Reem Juan - AW13

Designer Reem Juan’s clothing fuses romance and modernity in equal measure, to create an innovative and inventive take on luxury womenswear.

Born and raised in Abu Dhabi, Juan trained at the London College of Fashion and established her own label in November 2010, after working for a time with the Japanese designer Michiko Koshino.

 

Hers is an aesthetic that reflects the tastes of a truly multi-cultural mind.

Reem Juan finds inspiration in female archetypes, old and new, from the silver screen sirens of Hollywood’s Golden Age such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, via pre-Raphaelite nymphs and heroines, to the exuberant hyper-femininity of early Lacroix.

 

But references range as widely as the photography of Sarah Moon and the twisting da Vinci stairway at the Chateau de Larochefoucauld. Whether art or architecture, Juan teases out the same understated and classic gentility to use within her own range.

 

A palette of warm stone and gentle pastels, pared down neutrals and burnished metallics create a baroque-influenced pastoral style, light and airy in a Western neo-classical vein but shot through with the exotic mysticism of the East.

 

Fluid and sinuous, twisting folds and drapes of silk and tulle fall with the elegance of yesteryear, while intricate embellishment and complex adornment add a latterday verve that is singular to the label.

 

Juan’s designs make statements: not by shouting loudly, but in the whisper of full-length skirts, the crinkle of sheer tulle on skin, the sexiness that is inherent to subtle and sophisticated modesty.