Photo Diary: A week in the life of emerging Melbourne designer, Jaslar Pearl

Photo shoots, product development, creative ideation and more.

Building a fashion label is no easy feat, particularly when you’re a one-person show. LCI Melbourne fashion graduate and designer, Jaslar Pearl, finds support in a tight-knit community of fellow alumni, mentors and professors. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Design Arts (Fashion and Costume Design) back in 2022, Jaslar has been refining the menswear collection he started working on while studying, titled L’amore Vince Sempre.

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Guided by the wisdom of his LCI Melbourne mentors, he’s created a range of colourful outerwear, utilitarian-inspired staples and playful accessories under the Jaslar Pearl label. Below, he walks us through a week in his life as an emerging designer. Scroll on for photo shoots, product development, creative ideation and more.

I started the week by packing up and shipping off the last lot of my Gelati Caps, a brown wool cap with an appliqué J on the front that I released earlier in the month. The hats are a more recent part of a collection I developed while studying at LCI Melbourne named L’amore Vince Sempre, which translates to ‘love always wins’.

The mentors at LCI Melbourne really helped me develop this idea and question the direction… I wanted the label to have. Before this collection, the brand looked very different. Now the label draws inspiration from the rich tapestry of Italy and my Italian heritage, its vibrant culture and visuals.

At the heart of our brand is a commitment to timeless sophistication… blending classic silhouettes with a fun modern twist. Each piece is meticulously crafted with intentional design, ensuring that every detail has a purpose and tells a unique story with a playful perspective. Jaslar Pearl is a celebration of Italian allure, and we are dedicated to creating garments… with purpose and enduring style.

For Jaslar Pearl, I’ve been trying to step up my summer line of garments, as I tend to gravitate towards more outerwear garments. I want to remain more consistent this year with releases and my catalogue of products. Spending a lot of my time in Queensland, it’s important to have a good summer wardrobe, too.

A practice I do almost daily is designing and coming up with new designs and ideas. Sometimes I start with sketches, others I take it straight to Adobe Illustrator to flesh them out. Aside from actual garment construction, this is one of the main skills that I was able to… learn while studying at LCI Melbourne.

Spending a lot of time making TikToks and [other] short-form media is a crucial part of my week… [I’m trying to] captivate an online audience and grow my following as the retail store continues to grow. This is a fully tufted three-quarter sleeve trench coat I developed with a landscape inspired by Capri Italia. Utilising different coloured yarns and a tufting gun, I was able to create an ocean view with rocks coming out of the water and on the back, a sunset in the same location.

I originally made this jacket for the second-last trimester [of my studies]. Thanks to Todd at LCI Melbourne, I was able to show it at the Grand Hyatt for PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival. This is one of the more intricate pieces [in my collection].

I received a new sample for a pleated trouser from my manufacturer that I have been working on, I still need to have a fitting session with these before any adjustments and sending them back to my supplier and working towards a potential future release. I also began quality-checking the details on new tank tops for one of my next releases, [which is] also coming in a brown colourway.

I’m working on a rollout for the two [skate] decks I created. I directed, wrote and styled a small shoot that should be released later in the month. I recruited local skaters Blake Gibbards and Kyle Aubrey to help me showcase the decks, and skate videographer Harry Turner to capture the final product.

Wes Anderson is a big inspiration for me… which is fairly evident in a recent campaign I did with Jeremy Barbeau called It Pays to Look Both Ways… We thought, what would it look like if Wes Anderson made a ’90s skate film? We shot the majority of it at a perfect location in Carrara, Queensland, which is very reminiscent of Southern Italy. [It has] beautiful architecture and views… of a popular skatepark in Nerang.

One of my favourite parts about LCI Melbourne is even though I am an alumnus, I am still very much still in contact with some of my mentors. They help me with anything I may need, including industry opportunities like competitions, runways, pop-ups, etc. Since my first lab, Blair and Todd [from LCI Melbourne] shared the passion and enthusiasm towards my work and vision, which really helped push the brand forward.

Complex recently selected me as one of their ‘brands to watch’ for Complexcon Australia, so I have been meticulously working on developing an exciting… activation for the convention. As I mentioned earlier, Wes Anderson is a big inspiration and one of my favourite films is The Grand Budapest Hotel.

I plan to bring this to a Jaslar Pearl pop-up. I have been designing not just a fit-out, but an experience with a hotel lobby-themed shop, props and uniforms similar to the film… part of this is these clothing racks I designed, reminiscent of porter trolleys with an extended bar to hang clothes.

I created these room-key keychains and the name ‘Palazzo Pearl Hotel’. [These are] to give out to customers to emulate the experience of checking into a hotel. Ever since I was a child, I have wanted to own a hotel or a fashion brand. If I’m able to bring those together with the activation, it will definitely be one to witness.

One thing I think often gets missed [with clothing]… is the unboxing experience. In the past, I have mainly focused on pop-ups and my in-person experiences. [Recently I] have been making it my mission… to make customers feel more valued, whether that be by stickers, thank-you cards or shipping satchels. When they open their order, I want them to feel a certain way and hold the products with pride.

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