I have to contest… Picking individual winners for my recent Illustration/Selfie contests proved impossible. I’ve spent literally weeks agonizing over it. There are just too many exceptional entries! If you’ve seen the entries, I’m pretty sure that you’ll agree. So I decided not to pick just one winner for each… and instead chose several! So without further ado, the winners! Illustration contest: Illustration by Léa Saugé // http://www.twitter.com/CocavertIllustration by Messalyn // http://www.messalyn.artPainting by IsobelCake by Rebecca de Coverly Veale Selfie contest: Anonymous entryAno ..read more

Entries to the Karolina Laskowska 2017 Illustration contest. Please click on the thumbnail to open a bigger image with credits. Header image by Messalyn. Contest winners TBA. Click here to see the Selfie contest entries ..read more

Entries to the Karolina Laskowska 2017 Selfie contest. Please click on the thumbnail to open a bigger image with credits. Header image by an anonymous entry. Contest winners TBA. Click here to see the Illustration contest entries ..read more

I just had the realisation that I never updated the blog with the final finished piece of the Violente corset outfit! Created for the Foundations Revealed 2017 competition, you can see the dress diary/creation process in this blog post. Sadly, I didn’t place in the top two of the FR competition, but I’m still pretty damn happy that I made this outfit: it shows a big shift in my corset making skills, and the winners were incredibly deserving! You can see all of the entries here, and my write up here. Also, before I share the final images of the Violente outfit… I figure that I might as well sha ..read more

Gracie wears Karolina Laskowska Couture cape, Little Women Bra Set, Kiss Me Deadly cupless Vargas Dress and stockings Photographer: Paul Winkler Make-up and Hair: Emma Watts One of the loveliest things about being in the lingerie industry is the incredible network of fellow indie designers around me: fabulously talented and driven women (some of whom can be, on occasion, terrible influences when it comes to my lace addiction).  The fashion world can be a competitive and lonely place to work in, so it’s extra lovely to be part of something like the Lovebomb! The Lovebomb is an (usually) an ..read more

This post is a dress diary for my competition entry into the Foundations Revealed 2017 competition. There’s a lot of rambling about the construction methods and it’s very picture heavy. So there’s an incredible website called Foundations Revealed that is essentially a treasure trove of corset and underpinning-making know-how. I’ve been a member for around 4 years now and I’ll never cease to be amazed by the incredible wealth of knowledge and inspiration that it offers. Every year they run a corset making competition; you can see my 2015 and 2016 entries here. I’ve been quite fortunate so far i ..read more

It’s pretty terrible that I haven’t updated this blog in nearly 8 months, but there has been a lot going on in the meantime. So I’m reviving it for a rather excellent cause: 2016’s rendition of the Lingerie Secret Santa! Lingerie Santa Pangolin, apparently now the Secret Santa Mascot! Illustrated by the wonderful Marianne Faulkner The Lingerie Secret Santa was started by me a few years ago, on the line of thought that the run up to Christmas is a hideously busy time of year for most indie lingerie designers and it would be nice to get a treat in that time.  So it’s now become a bit o ..read more

This is part two of a series deconstructing the intricacies of wired bras and their significance to independent lingerie designers. Part one can be read here. Wired bras are incredibly complicated when it comes to materials. Whereas a soft cupped bralet can be stripped down to fabric and elastic and still function, wired bras are engineered such they they need specialist fabrics and components. One of my very early bra designs; fabrics like the French lace were relatively easy to source compared to things like good quality wire casing, correctly sized bra wires and shoulder strapping. Design b ..read more

The ‘Ara’ bralet and harness brief by Karolina Laskowska I’m still rather overexcited about the launch of pre-orders for my first major factory-produced collection! Yesterday’s post tackled my reasons for moving away from sewing solely in-house and today I’ll be addressing the creative process behind my ‘Ara’ and ‘Carina’ collections’. The Ara wired bra, suspender and cut-out brief by Karolina Laskowska Admittedly, the title of this blog post is a little misleading; there wasn’t a vast amount of designing involved in these collections. All of the garment patterns and shapes are based on previo ..read more

Stitching some glorious French lace knickers in my studio this Summer. Photo by A. Lindseth My business has been stuck at a deeply frustrating bottleneck for quite some time now. Since leaving university, my brand has grown fairly steadily. With only a few minor exceptions, every garment that I’ve sold over the last 4 years have been created with my own fair hands*.  Sewing can be a deeply enjoyable and fulfilling activity: there is truly something wonderful about creating a complex and beautiful garment from a piece of fabric. However, it stops being fulfilling when you have to make the ..read more