Lauren (Lawen) Bailey Models for Claire Upcycled x Pattern Nation, Talks Self-Expression in Sustainable Fashion
By Guest Writer Cyd Eva
Dearest Qwear Fashion family, It has been a while so let me reintroduce myself. My name is Cyd Eva and I am the founder of Pattern Nation.
Pattern Nation is a slow fashion sustainable clothing design brand, artist collective, and creative platform for colorful humans run by cosmic partners and spouses Cyd Eva and Costa Besta and friend and artist Brianna (Mend) Klassen. We create handmade one-of-a kind and small run ungendered street wear and accessories, interactive art installations called blobs, visual art and surface pattern designs, fashion films and photography, DJ and live music sets, events, workshops, collaborative projects and more. Our current work takes place on the stolen, unceded and traditional territories of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm people (Kwikwetlem) in Coquitlam BC and we have previously worked and lived in Vancouver Canada (all), Durban and Cape Town South Africa (Cyd & Costa) and Bangalore India (Bri).
We specialize in colorful one-of-a-kind and small run ungendered clothing that is either made by us or manufactured sustainably with our own original art fabrics in Cape Town, Durban South Africa or Bangalore India. We also sell art, jewelry, and other accessories that align with our aesthetic and mission to enable bold beings to become connected, confident, colorful and creative through sustainable ungendered clothing, workshops, performances, films, photoshoot, murals and interactive art.
In November of 2024, Costa and I had the exciting opportunity to showcase our designs in the fashion marketplace of Fashion Art Toronto. Vancouver can be quite isolating as we are far from the other major Canadian cities so through this event we were able to share our platform and colorful designs with the Ontario fashion community for the first time. It was a wonderful weekend of fashion, art and connections. One of the connections we are most excited about was with Lauren (Lawen) Bailey and their friend group which included designer Claire Upcycled. Claire Upcycled has upcycled, repurposed, reused, recycled and given new life to over 2000 pieces of clothing. They blend bold, streetwear-inspired designs with a DIY punk ethos, featuring hand-printed graphics and graffiti influences for a raw yet curated look. Claire and Lawen had some collab pieces for sale and it was just so lovely to find humans with such alignment and love of sustainable, colorful, expressive and queer centered fashion.
We were lucky enough to have Lauren model for this fashion shoot showcasing our latest upcycled neon sweatsuits in front of an art installation by Maya Skarzenski. I was also able to ask Lauren some questions about their style, fashion journey and background. One of the things that I love about this work is how our pieces resonate with people and the amazing creatives we get to connect as we share Pattern Nation around the world.
How do you express yourself through fashion & style?
I express myself through fashion & style mainly by solidifying my gender expression and creating a strong first impression that I am a queer person. Wherever I am in my life, mental state, career, and most recently my transition, I’ve always expressed that through my clothing. Like a lot of queer folks, I’ve finally gotten myself to that visual that felt so far out of reach when I was a confused pre-teen. 13-year-old Lauren would think I’m pretty cool and gay looking and that makes me happy.
"Wherever I am in my life, mental state, career, and most recently my transition, I’ve always expressed that through my clothing.”
You are a designer/artist yourself. Please tell us about your brand and a bit about your journey into the world of fashion design and modeling.
I’d like to say I am at the beginning of my career as a creative. If you asked me at 9 what I wanted to do it was ‘sew the pretty dresses at the Stratford festival’. I was a theater kid, hung out in my highschool film studio and was a hardcore cosplayer for a decade. My life was always going to be about art, so my ‘brand’ is really just me. I’m a jack of all trades and am lucky to be an extroverted person. The older I get the more I appreciate my introverted side but in the year I’ve been launching myself as my brand I’m so thankful for all the things in my life that have led me to have such a full audience of true supporters who really get ‘Lawen’.
My brand ‘Lawen’ really took shape as I finished my education at Fanshawe College for Fashion Design. School was very hard for me, but also helped shape me into who I am as a designer and artist. In a lot of my work you’ll see how burnt out my brain is but how active my soul is. School taught me I care so much about what I create, as artist we all almost destroy ourselves for what we believe in. Anyone who ever felt like a weirdo and outcast, who’s stayed up 48 hours and cried at their work desk, that is who I create for.
“In a lot of my work you’ll see how burnt out my brain is but how active my soul is.”
Modeling for me started while I was cosplaying. As a teenager— like most teenagers— I was so uncomfortable with my body, and felt like I stood out in every worst way. I was much taller than everyone in middle school, chubby, and one of the only black “girls”. A lot of my discomfort soothed later on when I learned about nonbinary and trans language. I hid behind costumes because I loved being in front of the camera but didn’t think of myself as interesting, beautiful, or thin enough to be a conventional model. Through cosplay I saw how so many of my insecurities were actually what made my photos so incredible. I learned to pose, and work with photographers to create some really cool stuff and got myself a small following in the Canadian cosplay scene. Over time that confidence slowly leaked into my everyday life and suddenly I didn’t need a wig and lashes to think I was a good model. Now at 25 I can do every kind of photo or video shoot and I really owe that to the nerds and the dorks!
“I hid behind costumes because I loved being in front of the camera but didn’t think of myself as interesting, beautiful, or thin enough to be a conventional model.”
You are based in Stratford Ontario Canada. How has that shaped your experiences as a queer person of color?
At La Osa Vintage or Matilda Art Bar + Gallery here in Stratford I serve a lot of tourists. They ask me if I live here and I love saying ‘Yes! Born and raised!’ I am proud to be from Stratford but it has its rough parts for sure — it’s Southern Ontario! The Baileys are a proud black family here. My grandparents and their 5 children were one of the first Black families to put their roots into this city, I’m glad to be part of their legacy. I’ve decided I’m settling here - everyone has an ‘I hate this town’ moment, so I needed to move away for school but I’m very happy to be back and have Stratford as my base. Being black and queer used to feel like a novelty and/or a target on my back, but as time goes on more families have moved here, more queer people have found each other and the city has made strides in acceptance and diversity. People my age would always move away, but everyday I’m running into more people I grew up with who are also deciding to stay, start families and open businesses. If I let the racist and homophonic parts of my city drive me out, then there would be no hope for any Lauren’s of the future. I was always alright with being the ‘token’ and being loud about my queer-ness, because someone had to be. That’s what shaped me as me and I know it would strengthen my position in my community. Now there’s so many others who I look up to, and who look up to me.
“The Baileys are a proud black family here. My grandparents and their 5 children were one of the first Black families to put their roots into this city, I’m glad to be part of their legacy.”
If you're interested in learning more about what we do or shopping for our clothing, art and accessories please check out www.pattern-nation.com We ship internationally and your support makes our careers possible.
CREDITS
Models: Lauren (Lawen) Bailey @lawenbailey Cyd Eva @cydeva
Photographer: Costa Besta
Art installation: @mayaskarzenski
Location: @fashionarttoronto
Clothing: Pattern Nation @pattern.nation