Gabrielle Uy: designing merch for Laufey and creating wearable art
Gabrielle Uy
Gabrielle Uy is a New York-based artist and designer working primarily in the music industry. At a time when digital aesthetics dominate visual culture, Gabrielle’s work proposes a pause. Time, hands, and care go into every piece she develops. Gabrielle – Gabby to her friends and family – moves naturally between design, music, fashion, and art. Central to her work is the understanding that design is a narrative process steeped in sociological understanding and an appreciation for both fast-paced and long-established cultural references.
Although her name has begun to circulate widely within the music industry after working with the likes of Charli XCX, her approach doesn’t correspond to formulas or passing trends. Gabrielle works through analog processes, using materials that demand presence and dedication, like paint, embroidery, found objects, and archival materials. Nothing in her work imitates what is handmade; if something looks painted, it is because it was. That commitment to a slow, deliberate process becomes an essential part of both her work and its message.
One of the most visible moments in her recent career is her work as Lead Freelance Merchandise Designer for FAULT-featured Icelandic-Chinese singer Laufey, in collaboration with Junia Lin Jonsdottir, Laufey’s twin sister and Creative Director, and their merchandise partner Futureshirts. Gabrielle led merchandise design for A Matter of Time: Laufey’s second Grammy-winning album, and the artist’s first global arena tour. From t-shirts and posters to collectible accessories, the project was built as a visual extension of the album’s universe, drawing on vintage references, hidden details for fans, and an aesthetic that balances sweetness with strangeness. The goal was to create tangible memories for hundreds of thousands of people.
That same intimate approach appears in her more personal projects. ‘No Love Is Ever Wasted’ is a series of garments created for friends and close collaborators, centered on the idea of design as a relational practice and an act of care. Each piece expresses an emotional experience deeply specific to the wearer. One garment inspired by a friend from overseas explores themes of exile and return; another inspired by a perpetually single friend explores loneliness and the desire to find love. Gabrielle began this multi-year series in between academic and professional commitments, and showcased a glimpse of the work in progress for her senior thesis at Yale.
Since then, ‘No Love Is Ever Wasted’ has evolved into an expanding and increasingly public body of work, with an illustrious clientele: Gabrielle designed a custom dance bag for American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Isabella Boylston. Initially conceived as a functional object for touring, the bag became an everyday and highly symbolic piece, a visual map of its owner’s life, travels, and memories. The project speaks to Gabrielle’s ability to translate identities and lived experiences into deeply personal objects.
Alongside her freelance practice, Gabrielle is part of the multidisciplinary design studio 2×4, where she works on branding and strategy for global brands. Her independent work explores design outside this structured environment, building a personal visual language and studio practice that connects with artists, musicians, and audiences in her own way.
Gabrielle’s creative rigor and care was shaped early on through her design education. Gabrielle Uy graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 2025. At commencement, she received the Ethel Childe Walker Prize, awarded to a single art student for exceptional creative achievement, and amassed a number of prestigious design awards and fellowships throughout her time at Yale. These honors serve as early validations of a strong authorial voice capable of articulating critical thought, visual sensitivity, and high-level execution.
Gabrielle Uy’s work is defined by the value she places on real manual processes, total control over detail, and a direct relationship with the people she designs for. Whether working with Grammy-winning pop stars and prima ballerinas or her inner circle of friends, her design philosophy remains consistent: a logic of building objects with meaning, designed to last and to be lived with. That coherence between method, aesthetics, and purpose positions Gabby not as an emerging promise, but as an artisan with a clear voice and an international trajectory in expansion.