Meet Landry Low of Laundry Lab in Mesa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Landry Low.

Landry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been sewing and making quite literally my whole life – my grandma began teaching me how to hand sew using yarn and plastic canvas when I was two (and I just never stopped)!

When I was in my junior and senior years of high school, I attended a two-year fashion program at East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa, which I largely credit for being the reason that I was not only accepted to my dream school but accrued enough money in scholarships and grants to actually attend. So, I packed up all of my stuff at 18, rented a car, and drove across the country to New York City where I lived for six years – the first four I spent attending school at Pratt Institute, which I graduated from in 2015 with a BFA in Fashion Design.

After graduating, I spent the next couple of years working in the Admissions Department at Pratt as an Admissions Representative – the main aspect of my job was to travel around the country to various city’s National Portfolio Day events to give prospective students feedback on their portfolios prior to submitting their applications. I think this is probably when I began to realize how passionate I was about working with young people – I found that even though the events involved sitting 4+ hours straight, talking to hundreds of nervous teens, the time absolutely flew by and by the end, I would feel entirely energized and inspired. It was like a natural high and I found myself chasing that until I ended up in my current position –

Fast forward 3 or 4 years and I’m back in Arizona, now teaching and directing the very same program at EVIT that I passed through when I was a high school student. Together with my students, I run a collective fashion design studio, Laundry Lab (which is a Lil joke about my name, chosen as our brand’s name by the students during my first year teaching). Our goal is to produce a collection together each year – a goal which has definitely become increasingly complicated given the current pandemic/situation.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road has definitely not been smooth, but I have EXCELLENT stories as a result. In college I took a full load of credits every semester while simultaneously working 2-3 jobs – in fact, my senior year I “slept” 6 nights a week under the table in the studio and just showered at the gym in the morning when it opened – I’d just go home once a week to pack clothes/supplies for the next week.

Living in New York was always a struggle, not just because of how expensive it was, but also because I spent my whole life in Arizona, so the weather really took a toll on me – especially since I was dealing with an undiagnosed health condition that happens to be exacerbated by the weather I encountered with every season in New York. At the time, it didn’t feel like a huge deal though because I was young, and like most youths, I greatly undervalued my health and general well-being, but looking back, it’s really obvious to me that I was suffering. I just didn’t realize that everyone wasn’t experiencing the same issues that I was, so yeah, I was definitely a bit naive.

It really was the most incredible time of my life though – I met the most incredible people; I still talk to my roommate from when I lived in NYC on a regular basis (she’s even come out to Arizona to meet & work with my students multiple times). Honestly though, the biggest struggle for me was moving back to Arizona after the six years I spent in New York. That first year I was back in Arizona, I had a really really hard time adjusting – the first six months, all of my stuff was still in storage in New York, for one – I was also finally coming to grips with all of my health issues and understanding that I couldn’t keep neglecting my physical self (I didn’t finally receive a diagnosis until a full year after I moved back to Arizona, so it was a long road, to say the least).

When I look back on all of the struggles and obstacles, however, it’s easy to see and identify the qualities that I like best about myself – my grit, my ability to practice patience (even when it’s emotionally, mentally, or even physically painful), my passion, my sense of humor, my empathy, my ability to communicate effectively and even diplomatically (which took a lot of time and a lot of mistakes to become proficient at). I’ve gotten better at choosing my battles and not suffering for the sake of suffering, but I also recognize that learning and growth doesn’t come from the experiences and parts of life that are nice and easy; obstacles are opportunities.

Please tell us about Laundry Lab.
Laundry Lab is a student-led fashion design collective learning and making work together out of our studio-classroom at EVIT [East Valley Institute of Technology] in Mesa, Arizona. Part of what makes us different from other “student brands” or Fashion programs is that – like all other programs at EVIT – our two-year program teaches the students the skills that they need to be successful in our/related industries by conducting class in a studio setting. Rather than teach students how a fashion brand is run, we just do it.

It’s sort of the best of both worlds for me: I get to run a design studio that is constantly bustling with young, passionate people who are really eager to learn and take on new things. Meanwhile, they’re learning important skills that are going to be useful to them regardless of what they do after completing the program (communication, collaboration, analytical/critical thinking, problem-solving, etc.)

As a result, our end-of-the-year shows are not the typical “student show” – rather than showcasing a series of student collections or pieces. We produce a full collection – like any design studio/brand – with everyone’s work mixed in together, telling one story collectively.

The work I’ve done as the Creative Director of Laundry Lab has been, by far, my favorite work of my life – I’ve enjoyed it far more than anything I’ve ever done just on my own. This is an important point that I strive to convey and instill in them – there are very few things that you can do alone that will be more complete, important, or fulfilling as what you accomplish together. Education doesn’t make enough room for real collaborative learning (who remembers the pure hell that is the group project assigned in high school??), which does a huge disservice to students, considering how much of the real, working world involves working in teams of various kinds. I could ramble on forever about it, so I’ll just stop myself there.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Absolutely! One of the main reasons that I came back to Arizona – despite how hard it was emotionally/mentally to leave NYC, a city that I’m definitely very attached to – is because when I was a teenager, I didn’t see Phoenix as a particularly viable place to have a career as a designer. While Phoenix has always had a very well-developed art scene, it’s really only been in the past five or so years that [with so much of the IT/Medical/Startup industry & community relocating here] there has been a significant shift and demand for designers to do high-paying work in Phoenix. As someone who once felt that I had to leave Arizona to find opportunities, it’s been really important to me to take what I’ve learned and the connections I’ve made back home in order to better support, cultivate, and contribute to the growing industry here.

I’m particularly interested in creating more industry partnerships with education – to bring more of the real world into students’ academic lives while they’re still in high school, middle school, and even elementary school. I’m definitely all about the long-term investment that education provides both a community and its industries. By operating Laundry Lab as a student design collective, for instance, I’m not only running a design studio & brand that I’m excited every day to wake up and make work with & for, but I’m also helping to create the foundation for the industry that I would like to see exist and thrive here.

That’s probably what excites me most about Phoenix – we’ve always been a city built on creative problem-solving. We’ve always had unique obstacles to overcome and we’ve found unique solutions as a result.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1601 W. Main Street
  Mesa, Arizona
• Website: Www.evit.com [Laundry Lab website coming soon – follow our insta for updates!] – My personal site is landrylow.com
• Phone: 480-461-4000
• Email: llow@evit.com
• Instagram: @LaundryLab_ [+my personal instagram is @landry.low]

Image Credit:
Photos by Laundry Lab

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