Laurs Kemp hails from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, where she wiled away the hot summers watching old movies and sketching dresses inspired by those movies.

She received a bachelor's degree in fashion merchandising and tried her hand at corporate design, but it lacked the frenzied inspiration and impassioned handcrafting that she gravitated toward (and it just sucked). Using vintage materials almost exclusively, she produced small one-off collections for runway shows in Little Rock and sold those pieces online.

In 2012, she made the move to Portland, OR to seek out like-minded artists, independent movie-houses, and vegan cuisine. She currently designs a small women's line with a curated melange of inspiration.

In June 2015, she became the designer-in-residence for the West End location of Backtalk. She designs, makes and sells garments out of her studio space in the back of the shop.

For her 2015 capsule collection, titled Your Motions Says, she drew inspiration from the music of Arthur Russell, late 1970s loungewear, Japanese minimalism a la early 1980s Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto, and films of that period - like Girlfriends (1978). Try to decipher which film will inspire her next by following her on mubi. She loves movie recommendations, too. Hint, hint!