ArdAzAei’s AW26 Collection Takes Inspiration From the Nightingale’s Rose
The fifth collection for the Persian-Swedish couturier, who moves with French savoir-faire and innovation, is wrought with literary design detail…
This was my first ArdAzAei runway show and I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve attending the brand’s presentations but a show is altogether different. It’s personal, it’s intimate, and familial with a brand’s closest relationships gathered in one place to see a collection on display. As I climbed the marble staircase and entered the show space, I was mesmerized by the darkness inside. Windows were covered with yellow film, and the wooden bench seats were the most uniquely shaped seating I’d ever seen at a runway show. Etched on every seat was the ArdAzAei logo. How personal and detailed.
Founded by Bahareh Ardakani, a Swedish-Persian couturier and her partner Johannes Falk, ArdAzAei is a personal brand with meaning. It moves with intentionality where the name is comprised of the initials of Ardakani and her parents. This collection, themed “The Nightingale’s Rose” takes inspiration from Ardakani’s Persian heritage, where she grew up with the rose and the nightingale- gol o bolbol- celestial beings that she saw in the carpets and paintings in her parents’ home.
She incorporated gol o bolbol in layers of rose-patterned lace, silk, and chiffon. In the 26-look collection, the symbolism of this tale is poignant with the rose being the beauty element, as well as representing perfection.
“The rose and nightingale motif, however, is not simply decoration but a coded system. In Persian art and poetry, it carries association of love, longing, spiritual aspiration, beauty, voice, and unattainability, appearing only in manuscripts, lacquer, and decorative objects but also in textiles and courtly dress,” explains Ardakani in collection notes.
Looks include evening gowns and cocktail dresses, told through sartorial storytelling with coats and jackets. The silhouette of the songbird is etched out in exaggerated curves of the hips and long swooping skirts. The A-shaped closure in the back of dresses represents the outline of a bird in flight. The color theme is made up of deep reds and copper ochres, like the vegetal-dyed tapestries of heirloom Persian carpets. The changeant red-to-orange mousseline creates deep detail and mystery that’s seen on a corseted evening gown with wing-tip shoulders.
Ardakani notes how gol o bolbol are found in the illustrated pages of the mystical poets Hafez and Saadi, which their work in inspired in the embroidery. The motif of climbing roses with petals of glass beads, sequins, and crystals on mousseline, hand-stitched add texture and another shape to gowns. “Elaborate Zardozi embroidery- a technique that originated in 7th century Persia-in deed cooper thread appears on the hems of dresses like the borders of an illustrated manuscript,” explains Ardakani.
The collection captivates. Its pieces are few compared to other collections on the calendar. But, this goes back to how ArdAzAei moves with intentionality, creating with motive and careful sartorial storytelling.
View the collection
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