A lace corseted wonder dress made of discarded items or faded flowers fixed into eternal beauty, with her upcycling couture label, Odd by Aya Jallad, the designer transforms trash into works of art. We talked about the beauty of second chances, and the power in our differences.
Aya’s first couture collection Rebirth of Nature is an ode to nature, always beautiful, never perfect. Each unique piece is handcrafted from plastic, discarded clothes or natural elements, into ethereal couture dresses in shades of flora. After graduating from Esmod in 2012, Aya started looking for a job but couldn’t find something suitable for her personal situation. At the age of fifteen she became affected by a rare autoimmune disease scleroderma, where her body members can stiffen and become hard as stone. While looking for a job, she faced prejudice, with employers telling her how can you work in your condition. A couple of years into the search, her parents asked her why not start her own brand? Odd by AJ was launched on May 23, 2015, with a big fashion show during Lebanon Fashion Week. Aya started with ready-to-wear collections but felt that something was missing ‘something didn’t feel like me.’ The designer had to juggle the unrealistic pressure of a fast fashion brand, which can put a toll on anyone’s health as well as on creativity. In parallel, the pandemic hit and because of her disease Aya needed to be extremely careful and had to quarantine for months. ‘When there is nothing but the four walls and your mind, the latter is set free, it starts imagining, exploring, growing.’ This is how she discovered upcycling ‘I realize how much I love it, and how much it is connected to who I am as a person, damaged but with a second chance at life.’ Freed from the labeling, the limiting rules set by traditional education, Aya began experimenting, taking the leftover stocks from her past collections and giving them a second life. She remembers a quote she read ‘Do not fear mistakes, there are none.’ Her label became about embracing the beauty of imperfections. Odd by Aya Jallad’s first couture collection ‘Rebirth of Nature’ is ‘very much a rebirth,’ she took what was leftover, discarded from past collections and infused it with new life.
Last year, a friend suggested to Aya to apply to a competition with startup incubator Berytech, the Textile Eco-Innovation Challenge. Her brand Odd by AJ won, which enabled the designer to complete the rebrand into her couture upcycling vision. She crafted the ‘Creature’ dress in collaboration with Ahla Fawda, an NGO with a clothing shop where people can exchange plastic bottles for necessities. In the depot, Aya chose 20 items of clothing too damaged to be worn. She cut, reconstructed and turned them into a fairytale lace-corseted mermaid cut tulle-based dress with the vaporous fabric evocative of natural raw beauty. Working hand in hand with a seamster, she picked pieces of a certain color to achieve a soft-toned gradient found in nature, and specific fabric, synthetic, that becomes flexible with heat, to craft the dress she had in mind. Her new vision came to life, and Aya launched her couture collection ‘Rebirth of Nature.’ A corset found in a thrift shop, which was ‘pretty but damaged' became a timeless couture piece, where Aya carefully added flowers drenched in resin to solidify them, transforming it into everlasting beauty. ‘I used real flowers because of the sentimental value they evoke, reminiscent of a wedding day, or flowers received from a loved one.’ Playing with discarded plastic and old garments, Aya heats, stresses and deconstructs items. She experiments with fabrics and lets the process lead her to the final destination, ‘everything is unpredictable.’ Her brand is now available at Not Just a Label and on her website, with an outlook to bring it to Paris, the heart of couture. From the little girl who played with barbies, and preferred to dress them with leftover party balloons, cut and reshaped into fashion clothes, Aya who saw her whole life changed at fifteen, decided she would still ‘stubbornly’ pursue her passion. After years of searching, the designer found her true identity, in taking a damaged or discarded material, and breathing into it enduring beauty.
Photo credits (1), (2), (3): Gina Kazzi
