Get absorbed in Xénia Laffely fascinating creations

Swiss artist and designer Xénia Lucie Laffely was born in Morges and is currently living and working between Montréal and Lausanne. After studying French literature and art history, she completed a bachelor's degree in fashion and textile design at HEAD, Geneva. Her graduation work, a men's collection characterized by the use of prints, was awarded the Hans Wilsdorf Prize for Excellence. After completing internships in the embroidery department of several fashion houses in London and New York, and receiving a Leenaards Foundation's cultural grant, she graduated with honors in the Master's degree in Fashion and Textile Design at HEAD (2018). She then was awarded a Swiss Design Awards in 2019 for her project of textile blankets for tired feminists, and she obtained a certificate in feminist studies at UQAM in Montreal as well. Since 2018, Laffely has exhibited her works in solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland, as well as in France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. Her works are part of several private collections and the MUDAC collection in Lausanne.

Xénia Laffely has been managing to merge her interests into a unique artistic practice. Multi-faceted and versatile, her textile works overcome the boundaries and hierarchies between art, design, and craft, merging these diverse techniques to create wonderful bright-colored ensembles that break free from the two-dimensional canvas to reach out and captivate the viewer. The patchwork of textiles and textures adds to this depth and creates bewitching Frankenstein-like portraits. A glimpse is never enough to capture all the intricate details of her work, changing in every angle.

Regularly using the delicate reflections of satin, her work deals with themes of domestic space, intimacy, and lesbian love. Her thread shapes sensual and enigmatic silhouettes in a labyrinth of movements. Her art opens the conversation on lesbianism and age, as she was herself lacking references on getting out of heterosexuality after 30. Xénia uses her sewing machine like a typewriter, sewing stories of women, of the 'ghosts' that haunt her fabric, as she likes to call them.

Scroll down below to discover some of Xénia Laffely’s creations, and for those around Geneva, pass by the Bowie gallery to get the chance to experience them!