Artist of the Week: Lars Christiason: Senior’s fashion sense leads to creative business

By Sophia Schillinger on October 5, 2018

Lars Christiason is a senior who has a passion for designing clothes. Christiason is one of the creators of the relatively new clothing brand Old People. In his free time Christiason likes to take pieces he finds “hunting” or from his closet, and create new pieces, like purses, pants, jackets … you name it, he has done it.

How would you describe your style? I would describe it as very DIY. Also very unique.

What is your inspiration for your style and the clothing you create? A lot of the clothing I create has to do with a lot of music I listen to. It also has to go with the people I surround myself with. It also has a lot of influence from people from media and people that have shown me their style through clothing.

What type of music do you listen to? I started to listen to a lot of punk/rock like electronic music in elementary school. Then I kind of got more into hip-hop and rap later on into high school.

What is your part in the Old People business? My friend Hollis decided to create a brand, and he asked me and a bunch of friends in our friend group to be a part of the same brand. I was a creative director at first, then I kind of branched out to creating music as well. We created an album for the brand. I also have some input on designs and the direction we should take the brand. I did sew a collection of bags for the brand as well.

What item that you have created are you most proud of? During the summer, Joey and I created our own mini collection of clothes where we just went thrift hunting, and we also just took clothing from our own closets and cut them apart and sewed them back together. We wanted to create something unique, something people wouldn’t necessarily see at a normal store.

Are these pieces mainly for yourself or are you selling them? I think in the future we want to make it more for other people, but for right now, it’s kind of our own kind of special wearable pieces.

Do you see a future for yourself in clothing design? I think I do because fashion and style have always been a part of my life. I’ve always dressed uniquely compared to other people. I also have a lot of ideas for creating and designing clothes. I think in the future fashion is definitely an opportunity I have.

What do you think your style says about yourself? My style definitely describes how I’m feeling.

What are you doing now to expand your experience with clothing design? Right now I’m working on creating designs for my own designer wear. It should be a collection I am going to put out spring of 2019. Right now I have all the designs that I want. I’m just working on creating screens for them, and I will be screen printing them all myself, and then, I will also throw in special and unique one-on-one pieces. There are no copies or replicates of those pieces. It’s me taking inspiration from a brand I have worked with, but some ideas I have can’t be part of a brand, so they have to stand on their own.