In the Studio: Luca Laurini (Label Under Construction)
In Greek mythology, The Moirai (also known as Fates) are the deities in charge of human destiny. Clotho spins the thread of our life, Lachesis measures it to the allotted length, and Atropos cuts it. It is a wonderful metaphor of life and destiny, which Luca Laurini is reading out loud for us at the Label Under Construction showroom in Perugia, shortly before lunch.
I have often found myself invested in Luca’s conversation, flowing seamlessly from philosophy to art, from music to architecture, from history to biology. The air outside is warm and humid – a classic Italian afternoon – but inside, we sit in the light-filled and airy showroom, comfortably air-conditioned, surrounded by books and records he has brought from his home and studio for the purpose of this article. My proposal to him was simple: Let’s write an article about Label Under Construction. But let’s not talk about how the clothing is made… let’s talk about how the ideas are shaped. “Please, invite us into your mind”, I say.
Label Under Construction is one of those brands that appears easy to describe on the surface. It’s just high-end knitwear, right? Not really. Upon closer inspection, it is so much more: angled seams and twisted weaves, lunar craters, ladders, impossible textures and unique patterns are brought to life in ways that test the boundaries of the craft, paired with the most exquisite materials.
“You know, I wanted to be an architect, honestly” – says Luca. “I think a garment is the first space we live in, so I wanted to turn that architectural idea into the garments I design.” He cites the Portuguese architecture sibling duo Aires Mateus (with whom he is currently collaborating on a project in the Umbrian countryside) as one of the most important influences in his work: their use of the void and the idea of functional and aesthetic purity. "Look at how they work with the archetype of a roof, for instance... What you see here (in the Barreiro House) is the roof of the building, and it's actually a swimming pool.”
Looking into the Barreiro House, I see the kind of attention to detail that makes something as simple as a house (or a sweater) into something extraordinary. From the outside, the house blends into its surroundings by preserving the original industrial walls of the two warehouses it occupies, but inside, you encounter a white oasis with a dramatic drop-like shape in the ceiling – the volume of which, on the roof side, becomes a swimming pool. It is a stark contrast between the raw structural strength of the concrete and the visual fragility of a drop of water.
Peter Zumthor is another pivotal reference for Luca, probably his favorite architect, he says. He describes the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel as one of the most beautiful places he has ever seen, and how the methodology mirrors his own: Zumthor first created a kind of primitive tent, or teepee, using upright logs arranged in a circle. Around that wooden structure, he poured a concrete shell, leaving a drop-shaped opening at the top and a triangular one at the bottom. Once the concrete had set, he went inside and burned the logs, turning the entire structure into a giant flue. When the fire died out, the wood and smoke left nothing but their imprint on the concrete walls.
Luca: “Elements such as fire, water, air, and earth are fundamental to my research and experimentation. One example is felting. Felting is a kind of transformation that would normally occur if a garment were washed incorrectly: too hot, for example, or with the wrong wash cycle. For the Grilled Sweater, I tied sections of the knit before felting it and as a result, only some areas felted, while the rest remained unchanged. The name comes from the surface texture, which looks like the marks of a grill.”
Suddenly, Luca pulls out an unusual piece of fabric and explains: “Look, this is a very old piece... Boro fabrics originated in Japan around the 17th or 18th century, in poor rural communities where people repeatedly repaired and patched their clothing, passing it down from one generation to the next. For centuries, kimonos, blankets, and everyday garments were mended by adding layer upon layer of fabric… which reminds me of Alberto Burri’s Sacchi Series, where he experimented with old burlap sacks, transforming them and creating these extraordinarily patched surfaces.”
Inspired by that approach, he started experimenting with knitted fabrics, and one of the most stunning results of these experiments was the famous Lunar Knit: a two-layer fabric that creates folds on one side, like wrinkles, and craters on the other. The process to arrive at this is long and meticulous, but in the end, it is fixed. The holes don't continue to develop over time – unless, of course, the piece is worn extensively.
Although Luca comes from a family with a long-standing tradition in knitwear, but his grandparents were farmers, so he is naturally drawn to things that are rooted in the land and a way of life embedded in nature. Luca: “My brand is very contemporary, but I always go back to the simplicity of what I learned when I was a child." – He pulls out a book of photographs accompanied by poetry. – “Look how beautiful it is! This is a rare book from 1972. It's screen-printed, so you can really see the richness of the matte black. The format itself – very narrow and very long – makes it quite unique. It's a tribute to the flat landscape in the Po Valley, so the book format, narrow and elongated, emphasizes the horizon and the vastness of the landscape. With screen printing, grey does not truly exist; it is created through the alternation of black and white dots. It reminds me of pixels and of the way a knitting machine builds a surface, stitch by stitch.”
Another artist he really connects to is Maria Lai, whose work spans weaving, embroidery, writing, sculpture, drawing and community art. He is particularly moved by her artwork Legarsi alla Montagna (Binding the Mountain), created in 1981 in Lai's hometown of Ulassai, Sardinia, where the inhabitants tied their houses, streets, balconies and doors together with long ribbons of blue fabric, which were then extended to the mountain overlooking the village. The thread, now woven into the landscape, became a symbol of connection and belonging – the social fabric made visible.
Like the architectural and artistic references that inspire him, Luca's own work is rooted in process. We talk briefly about his own art practice, and how David Lynch has influenced him. Discovering Lynch's meditation practice prompted him to develop a ritual of his own: listening to music while drawing blindly with chalk or ink.
Luca: “I'm not very good at meditating in the traditional sense, but I have my own version of it. I listen to music with my eyes closed, using chalk on cotton paper. I move across the surface, page by page, feeling the texture and the relief of the paper itself, drawing without looking. It's a kind of meditation for me. I feel like something rises; it might happen the same day or the next day, but I find the process very helpful. During the pandemic, I made a lot of these books, both small and large."
Finally, we ask Luca to pick some records out of his collection. “Music is one of the most important things in my life, I can't imagine a day without listening to something I love. I collect vinyl records, and my taste ranges from classical music to experimental electronic music. I picked out four records, although it was difficult to choose!”
The first is 'Anni Affollati' by the Italian singer-songwriter Giorgio Gaber. He wasn't just a musician; he was also a writer and worked in theatre. Luca: “Everything he created has incredible depth, so I like to listen to him in a very focused, attentive way.”
The second is 'Temptation' by Holly Cole. It's quite a rare record, made up entirely of songs by Tom Waits. Luca: “I love Tom Waits, and this album is so beautiful. It's one I put on when I want to relax”.
Then there's 'Lektion III' by Den Sorte Skole, an experimental Danish duo whose sample-based compositions weave together sounds from different cultures, eras and genres. Luca: "They're more experimental, I love the way they weave together fragments of traditional music, jazz, classical, electronic, rock, folk… thousands of recordings, from different eras and from all over the world”
Finally, a rather unusual record: 'Eduardo Legge Napoli', by Eduardo De Filippo, who was a playwright and actor. Luca: “On this record he's simply reading poetry. Sometimes I enjoy listening to poems or spoken pieces like these, especially in the Neapolitan tradition.”
If every life has a fate, and every fate begins as a thread, then perhaps the image of the Moirai feels so fitting to Luca because thread for him is not just a material. It is a symbol: a way of thinking, a way of making, and a way of understanding the world. Process, for him, is never hidden, but always made visible – whether in architecture, art, music or fashion. In that sense, Label Under Construction is exactly what its name suggests: an ongoing act of construction and deconstruction, where every piece still carries traces of its journey.
Text by: Estefania C. Campillo Sánchez
Images by: Estefania C. Campillo Sánchez and Simone Belia