)

Gian Domenico Sozzi (ITA)

Mathilde Ter Heijne (FRA-DEU-NLD)

Christian Thompson (AUS)

Lara Torres (GBR)

Eulalia Valldosera (ESP)

Marisa Williamson (USA)

Ming Wong (DEU-SGP)

Rona Yefman y Tanja Schlander (ISR-DNK)

Mary Zygouri (GRE)

Joanna Zylinska (GBR)

Angela Marzullo (CHE-ITA)

Curatorship:

BIENALSUR (ARG)

STUDIO STEFANIA MISCETTI (ITA)

Type(s):

Exhibition

From 2023/08/09

To 2023/12/30

Lara Torres
REF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK 2021 SHOWCASE

Away Day for the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries

Presentation at the Research Excellent Framework Away Day Showcase

The REF showcase event took place on Thursday 9th March at the Institute of Marine Sciences.

Lara Torres
Watch the video for our recent panel discussion about new fashion systems on Youtube

The mainstream fashion industry is built upon the exploitation of labour and natural resources. Wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, and growth and profit are rewarded above all else. Big brands and retailers produce too much too fast and manipulate us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption. Meanwhile, the majority of people that make our clothes are not paid enough to meet their basic needs, and already feel the impacts of the climate crisis - which the fashion industry fuels. As global citizens, we all have the power to take action. This Fashion Revolution Week, join us in reimagining a just and equitable fashion system for people and the planet. 

On the panel we have: Dr Sass Brown, Bel Jacobs, and Beata Wilczek Moderated by Lara Torres and Noorin Khamisani.

Lara Torres
Fashion Revolution Week Panel Discussion on Apr 21, 2022 06:00 PM London

What are the regenerative, restorative and revolutionary new fashion systems?

As part of Fashion Revolution Week, the faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Portsmouth invite you to an online panel discussion exploring new fashion systems.

The mainstream fashion industry is built upon the exploitation of labour and natural resources. Wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, and growth and profit are rewarded above all else. Big brands and retailers produce too much too fast, and manipulate us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption. Meanwhile, the majority of people that make our clothes are not paid enough to meet their basic needs, and already feel the impacts of the climate crisis - which the fashion industry fuels. As global citizens, we all have the power to take action. This Fashion Revolution Week, join us in reimagining a just and equitable fashion system for people and the planet. In this online panel discussion we will be exploring: “What are the regenerative, restorative and revolutionary new fashion systems?”

On the panel we have:

Dr. Sass Brown, previously the Founding Dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, she is now the course leader for Kingston University London’s newest MA – Sustainable Fashion: Business and Practices. Brown completed her PhD in 2021 on Global Artisanship and Models of Sustainable Development. Prior to joining DIDI, Sass was the Interim Dean for the Fashion Institute of Technology's School of Art and Design in New York. As a researcher, writer and educator, Brown's area of expertise is ethical fashion, and her publications include the books Eco Fashion and ReFashioned for British publishers Laurence King.

Bel Jacobs, a former fashion editor, turned writer, speaker and activist on climate justice, animal rights and alternative systems in fashion. She is founder of the Fashion in Schools Project, highlighting the impact of the fashion industry to secondary students; The Empathy Project, an online magazine amplifying the ethics of protecting animals and people; and the Islington Climate Centre, working with local groups and organisations to bring Islington to net zero.

Beata Wilczek, who specializes in building projects for digital, sustainable, and diverse fashion futures. She is the Head of Digital Sustainability and Social Impact at The Dematerialised and Founder and Research Director at Unfolding Strategies, a fashion consultancy and education lab.

Moderated by Dr Lara Torres and Noorin Khamisani.

Lara Torres
Costume Collab with Sónia Baptista in WOW - Showing at Culturgest Lisboa 13, 14 & 15 JAN 2022

SÓNIA BAPTISTA

WOW


In Ancient Greece, beautiful and good were considered to be inseparable concepts. The contemplation of beauty was supposed not only to produce wonder and delight but also to bring the spectator closer to a wish for justice and a desire for higher ideals. But, over time, the cult of beauty has also had its detractors. Beauty, they maintain, is a mere distraction from what really matters. More than beauty, it is the ugliness that leads us to transcend the appearance of physical matter and that opens our minds to the truthful and the haunting perception of the sublime.  As if it were a transcendental shock, a creation of the mind, in which terror and pleasure are mixed together. 

At the end of the day, we can show the grace of what we have because our disgrace is beautiful for others.
The ugly seems beautiful to those who love it.


13 JAN 2022
THU 21:00

14 JAN 2022
FRI 21:00

15 JAN 2022
SAT 19:00

A CREATION BY
Sónia Baptista, Joana Levi, Josefa Pereira, Gaya Medeiros, Raquel Melgue, Maayan Sophia Weisstub, Cire Ndiaye, Eduardo Raon, Mariana Gomes, Daniel Worm and Lara Torres


Lara Torres
Commoning situated knowledge: co-teaching-and-learning the ‘design-led upcycling’ of waste clothing

Secondhand Cultures in Unsettled Times Symposium

15-16 June 2021

Authors: Dr Elaine Igoe, Susan Noble , Lara Torres and Jennifer CunninghamAffiliation: University of Portsmouth

Authors: Dr Elaine Igoe, Susan Noble , Lara Torres and Jennifer Cunningham

Affiliation: University of Portsmouth

This study examines the introduction of a ‘design-led upcycling’ group project into an established design and enterprise curriculum structure with second year students on BA (Hons) Fashion and Textile Design at the University of Portsmouth. It reflects the common experience and situated knowledge of academic, technical staff and students contextualised within the changing imperatives of design education.

Lara Torres
LIVING ROOM with Lara Torres, Dobrila Denegri and Linda Loppa at Manifattura Tabacchi, November 28th 2019

Location: basement of B9 at Manifattura Tabacchi, Florence

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LIVING ROOM

Michelangelo Giombini, Head of product development MTDM, invites us to have a conversation about the exhibition “if I could, unless we”, the “transfashional” project and about Fashion in general, the relationship between Art and Fashion, and finally about Sustainability in fashion on the occasion of the catalogue launch for the exhibition “if I could, unless we”.

Lara Torres
TRANSFASHIONAL Nuovo lessico post interdisciplinare tra arte, moda e design

Opening of the exhibition on 26th October 2019 at 6 pm | City Museum of Rimini - Modern Hall | 27.10. 2019 - 06.01.2020

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Transfashional

Post/Inter/Disciplinary Lexicon

27.10. 2019 - 06.01.2020

With the participation of: Manora Auersperg, Linnea Bågander, Naomi Bailey Cooper, Sonja Bäumel, Christina Dörfler Raab, Naomi Filmer, Barbara Graf, Shan He, Milena Heussler, Afra Kirchdorfer, Saina Koohnavard, Kate Langrish Smith, Ulrik Martin Larsen, Maximilian Mauracher, Wojciech Małolepszy & Robert Pludra, Ana Rajčević, Clemens Thornquist, Lara Torres, Aliki van der Kruijs

Encounter with Aliki van der Kruijs on 26th October 2019 at 4 pm

Sala Arazzi Museo della Città di Rimini

Curated by Dobrila Denegri

Lara Torres
Symposium: Talkshow. The Politics of Practice-Based Fashion Research by Austrian Center for Fashion Research in collaboration with MAK

International symposium with pioneering fashion scholars and practitioners to explore critical contemporary fashion research practice.

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The Politics of Practice-Based Fashion Research

This Fall, the Austrian Center for Fashion Research, in collaboration with MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, is hosting a one-day symposium to bring together a group of pioneering fashion scholars and practitioners to explore critical contemporary fashion (research) practices. They will investigate the transformative potential of critical fashion knowledge between theory and practice, between doing and thinking, and beyond assumed disciplinary and epistemological boundaries. The symposium aims to react to changing paradigms in fashion practice and its promise to be a tool for criticality outside of fashion’s commercial imperative.

Lara Torres
27th September 2019 until 7th December 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

WHY-WHAT-WHO at Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo Av. del Libertador 1902 Ciudad de Buenos Aires

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WHY-WHAT-WHO

An impossible Wardrobe for the invisible is being displayed as part of the Exhibition located at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of the touring show exhibiting the work to commemorate and celebrate 10 years of the MA Fashion Artefacts course at LCF.

Lara Torres
COMING SOON

Participating in the upcoming conference THE POLITICS OF PRACTICE-BASED FASHION RESEARCH on 22nd October at the Museum of Applied Arts MAK, Vienna with the ‘paper-installation’: A Fashion Ontology'

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THE POLITICS OF PRACTICE-BASED FASHION RESEARCH

Conference language: English

Date: 22 October 2019 | 10 am to 10 pm

Keynote: José Teunissen (London College of Fashion)

Lara Torres
Coming soon: An Impossible Wardrobe for the invisible in Buenos Aires
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An impossible Wardrobe

Displayed as part of the Exhibition located at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, in Buenos Aires, Argentina - part of the touring show titled “Why-What-Who” exhibiting the work to commemorate and celebrate 10 years of the MA Fashion Artefacts course at LCF The exhibition shall take place from 26 September 2019 to 1 December 2019 with a private view taking place on 26 September 2019.

Lara Torres
Upcoming: Exhibition in Florence in June 2019

An impossible wardrobe for the invisible at Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence

Screenshot 2019-05-17 14.18.38.png

If I could, unless we

A Nightwalk through Manifattura Tabacchi curated by Linda Loppa during Pitti Uomo in Florence, [June 10, preview] June 11 - June 14, from 21:30 to 00:00 at Manifattura Tabacchi, Via delle Cascine 33, 50144 Florence

I was invited by Linda to show, for the first time, the original video installation project for ‘An impossible wardrobe for the invisible’ for seven simultaneous film projections - just as it was originally conceived in 2011.

www.manifatturatabacchi.com

Lara Torres
Upcoming

Showing ''An impossible Wardrobe for the invisible" in Buenos Aires in 2019

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On tour

An impossible wardrobe for the invisible will be continuing its tour next year to Argentina, opening in October 2019 at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, in Buenos Aires as part of Who-What-Who exhibition, celebrating ten years of fashion artefact.

Lara Torres