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"fASHION IS A LANGUAGE OF ITS OWN... LET'S TALK" EURASIAN VOGUE


LD-13 : THE CLOTHING BRAND THAT ASKS, "HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL?"

4/27/2025

 
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There are certain designers who just know what they want to do, a creativity within them that just needs to find it's home and their creativity can flourish. 
 
Lisa Deurer is one of those artists. Born in Germany, in a small town in Augsburg, close to Munich, to two parents who always encouraged her creativity meant that Deurer was exploring what she wanted to do from an early age.

Here Deurer tells me about how she got started in the world of fashion, how her gender fluid, locally made, clothing brand LD-13 was born, and how out of a darker time in her life she really found what she was meant to do. The evolution of Deurer's process has led her to creating a brand that focuses on how her clothes make her customer feel. Not putting a label on them, or the clothes themselves, but focusing on the confidence and comfortability her clothes evoke. But let's start at the beginning, because her journey is a fascinating one. 
 
“My mum and dad instilled creativity in me from 2-3 years old. I actually first did a detour, I played soccer a lot growing up, to a teenage phase. I got almost to a professional level back home in Germany. But too many injuries led me to give up that career. I had to go through several operations.”
 
This took its toll emotionally on Deurer, as she tells me, “ After that I had a mental illness, and that really led to art therapy and that really sparked that interest in art again from a different perspective.”
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Despite this dark time, and a turn of career from what Deurer thought she might have been headed for, she came out the other side, and it was through this difficult time, that she really rediscovered her love of the arts and creating. “I really understood how I could use art as a medium to communicate and after school, I thought, now what’s next? So I went to New York."
 
"My family always used to travel to the states, New York at that time was very liberating for me. I felt it was a sign that I needed to go to an art school maybe. Parson’s felt like the right fit for me. So I went to the admissions office, and I met this person called Katie. I showed her my art portfolio, this was in 2016 and she told me, “Hey girl I can see you have talent, but I don’t see you yet in your art work” 
 
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Deurer continues, “I was very 2D orientated then" She told Deurer, "Just go out and live art over the summer and show me what you create when you come back. Get back to business and show me what you’ve done." 
 
Deurer took her advice to heart and did just that, “I asked my grandmother over the summer, “Can you show me how to sew?” at this stage, Deurer tells me she didn’t even know how to sew a button on a shirt, but she was really interested in learning, “She just taught me hand-stitching and I just fell in love with it. My grandmother said to me that I was picking up things really fast and she thought I had a talent there. And I just kept going. I was doing local courses in sewing and really exploring this 3D perspective. Then I showed Katie what I did over the summer." Katie told her, "You really exploded from where you left off over the summer, you really took off."
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In the November Deurer showed Katie her portfolio again, and she said, “I’m not allowed to tell you, but we want you.” It was the moment Deurer realized, “I am good at something, I need to pursue this.” 
 
Deurer wanted to explore and know every aspect of the industry, to be aware of every stage that went into creating a business. After she put her portfolio together, Deurer did an internship in fashion with a company that is no longer in business in Germany. However it took her through all the stages she'd soon need to know for herself, from production, assistant designing, sorting collections, doing the "shitty work", every aspect, but she loved it all, “It taught me that pursuing fashion wasn’t just a flimsy idea, but something that I was meant to do, so I kept on going.”
 
“Parson’s was so liberating for me” Deurer says, “After the foundation year, I did a fashion course, then when my teachers asked me to sew a pencil skirt, I did it, but my pencil skirt always stretched the boundaries. It wasn’t a typical pencil skirt. Then the dean began to notice me, and they really supported me there.”
 
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One opportunity that led to where Deurer is now, was the chance to meet with Isabella Rosellini. In 2019 Rosellini invited a materiality and systems class to her farm because she felt that students didn’t know where materials came from anymore and that needed to change. 

“She really sparked a fire there for me.” Deurer says. “Being from a very small village called Augsburg, that in the 15th Century used to be the textile hotspot and where people traded. We were getting our wool just outside of the city center. And I thought, wow, we used to have all this, we used to work with wool local breeds. Why don’t we do this anymore? And she was telling us in the U.S we have so many breeds but no one makes use of that."
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We get our wool from Australia because it has fine microns but why do we have to ship it across the world if we have it here? We just need to be more creative in the way that we mix materiality characteristics together. Like with mohair, there are so many possibilities there. I thought, damn, she’s hitting a point, I want to know more about it.
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​This was a huge turning point for Deurer and has undoubtably brought her to where she is today. “That made me really put all my research on wool. When Covid hit, in New York there was a total lockdown and I flew back home to Germany for a few months, but that didn’t stop me from calling farmers in the US and asking them, 
Do you want to collab with me for this thesis? I have this crazy idea and I don’t know if it will work but I want to source wool from you. I want to work with American wool in Connecticut and produce a heritage breed textile that doesn’t exist yet. One farmer in Pennsylvania said yes to me. It was from the breed romeldale. It’s very similar to merino breed, it has similar characteristics, and she had 200 sheep back in Pennsylvania. I said I will convince my thesis director to work with American wool. After that he put me in touch with Jacob the CEO from American wool. I pitched to him, and then that’s how it got going, he loved the idea, we sourced 500 pounds. I talked with a guy who would wash my wool, a guy down south in Alabama. And then we got  it shipped back to Connecticut to American wool and they wove our textile. It took two years and was a lot of work but I got three hundred meters of my own textile from the sheep that I know in Pennsylvania.
 
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Deurer graduated from Parsons in 2020 and as soon as she did, she hit the ground running. By 2021 she had created her gender fluid brand, LD-13. 

She had worked together with Isabella Rossellini throughout school and began doing things outside of school because people were requesting pieces of hers, "That's how it all started" Deurer tells me, “With Isabella I was working on the supply chain in school in the U.S and that really kickstarted everything. I was producing my own textiles. I was working in the garment district with a few people on site. So doing LD-13 after school felt like a natural next step.”
 
“Right now in the garment district in New York we are working on a coat that we are pitching to the wholesale people and are starting to sell in the U.S.”
 
Deurer, is inspiring, despite being a new brand, she knows the possibilities of making pieces locally, having done it before she'd even graduated and with the added challenge of Covid at the time, she still managed to make it work. Deurer tells me, 
 Local production is possible, you just need to keep talking together and working together and putting things in place
Deurer goes back and forth between New York and Berlin with a community in both places. She is now working with a Berlin photographer which has currently brought her back to Berlin. She also has a team in NY that are in the process of selling to wholesale. 
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​As for her brand LD-13, and the inspiration behind creating a gender fluid brand, Deurer tells me is down to her never setting boundaries for herself. Her mother was also the same, creating pieces of clothes that she likes for herself. Still very tailored base, wearing what she wants. Dressing in what makes her feel comfortable and confident and not putting a label on what she chooses to wear. 
 
Deurer tells me, “I really like the concept of Ray Kawakuba, (Japanese designer) who doesn't believe in having a mirror in her store, but more having customers feel how they felt in her clothes, not seeing a reflection and thinking ‘You look crazy,’ but how do you feel in these clothes?”
 
Not every piece in the collection is gender fluid but most pieces are, Deurer says. However she will say that men who have more of a softer side to them tend to look more suited to her clothes. Sometimes Deurer herself will see a man in her pieces, like the skirt and be blown away by how good it looks on them, mix-matching the pieces to suit their style.
 
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Deurer is headed into wholesale as we speak. She is in touch with, “Charles, who is from Hong Kong. I met him through mutual friends in the garment district." Deurer showed him her pieces and said "I would love to move into wholesale, you know my pieces, my brand, can we work together?" It was a perfect fit, as Deurer tells me, "He’s worked for John-Paul Gautier in the past and he gets all the edginess and avant-garde aspect of my work." 
 
A brand from a designer that knows every step and process of her garments and that allows her customer to wear what they want and interpret the pieces as they choose? Count me in.. 
 
Find LD-13 at:


Website: LD-13
FLYING SOLO 
IG: LD-13

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OLENA NEW YORK BAGS- FOR ARTS SAKE, MINIMALISM IS DEAD

4/20/2025

 
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​Olena Wills is a rare kind of artist. A woman who is a blend of her Ukrainian background, science, art, theatre and the chapters of life she has lived, her art is a culmination of her experiences and her experiences inform her art. 
 
When I visited Flying Solo to see the latest talent featured at their New York store fresh off of NYFW I was instantly drawn to the display of stunning bags by Olena. Their structure, the colours, the interesting shapes, the quality of the leather and the fact that Olena is one of the few artisans left in the United States that uses hand stitching in the making of her bags. She really is redefining how one should view luxury fashion. It's certainly not just a label, but a craftsmanship, she is telling the story of a talented artisan creating timeless works of art. 
 
To understand the beautiful construction of Olena’s bags and the craftmanship behind the collection it’s important to know where Olena herself has come from.
 
Olena’s background is certainly extensive. Pushed by her parents to have a more stable academic background, Olena gained formal training in mathematics, physics and economics, as well as studying art and photography. However Olena tells me, “The artist inside was breaking out” and so came a career change. 
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Originally from Ukraine, and a second-generation tailor, Olena used to help her mother when she was younger and later began pattern making at age 13. She really always wanted to sew, following in her mother’s footsteps but her mother always told her she was, “Too clever to sew like me” but later Olena told her mother, “I studied as you wanted me to but I want to sew, and unlike you, I love it.” This passion has led her to an incredible career, taking her to so many corners of the world of fashion, art and costume design. 
 
At age 20 Olena already had a small client list, making a variety of garments including prom dresses and jackets. In New York Olena attended FIT. Her talent was instantly recognizable and soon she caught the eye of Broadway, later became a Broadway costume designer at John Kristiansen, producing custom costumes including Frozen, Cat’s, The Greatest Showman and The American Gods, dressing David Bowe and Gillian Anderson, amongst others. Olena also has an eye for capturing art behind the lens having studied photography in England, all of which have helped her creativity and vision for her brand. 
 
However ten years ago, Olena had her ‘aha’ moment. In 2013,
Hermès did a 'leather forever' fashion show celebrating 175 years of craftmanship, where artisans in real time displayed the artistry that went into making one of their pieces. It was a huge revolution, a moment where people realised they could make bags with designer quality if they wanted to. 

Olena began to hand stitch bags, using a French technique. She’s almost entirely self-taught but had a teacher from France who said that her technique is the same of that of an
Hermès bag and this is the technique that Olena uses herself. Soon after Olena New York bags were born and each bag tells a story.

Collections inspired by the New York architecture, some bags you can see the Manhattan skyline, the sun, a skyscraper. The New York taxi, whilst also integrating French, Ukraine avant-garde art. One collection is inspired by the Salvador Dale clock, the shape of the feminine body, all done by hand. Another by the Statue of liberty, “This is what time does, it washes away things” Olena tells me. 


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The price of the bags reflect the amount of time spent on the creation of the bags, some taking from 120 to 160 hours to complete. Olena does use exotic materials but having studied sustainability, she works with people who supply exotic material in America and has educated herself on how it works, using it very carefully and doesn’t mass produce these pieces. They’re done with the highest of standards and limited quantities. Olena is very careful and conscious about the way she creates her pieces and how she makes them.
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Olena's collection includes both architectural and artistic handbags, as well as an Art Deco collection available in different sizes. The Deco bag comes in both leather and exotic variations. She also has the Manhattanhenge and Manhattanhenge Mini bags, along with her latest designs—the Surreal bag and the Copper Wave bag.
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​I ask if Olena will go back to also making clothes? “Actually, I started doing a clothing collection in September as my friend wanted to do a charity for Ukraine (Fashion for Ukraine charity) and I wanted to do it. For thirty years I was designing clothes, and then for a while I refused to do it, but now I’ve come full circle, wanting to create a full look, with the bags being a part of that look.”
 
When it comes to her clothing design, Olena likes embroidery, an aesthetic that Ukraine uses a lot of, but Olena uses it in her own way, in a slightly more artistic way. The use of natural fabrics like linen and natural silks are her preferred material but she’s certainly not minimalist.
 
“Some describe it as ‘too much’” Olena tells me, but “I’m always inspired by my own exeriences. My husband had a heart attack, so one collection I embroidered a big heart on the clothes.” Inspired by designers like Frida Kahlo, she’ll also take inspiration from the colours of a painting, or even an event that can be the catalyst of a new collection. 
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Olena pulls out her phone and shows me an Instagram photo of her collection, a dress, from her ‘To Frida’ collection, the dress has three layers of silk, transparent, layered. Ukraine has inspired her in another, an artist she worked with who did a drawing that she worked into the piece. Sometimes she’ll use lazer to cut some of the pieces, some embroidery. This collection, Olena tells me is all inspired by her husband who sadly passed. Olena tells me, 

The skirt opens up, and the blood is shown inside. As Schiaparelli said, minimalism is dead..
Indeed it is.
 
Find Olena New York bags at:
 
IG: Olena New York
Website: Olena New York
Shop at: Flying Solo
 

BRADELIS- THE COMFORTABLE UNDER COUTURE

4/5/2025

 
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Model wears Classy Bra

​Comfortable couture, a term I’ve penned to sum up Akiyo Hirakubo’s brand Bradelis. After meeting with the company and discovering the ethos behind the innovative lingerie company it was the best way to describe Bradelis, a company that are putting women’s confidence and voices at the forefront of importance.
 
With their headquarters in Japan, founder Akiyo Hirakubo began the company in 1991. After studying abroad in the U.S and encountering the experience of getting fitted in the U.S for a bra, she realized how important that experience was. That it wasn’t just an undergarment she was purchasing but something that can give you a quiet confidence, a wow experience that she wanted others to experience. So it inspired her to begin her own line of lingerie, something she felt was perhaps missing for a winder customer in the market place. 
 
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Model wears Luminous Slip

​The mission of Hirakubo is a simple one. She wants women to feel good in their own skin. To know that one size doesn’t fit all, that different body types exist and they are all beautiful. She wants to give women a positive experience when being sized and purchasing their bras. 
 
A shocking statistic of 80% of women in the Unites States are wearing the wrong size bra and perhaps an even larger percentage of women don’t feel comfortable in their own skin and are neglecting this part of themselves.
Hirakubo wanted to help change this.
 
The company was founded in 1991 in Japan, expanding to NY in 1994. Japan now has 20 stores with 160 store staff. The key to the company is the personal experience, so the knowledge of the staff members was of huge importance to
Hirakubo, giving them over 600 hours of training to ensure that every customer got that personal positive experience. She wants to give her customers the experience of feeling truly comfortable. Especially those that feel insecurities with themselves, to give them that confidence to feel good in their own skin. To break away from the image that every body type has to fit into a standard ideal, Hirakubo really wants her customers to embrace themselves. 
 
In order to reach a wider customer the company expanded their online business and has a QVC presenter who represents the brand with the company mission of encouraging women to embrace themselves. Sales staff are not only selling the products but fitting and consulting and semi-customizing the bra to suit their customer, everything from strap length, to removing or adding pads for the customers preference, a customised personalised experience which is the DNA of the brand. 
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​The customer’s voice is really at the heart of shaping and developing Bradelis. The bra has 15 patents on their pieces. One of which is the three-layered tunnel support on their bra. It supports from three sides, including the front of the breast, so it creates shape but with comfort. It doesn’t cut into the skin but rounds the skin with no underwire needed. The cup is almost in a smooth curve, there is so much detail in each component. Wireless but still giving support, holding up, but not with any wires that are going to dig into the skin.


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Model wears seamless push-up wireless shaping bra. 

The company is always listening to their customers feedback, what they need and then incorporates that into the development of their pieces. Every season, there’s new developments, perhaps tiny things but always putting the customer at the forefront and having their voices heard and not trying to standardise the woman’s body.

Hirakubo chose New York as the city to set up the company in the US because it’s a creative city, has a confidence to the city that resonates with the brand, reflecting Bradelis own ethos.

Lingerie really can change how a woman feels about themselves. When Hirakubo was at the store and she heard the customers from the fitting room speaking about their positive experience of trying on a Bradelis bra from the changing room, it really touched her. Hearing the confidence coming through, not realizing they could look and feel as confident as they did in the moment of discovering the brand. An inner assurance, a quiet confidence they can carry with them. 
 
Comfortable couture and inner confidence. Something every woman deserves. 
 
Price range is $42 up to and up for more decorated couture pieces.


Find Bradelis at:

IG @Bradelisny
www.bradelisnewyork.com
Stocked at – Flying Solo


  • Photographer: kenji shibata @k_shibataphotographyworks
  • Hair & makeup Stylist: sonoko @sonokopper_hairmake
  • Talent/Model: Matilda @matildanavratil

 

    By
    STACY FAN 



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