Designer bio

Lauren Gray, founder of Wholegrayn, is a multi-passionate Slow Fashion Designer and Fiber Artist based in San Antonio, TX. She grew up in Missouri, south of St. Louis, where she learned the value of being thrifty and taking care of the things she already owned. Brought up on hand-me-downs, back roads, family gardens, and boundless imagination; Lauren uses that upbringing to invite people to believe in a better world, one that has many possible futures and outcomes.

She is known for her unique approach to patternmaking, abstract textiles made from her own studio waste, and fostering ideas of reuse and circularity by exclusively working with secondhand clothing and textile byproducts. All textile waste that is created within her studio is thoughtfully collected and kept until it has found its purpose as a new garment, work of art, or something yet to be determined. Her work draws upon nostalgic whimsy, nature, and socio-political movements to encourage a renewed connection between people & planet. During a time of unprecedented greed and environmental destruction, Lauren believes in fighting for a future that benefits everyone.

She holds two BFAs from the University of North Texas: one in Fashion Design and one in Studio Art (Fibers). She has over a decade of experience in fashion and fine art, with her professional experience spanning multiple realms. This includes working as a Studio Assistant for Dallas-based Textile Artist, Sue Benner; Costume Design Assistant for St. Louis-based Fashion Designer, Brandin Vaughn; Technical Designer and Assistant Patternmaker for The Cheerleading Company in Dallas; Costume Design Mentor for the McNair Scholarship Program at Trinity University in San Antonio; and Founder/Designer/Artist/ Workshop Instructor for her slow fashion brand, Wholegrayn.

Her work has been seen on runways, red carpets, group shows, and solo exhibitions. Most notably, she created custom garments worn on all three red carpets at the 66th - 68th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California; showcased her politically charged fashion collection, Dark Legacy, at Slow Fashion Festival’s juried 2025 Spring Runway Show in Austin, TX; and regularly teaches sewing & mending workshops to counter the ideology of fast fashion and throw away culture.

Artist Statement

What if another way IS possible?

In a world where pollution, greed, and corruption have been consuming our home and finite resources for longer than most of us have been alive, it is hard to go against the norm and trust a future we cannot yet see.

My work utilizes secondhand textiles, found objects, and fiber byproducts to document the environmental collapse and socio-political harm being done to our global community by way of abstract fiber art and slow fashion garments. These pieces of cloth hold memory, both energetically and physically. They decide with whom they’ll reside, intuitively intertwining to create harmonious color and texture combinations. Piece by piece, each stitch is an attempt to mend and reconstruct the present into viable alternative pathways towards a future that protects and benefits us all. Challenging the viewer to reflect and question societal norms, calling for immediate climate action, and the audacity to believe.