Making Model Tee Shirts With Face Factory

Fashion • Apr 15
After participating in Elite Model Look in 2008 in France, Laura Kargulewicz went on to work with Hedi Slimane, Alexander Wang, Nicolas Ghesquière and Agnès B. Her latest project sees her team up with tech entrepreneur Alexandre Trink to form the Face Factory, a service offering personalised portraits on tee shirts, vests and sweaters. We sat down with them to hear the story behind the shirts.

Photo © Face Factory

How did you come up with the concept for Face Factory?

We came up with the Face Factory concept when we visited some friends and noticed some portraits by Julian Opie hanging on their walls. After replicating the experience for ourselves, we wanted to democratise art customisation, which was until then, only accessible to a few people.

Photo © Face Factory

Who does the artwork on the shirts?

We work with international illustrators who are selected for their talent and their unique style. We want to offer a strong experience by allowing you to buy illustrations with different influences. The shirts are made in Portugal and we deal with the printing side here in our Parisian workshop.

Photo © Face Factory

Why did you decide to produce shirts?

We wanted to create portraits but not on a canvas painting like usual. So why not on a tee shirt! But we aren’t stopping with t-shirts, we are looking to develop other ideas, like jeans and underwear.

Photo © Face Factory

Who would you love to work with in future?

Of course, we would love to work with big Parisian brands like Louis Vuitton or Balmain. We have even created Olivier Rousteing's face! Offering Face Factory’s customisation to Balmain clients would definitely be an honor.

Photo © Karl Lagerfeld

We spotted a picture on your Instagram with Karl Lagerfeld - what’s the story there?

We were so lucky to meet Mr Karl Lagerfeld in person. We were invited to the LVMH contest so we made the most of this opportunity. He loved the concept and we gave him a sweatshirt with Cara Delevingne, his all-time muse. He thanked us and said “it’s really cool and I love the present”!

What are you looking forward to next?

Five months after creating this start-up, we are really happy to see people’s reactions and that they like the concept. We are planning some secret co-branding opportunities with a couple of Parisian brands and later on next year we hope to open up a Face Factory shop.

Photo © Face Factory

You did a special collection for Elite models - are there any other collections like this in future?

Football enthusiasts should keep an eye out for our football player collection in June! We will also be part of the next Paris Fashion Week in July, which is very exciting.

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