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Before Lauren Elise Cassar could read her own name she had her very own logo. As a child of three, her crafty parents labelled all of her possessions with a butterfly, whilst her sister’s belongings were marked with a daisy and her brother’s with a snail. You could say Lauren mastered a visual language before she mastered the English language, and has been drawing, painting and designing ever since.
Growing up in a small yachting town called Kettering in Tasmania, Lauren left home for Melbourne to study Communication Design at RMIT in 2007. ‘I’m not sure how this happened, as I have a vivid memory of bringing large A1 paintings into my interview, rather than printed out digital designs!’ remembers Lauren, who was 17 at the time. After graduating Lauren landed two impressive part-time graphic design roles, one with The Australian Ballet and one with local fashion label Kuwaii. ‘It was amazing, my love for traditional typography, dance, fashion and textiles fell into my lap,’ she says. While at Kuwaii, Lauren was commissioned to design textiles for the label, an opportunity that led to a newfound passion.
After a few years of working six-day weeks, earlier this year Lauren moved to Sydney with her partner. The move presented Lauren with the head space to finally accumulate all of the knowledge she’d gathered over the years, and start her own business. The result is Mirador, one part textile design freelance service, and one part fledgling accessories label.
Launching just last month, Mirador’s debut collection of printed cotton voile scarves / sarongs can be worn as large wraparound scarves or lightweight summer garments. Lauren hand paints all of her designs before transferring them to a silk screen to create her unique painterly pieces. Her impressive first collection is aptly called ‘An Inkling’, because, Lauren says, ‘I had an inkling, a feeling that this was my time to put something purely my own into the world.’ We think she’s right.
Lauren’s scarves are 170cm wide x 114cm high, they retail for $159.00 and are available online here.
