Academia —
Artist and researcher Lara Torres holds a Doctorate from the University of Arts London, at the London College of Fashion with the thesis ‘Towards a practice of unmaking: the essay film as critical discourse for fashion in the expanded field’. Her research sits at the intersection of fashion design, fine arts, and film practices and theory, exploring notions of an expanded field of fashion, critical fashion and fashion film practices in the Twenty-First Century. Lara has published articles in academic journals exploring practice-as-research, having recently published a chapter in the publication ‘Crafting Anatomies Archives, Dialogues, Fabrications’ edited by Katherine Townsend, Rhian Solomon, Amanda Briggs-Goode (2020) and a chapter in the publication ‘Fashion Knowledge: Theories, Methods, Practices, and Politics’, edited by Monica Titton and Elke Gaugele to be published by Intellect Books in 2021/22.
Artistic Fashion Practice —
Her work has been featured in international exhibitions including The future of fashion is now (2014/15) in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, touring the OCT Art & design gallery in Shenzhen and the OCAT Contemporary Art terminal Shanghai in China (2015/16). She took part in the international experimental fashion project Transfashional that took place in London, Warsaw, Vienna and Kalmar between 2016 and 2018. In 2018 exhibited at the State of Fashion, former Arnhem Fashion Biennale with her film ‘Unmaking’ displayed also on the online catalogue. Lara recently took part in the international touring exhibitions ‘Why-what-who: 10 years of fashion artefacts’ alongside the Venice Architecture Biennale as part of a design fringe festival Design VE (23 May 2018 - 17 June 2018). Touring to BIFT Science, Art and Fashion Festival as part of the section Artefact as a political voice in Beijing, China and moving on next year to Argentina, opening on October 2019 at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, in Buenos Aires.
Pedagogy –
Lara Torres is a part time Senior Lecturer in Fashion Artefact at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London and a part time Senior Lecturer in Fashion and Textiles at the School of Art, Design and Performance at the University of Portsmouth. Her expertise in fashion includes research as art practice methodologies, fashion and film practices, fashion in the expanded field, dialogic and interdisciplinary art and environmentally considered fashion practices with an emphasis in material development and experimentation. Having recently published the co-authored academic article Commoning situated knowledge: co-teaching-and-learning the ‘design-led upcycling’ of waste clothing with Dr Elaine Igoe, Mrs Sue Noble, Dr Lara Mendonca Guterres Torres & Jennifer Cunningham, 15 Jun 2021, State-of-the-Art Upcycling Research and Practice: Proceedings of the International Upcycling Symposium 2020. Sung, K., Singh, J. & Bridgens, B. (eds.). Springer, p. 79-85 7 p. (Lecture Notes in Production Engineering).
Education and qualifications —
Lara Torres gained a BA in Fashion Design at Citex Porto (2004), an MA with Honours in Fashion Artefact (2011), London College of Fashion and a PhD (January 2019) from the University of the Arts London
Awards —
2013 Awarded an FCT Doctoral Studentship to Study a Research Degree (PhD) at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London 2011 Awarded the Unique design Award for the project An impossible wardrobe for the invisible at the Fashioning the Future Awards by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion London 2009 Awarded a Calouste Gulbenkian Studentship for Especializacao e Valorizacao Profissional em Artes to Study a Master of Arts Degree (MA) in Fashion Artefact at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London 2007 Blickfang Design Prize in the category product at the Blickfang Design Fair [Vienna, October 2007] 2003 Awarded a Sangue Novo Award at the Lisbon Fashion Week with a grant for an international internship at studio Alexander McQueen, London [2003-04]
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