Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin July 2009: Designer Leyla Piedayesh
Leyla Piedayesh’s previous occupation as an MTV editor explains the celebrity line-up at her show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. The German music industry is well represented at the presentation of her label lala Berlin’s collection. Natalia Avelon, Michi Beck, Heike Makkatsch und Sabrina Setlur keep the photographers busy and even Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit and fashion legend Suzy Menkes are here, clutching their shocking pink invitations.
This young Berlin label stands out for its feminine coolness. High quality knits are combined with cool elegance and a touch of futurism to create urban, contemporary knitwear.
Metal, studs and cool gold tones are set against soft shapes, delicate colours and high quality fabrics. The whole collection has a visionary feel. Models in light outfits with gold studded trims seem to have beamed down from another planet. Collages of various kinds of studs and other metal applications inject fashion with a technological aspect that is echoed by the electronic gameboy sounds of the music. Instead of thermo-fabrics or fluorescent plastics, though, Leyla Piedayesh uses silk, jersey and of course knits. These come in all variations – fine, loose, elaborately detailed and patchworked.
Asymmetrically set-in zips and opaquely shining sequins are also recurrent features of the collection and a strong pink gives the otherwise minimalist colour palette a cheeky touch.
A lot has changed since 38 year-old Iranian-born Leyla Piedayesh’s first show in January 2004 at the Berlin fashion fair Premium. Her first knitwear collection consisted mainly of wrist-warmers. Now, only a few elements of the collection are still knitted by hand in her atelier in Mulackstraße.
Her success has born out her concept. Piedayesh’s casual and wonderfully dusted-down interpretation of knitwear is not only popular among the German music scene but is regularly featured in major fashion publications. (German text by Turid Reinicke from AMD Academy Fashion & Design for creative face Magazine)
