Sheryn Akiki

One of the two L’Oreal Professional winners, Beirut-born Sheryn Akiki has maintained a steady ethos throughout her studies: to design clothes that feel as good as they look. For her graduate collection – a subversive take on femininity, which combined deconstructed, revealing eveningwear with knitwear and tailored jerseys – Akiki celebrated the idea of glam gone wrong, “a wardrobe that can switch up from day to night, bed to office, lunch to gala.”

The way Lebanese women carry themselves, and their way of enjoying life as it comes, day-by-day, was one of the many influences behind the earth-toned colour palette and most of the looks: “Imagine a mise-en-scène of Bausch’s women gargling water and trying to apply mascara during rush hour, a broken mirror, Dalida impersonating Gaddafi’s Amazonian bodyguards, Petra Von Kant of Les Larmes Amères lounging in her pearls, Beirut’s golden age, fog, and a secretary gone mad with a comb stuck in her hair,” she said. Being from the Middle East Akiki had to work without European funding, inspiring her to create what she called the “non-scholarship heels” – which involved strapping a heel to the model’s foot. Ingenious.

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FAUX DALIDA version @alicehurel – pleather+knit elasticated dress, sleeve, and garters with a plonked on shoulder pad for some GLAM-ON-THE-GO #mafcsm19

A post shared by SHERYN AKIKI (@sherynakiki) on Feb 19, 2019 at 3:34am PST

Gallery: Sheryn Akiki MA

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