Q+A with Clara Lu
Parsons BFA 2025
Indigo Archive
In Next Gen / No Kill, we spotlight standout fashion graduates whose work opens up new conversations and possibilities. From New York’s top programs and beyond, these are the designers shaping a future of fashion defined by intelligence, creativity, and intention.
What is the inspiration or concept behind your collection?
How can relationships be held, remembered, and carried over time? In Indigo Archive, garments are reimagined as emotional vessels by visualizing relationships into physical keepsakes. People are invited to create cyanotype prints using meaningful objects tied to their relationships, embedding personal stories into clothing. Modular, detachable designs allow pieces to evolve as relationships change, deepening connection and increasing perceived value to encourage longer wear.
The collection emphasizes connection, storytelling, and longevity, transforming garments into meaningful treasures.
In this project, I established a workshop system with five pairs of participants representing different relationships, each group working separately. Participants created cyanotype prints on fabric using objects that symbolized their relationship. I then collected these prints and translated them into detachable panels within garments. Each participant finally received a finished piece featuring their custom print, preserving their personal relationship in a wearable form.
The first group of participants is an unmarried couple. The items they choose include their home keys, couple’s water cups, and headphones, which represent their common hobby of computer games. The second group was a married couple. They chose wedding veils and some meaningful photos. The third group of participants were friends. They chose the fridge magnet they drew together, a shared pot for natural dyeing, and a card reader for taking photos of each other. The fourth group was roommates. They divided the cyanotype print into three parts: shared makeups and jewelry, painting tools, and household items. The last group was siblings. They chose their dogs, dog toys, slippers, and glasses they bought together, and the birthday gifts they gave each other.
What’s one material or technique you’re currently obsessed with?
Cyanotype printing on fabric. I’m fascinated by how light exposure can preserve traces of personal objects and relationships in such an organic and emotional way. What interests me most is how the process itself feels almost like a collaboration with time and nature—where sunlight becomes a tool of memory.
In my practice, I see cyanotype not only as a printing technique, but also as a way of archiving emotions and everyday moments. Each object leaves a unique silhouette that cannot be exactly repeated, which makes every piece feel intimate and irreplaceable. I’m also interested in how this technique can be translated into wearable forms, allowing garments to carry personal stories while still being part of daily life.
What does fashion mean to you today?
Fashion is a form of emotional storytelling. Beyond appearance, I see clothing as something that can hold memories, identity, and human connection while encouraging more conscious and lasting consumption.
What’s one thing you wish the fashion industry would leave behind—and one thing it should embrace?
I wish the industry would leave behind overconsumption and disposability. I hope it embraces emotional durability, sustainability, and slower systems of making that encourage people to value and keep garments longer.
Who or what has shaped your design values most?
Through studying fashion in school, I became more aware of the harsher realities of the industry and the impact fast fashion has on people, resources, and society. It pushed me to rethink what kind of design we actually need today, leading me to value emotional connection, sustainability, and longevity in my work.
If you could design for anyone in the world, who would it be—and why?
I would design for my family. Through my thesis, I realized that while studying fashion design I have often created for different groups of people, but overlooked those closest to me. Looking back at this project also brought up many memories and stories I share with my family, which made me realize how important these relationships are to me and how they are the ones that should never be ignored.
Three things keeping you sane right now
Watching musicals, conversations with family and friends, and making things by hand.
One word to describe your design approach
Interactive
Where can we find you online?
IG: clara_lujingyu
