LFW SS19 – Interview with Leonie Mergen

Photography by: Zinaerina

Good morning, good afternoon, whatever the time of day it is, grab your coffee so we can have a catch up on London Fashion Weeks current events…

THE SHOW

After a hectic Saturday morning, I made my way to Leonie Mergen’s SS19 show, “Seven Beauties”.

Walking through the typical London roads of Liverpool Street into her venue lets just say, I was impressed-Devonshire Square’s secret garden of like minded fashionistas (DEFINITELY an Insta worthy location).

The show was beautiful, models floated down the runway while I sat, front row can I add, surrounded by guests who looked as excited as I felt for the next piece to be revealed.

Music, silk and prosecco – my kind of day.

THE COLLECTION

Leonie’s intriguing influence of the  Silk Road and Nizami Ganjavi’s poem “Seven Beauties” was inspired.

There was a gorgeous piece which I can picture now wafting down the runway, it was the w/8 coat. If that isn’t going to make you feel like one of the princesses, I don’t know what will. The beauty of it was the highly tailored A-line cut, statement piece, which was 55% silk and see through allowing you to pair it with multiple garments to achieve a number of looks.

The styling of the show, being a stylist myself, was my favourite aspect. Leonie cleverly paired her pieces from the collection together to create strong outfits that I could only dream of wearing. Layering, done like a queen.

Any celebrity would appreciate to wear this collection. I can picture someone like Anne Hathaway oozing with elegance wearing these pieces for an event/celebrity appearance, or Cole Sprouse, who would relate to the influence behind it all, given his archeological interests.

A current trend for AW18 is silk and an emerging SS19 trend seems to be yellow both of which is found in her collection. However I believe Leonie is a designer that creates her own trends and follows her own style which makes her unique.

THE INTERVIEW

I was privileged enough to speak to Leonie herself, I was nervoussss but the prosecco helped ahah. It’s intimidating speaking to an amazing designer who has achieved so much in the current years, can’t help but look up to them.

Where did it all being? “fascination about the regions of the Silk Road 5 years ago”. Leonie expressed the amount of research that is behind her work after finding “amazing historical things”, like the poem which was from the “11th century” which all contributes to her different collections.

Future collection fabric? Leonie spoke about “sticking to silk for now because there is so much material”. Already “having inspiration for the next season” she will continue to research about the silk region.

Styling? “I do it myself”, replied Leonie when I asked her about the styling of her collections. “I have great cooperation partners for each season”. This year one of the cooperations was Bronx.

Leaving her Karabakh Collection show I was on a high, it was so much more than I expected, little me, I’m actually 5ft9 but still see myself as a kid, in a big fashion world.

Catch up with you soon, Fashionnats x

You can follow Cara’s incredible styling adventures on her Instagram at @fashionnatts