Carmen Brisson Gaspar

Carmen Brisson Gaspar

Collection

Bio

Carmen Brisson is a fashion designer born in Mallorca, Spain, raised between Hong Kong and Sydney, and currently based in New York. Her work centers on materiality and craft, merging traditional techniques with innovative processes to develop original fabrics. She is drawn to the beauty of nature, heritage, and artisanal practices.

Thesis Statement

“La Mallorquina” is a collection that pays homage to my birthplace, Mallorca, exploring themes of heritage, craft and landscape. It draws from personal memories such as the ripples of light reflecting across swimming pools, sailing, attending religious festivities in the villages, eating ice cream on the beach, walking through open fields, and visiting vintage markets.

The collection became a way for me to reconnect with my roots and seek a sense of inner peace. It reflects the stillness and slowness of summer, and its ability to restore and heal. With this in mind the collection involves slow and intentionally made garments with a lot of very tedious and intricate techniques and hand sewing. It was also a way to pay tribute to the tradional Mallorcan clothes called vestit de pagès.

Central to the work is a deep engagement with artisanal practices local to the island. I incorporated techniques I learned such as palm leaf weaving, hand-shaped glass, and sculpted wood, alongside antique Mallorcan “drap” textiles and ikat sourced from vintage markets. These are combined with laser cutting, resin techniques, fabric printing, silk patchwork, felting, and hand-dyed indigo.

The development of the collection was also rooted in community. I learned directly from local artisans, engaging with traditional knowledge and craft, and collaborated with the Museo Sorolla on a coat featuring "Elena en Cala San Vicente", 1919 by Joaquín Sorolla, bridging Spanish artistic heritage with contemporary fashion.
Image: This patchwork silk set is made from repurposed silk scraps, assembled into a layered composition that reflects identity as something constructed from many parts, shaped by family history, life experiences, and personal choice. It also explores a spiritual dimension of the self, referencing Catholicism through a rosary-like adornment placed across the neck and chest, composed of freshwater pearls and an antique mother of pearl crucifix sourced from a vintage market in Mallorca.
Image: This dress has the handmade glass piece as the focal point. The glass combines layers of blue and clear tones to evoke the crystal clear waters and the movement of the Mediterranean sea. The fabric goes through the glass and is draped around the body, enhancing a sense of fluidity and flow.
Image: This dress is inspired by swimming pool tiles and the way water moves across their surface, reflecting and distorting light. It is constructed from multiple layered silk fabrics, with the two base layers individually dyed using indigo shibori to create an irregular surface that mimics rippling water. A top silk layer represents the white grout between tiles, connecting the composition while all layers are laser cut in different ways to conceal and reveal what lies beneath, creating depth and the illusion of a fragmented, moving pool surface.
Image: The bag was created using leftover squares from the laser-cutting process placed between two layers of silk organza. It is combined with vintage bobbin lace sourced from an antique market in Mallorca. The handle is one of the glass pieces I created.
Image: This look is inspired by the traditional Majorcan clothing and pays tribute to the island’s farmers and their enduring cultural heritage. The bra and belt are made from palm leaves layered between organza and antique handwoven cotton, honoring the women who worked the fields in Mallorca and exploring a dialogue between tradition, memory, and contemporary fashion. The skirt is made from a silk-linen blend. Its pleating and volume reference the skirts of Majorcan farmers, while the long train reinterprets this silhouette in a more dramatic way.
Image: This bag is made using the same straw-based technique. The handle is a sculptural glass piece I created that features a yellow base with embedded gold and crushed glass elements, finished with a clear top layer. The intention is for it to evoke sunshine, land, and sand.
Image: I created this bag by hand-weaving the base using the traditional llata technique, and hand needle-felting the top half.
Image: My two Spanish great-grandmothers
Image: This look is created by cutting and arranging lace into a custom layout, then layering it between grey and cream silk to form a soft, intricate fabric inspired by stucco relief carvings found in churches. It also pays tribute to the traditional Majorcan head coverings, known as a rebozillo. The top reinterprets this idea in a more casual way through two layered knit T-shirts, a grey base with lace, underneath a sheer white layer, creating a subtle, ghost-like effect.
Image: This set is made from vintage Majorcan textiles sourced from antique markets. It includes handwoven drap in linen, hemp and cotton, whose irregularities reflect their handmade origin. Originally used for domestic interiors, some of the textiles are over 100 years old, carrying traces of their past lives. For the facings on the inside of the jacket I used traditional ikat “teles de llenguas.” Finally, I handmade each button using leftover fabric and resin.
Image: This sculptural dress is inspired by the flowing sails and hull of traditional Mallorcan sailboats, known as llaüts. The wooden shoulder structure was developed through paper prototypes, then shaped into its final form using thin layers of wood. Small openings on either side are threaded with a cord adorned with beads made from the interior of shells, connecting the wooden structure to the draped silk. The fabric is cut as a single continuous piece, eliminating waste and creating a fluid, uninterrupted form that enhances movement.
Image: This coat is printed on linen with an image by Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923), one of Spain’s masters known for capturing landscapes and traditional clothing through his impressive use of light. The print is taken from his 1919 Majorca painting Elena at Cala de San Vicente, reproduced with permission from the Sorolla Museum in Madrid, and designed to retain the texture and painterly effect of the original canvas.
Image: This look explores wearability through marble dyed silk that mimics melting ice cream, inspired by childhood memories of eating colourful ice creams on the beach with my cousins as they dripped into the sand. A sandy yellow silk charmeuse base is layered with a sheer marble dyed silk habotai, creating softness and depth through transparency.

Special Thanks

Photography and Editing: Carmen Brisson, Ekaterina Drobashenko, Sofa Komova, Sofia Gaspar

Models: Ava Moselle, Ekaterina Drobashenko, Ella Edwards, Nina Polaris, Sophie Sternberg

Artisanal Teachers: Antonella Farris, Hugo Soto and Mirenchu Beascoechea