Loisida Debuts their Runway ’23 Collection at The Box

Created by Veronika Vilim and Carson Lovett, Loisida is the convergence of two opposing artistic perspectives. Vilim, who was born and raised in New York City and has worked in the fashion industry for over 12 years, and Lovett, a graduate of Central Saint Martins, explore the tension between their two differing experiences in the fashion industry through their brand that celebrates both the tradition of high couture techniques and the innovation of the street style and artistic practices of the residents of the lower east side.  As residents of the LES, they chose The Box to debut their Resort 2023 collection which captures the creative and edgy spirit of the neighborhood.

Based and designed in the lower east side of New York City, Loisida interrogates fashion design through innovate approaches to print-making and textile design. Loisida believes in the human element of design and explores this through a hand-made approach to every aspect of the design process, including its prints and textiles. Loisida uses a story-telling approach to fashion design. The story at the heart of each collection from the brand informs every aspect of the design process. The brand's maximalist aesthetic is an amalgamation of the two perspectives of its founders, the inspiration of the lower east side, the essence of the stories they are telling, and the celebration of traditional hand- making in fashion design and art.

This collection is about a person's escape from societies norms and pressures. From birth, we're all influenced into believing that we need to be part of this ideal "norm." It could be a classic beauty; an "ideal" beauty; the notion of purity. One day, the story goes, she wakes up and realizes that she has become the puppet of society; was it always this way?

It could be all at once, it could take years, but at some point, you understand that you don't need to play the role, that you can tear down the curtain. She tears them down, her gowns, her frocks, her corsets, ripping off layer upon layer, cutting them up and pasting them together. Escaping. Slowing running away not from herself but into herself. And in the end, you see that you're now on the other side, the side that isn't what society told you to be but the territory that you claimed, that you defined; that's pure bliss. The journey hasn't ended though, it's only just started.

For this collection they explored a type of decorative technique called openwork which was often employed in embroidery for ecclesiastical textiles. It was fitting to metaphorically liberate this technique from its history and tirelessly experiment with it to create a different aesthetic language. We explored this using traditional bridal trims, corsetry, padded silhouettes, and silk organza; all emblems of tradition. We began to explore the notion of a bliss, both physical and imagistic. This led us to look inward and design prints based on our own ideas of bliss. All the prints from this collection were hand-made, printed, manipulated with water, paint, and collage. It's about expressing love for color, about bringing on a blossoming spring year round; a liberation in color.

An eclectic mix of influencers, artists and fashion personalities came to celebrate the launch of Loisada's runway collection including Angel Zheng, Caroline Vazzana, Clara Perlmutter, Katya Tolstova, Nolan Meader, Olga Ferrera, Sydney Belle, Rebecca Knox, Brita Filter, Maine, and more.