Up and coming young designer LAMIJA managed to surprise us with her SS16 collection of laser cut leather, eyelets in laser cut skirts, and the special embroidery which is a signum for the brand. None other than Giovanna Battaglia sat on the front row which is a stamp of approval!
I meet Lamija at my favorite interview spot in Stockholm, Taverna Brillo, over a cup of cappuccino. She wears a black dress and red lipstick – signature for her, and looks at me with her deep brown eyes. Definitely a soulful girl from the Balkans, I think, and I am not wrong because Lamija comes from Bosnia and came to Sweden as a refugee with her family during the war. Both her parents are doctors so they did find jobs in Sweden and build a life here. However, Lamija and her family have not forgotten the war and the theme of fighting and loss comes back in her clothes design.
Ekaterina Larsson for Fashion Stories: The Embroidery, it is very Balkan.
Lamija: Yes, I look at the national dresses and like the embroidery, the beads – it is very detailed. This is what I like when I work – details. I like heavy ornaments and combining that with the Swedish minimalistic silhouette. So this is my specialty.
The embroidery in Bulgarian folklore dresses is mainly red and green (assuming Bosnian is similar). But in your clothes you use mostly black and white. Why?
Not only, I use silver and gold threads. And they have a lot of color sections as well, but for me the white and black I see it more as telling my story about the past and the future, which is Bosnia and Sweden for me.
Even looking at my sketch books I always use pictures in black and white even if they are in color I will remake them in black and white because I do not like seeing color when I work. It has to do with the past and the history and what I like looking at.
Using only the black and white then the details are more in focus. The shape is more important than the color.
In my new collection the theme is child birth. I was looking at the female side, which is the egg. So if you look at it microscopically it has a circle (the whole) and a double circle in it. So that is why I used eyelets – a technique I immediately thought of when I saw the picture of the eggs. And I also thought of the male side and the sperm, which is very organic. So I drew a laser cut pattern, which I use in the collection as a fabric. And a third pattern is combining that, which is symbolic of the way a child is created and is in the body – I used the eyelet (the circle) and the organic kind of line, which I made a lacing out of. So these are the three stages how a child is created and the story around the collection.
