Lara Dizeyee's Kurdish couture
Kurdish designer Lara Dizeyee is preparing a couture collection for Milan Fashion Week. Dizeyee fled Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, grew up in the US, and later returned to Erbil. Her designs draw on traditional Kurdish dress - layered garments, capes, and ornate headpieces - reimagined as bold evening wear. Her work is celebrated in Kurdistan, across the diaspora, and in the Arabian Gulf. Yet despite her growing profile, she lacked the funds to stage a show on the scale Milan demands. Arts journalist Melissa Gronlund follows her as she secures backing and races against time to source fabrics, sketch and sew designs, and collaborate with Kurdish artisans on jewellery and bespoke accessories. More than 30 outfits are completed and packed into suitcases carried by her extended family. On the big day, Dizeyee fits each model and navigates last-minute crises - models too short, earrings that won’t fit, designs that misfire. But as the models walk out in her reimagined Kurdish looks, the emotion in the room is unmistakable. And in that final moment, as the Kurdish flag is symbolically recreated on the runway, Dizeyee presents her culture to the world.
- Datum:
- Duur:
Meer afleveringen van The Documentary Podcast
-
Striking gas in Bolivia
In July 2024, Bolivia discovered the Mayaya Centro-X1 gas field, its largest find in nearly 20 years. With an estimated 1.7 trillion cubic feet of reserves, the announcement sparked excitement across the country, promising to help... -
The real ‘Yellowstone’: A battle for the cowboy way of life
Ranches, rodeos and public land. This is the story of a surprising battle raging in the American West, and the unlikely coalition it’s forged. Nearly half of all land in the West of the United States is owned by the federal... -
Lara Dizeyee's Kurdish couture
Kurdish designer Lara Dizeyee is preparing a couture collection for Milan Fashion Week. Dizeyee fled Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, grew up in the US, and later returned to Erbil. Her designs draw on traditional Kurdish dress - layered...