BIOGRAPHY

Laura Lees is born in Edinburgh in 1971. After leaving school at 17 Laura enters Telford College and begins a HNC in Interior Design. After a brief stint working in bars Laura returns to her former college and gains a City & Guilds in Embroidery. Having found her forte she embarks on a degree in Constructed Textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee graduating in 1997.

Laura heads south to set up home in London’s East End, immersing herself in the creativity of Hoxton’s disreputable? drinking dens. With no studio or tapestry loom Laura, forced back to her freehand embroidery roots, begins customising clothes for friends, corrupting garments with individual words stitched in a graffiti-style scrawl – some are meaningful and profound, others recollect drunken haverings from nightclubs, scribbles on pub toilet doors, song lyrics and anything else that tickles her dark sense of humour. Working the scene Laura hooks up with designers Giles Deacon and Fee Doran and applies her art embroidery on garments for their joint collection.

With her ‘Graffiti Embroiderer' notoriety growing Laura begins a series of cutting edge collaborations with Hoxton’s burgeoning ‘anti-fashion’ pack. Teaming up with long-time friend Noki, Laura embellishes his collection of recycled clothing with her hardcore stitching and appliqué. Next Laura catches the eye of Luella Bartley who commissions several hand-embroidered pieces, including the infamous graffiti jacket, for her acclaimed debut collection, Daddy Who Are The Clash? and 2001 Dial F for Fluro collection.

Realizing she’s on to something, Laura begins working hell for leather terrorising whatever she puts her mind to with her manic stitch-work - interiors, bags, cushions, record sleeves - creating a zany sophistication that gives a new take on what's traditionally regarding as granny’s pastime. It's these unique handcrafted creations that will become the mainstay of her commercial work.

Now that commissions are paying the rent Laura spends the next year honing her leather appliqué and embroidery skills before staging her first solo art exhibition, Gone to the Dogs in 2000. Featuring appliqué paintings and innovative soft sculpture installations based around greyhound racing imagery, this leads to a series of shows and exhibitions in London, Edinburgh and Europe. Her next venture, Gone To The Pub, features dramatic leather appliqué paintings depicting her beloved Hoxton bars and gigantic beer can-shaped leather punch bags, as well as range of vandalized sweatshirts that forms the humble beginnings of a ready-to-wear clothing collection.

Laura’s idiosyncratic hand-embroidered pieces are lauded by fashion insiders, her work appearing in some of the most prestigious fashion publications including Vogue, and V Magazine. Four years out of college, Laura has successfully carved herself a niche in the fashion world. Receiving ever more individual and corporate commissions the year culminates with Laura embroidering guitar straps for The Strokes and artwork for a limited-edition box-set of work for Showstudio.com, as well as her own successful line of starched white cotton hankies bearing the red-Biro style, embroidered legend "Snotty Slut".

With a growing fan base desperate for her idiosyncratic designs Laura Lees starts her eponymous label in 2003, launching two years later with a double collection show -- ‘Western Day of The Dead’, a collaboration with accessory designer Sally Turner, and ‘The Wickerman’. In a venue festooned with leather butterflies, flowers, bunting, flamboyant tassels and 3ft high appliquéd skulls suspended from the ceiling, a procession of painted models show a collection of delicate dresses, blouses and skirts all heavily embellished with Laura’s distinctive zigzag stitching and appliquéd motifs.

In 2005 Selfridges, London snaps up several key pieces from Laura’s A/W 05 Wickerman collection. Her extravagant handcrafted art installations are displayed in Selfridges’ showcase windows along with her entire East London workshop which is painstakingly dismantled, packed, shipped and then lovingly reassembled to include every last button, pin, spool of thread and scrap of fabric. A year on sees the start of Laura’s hugely successful partnership with Topshop. A leopard-print silk dress, sprinkled with hand-embroidered stars and lightning bolts, from her debut collection becomes an instant bestseller and the summer’s must have item. 2007 heralds Laura’s debut on the London Fashion Week schedule where she continues to show her acclaimed collections.