LD13 is a new German and New York City-based luxury brand. Under the direction of Creative Director Lisa Deurer, the brand focuses on craftsmanship, farm-to-wardrobe production, and a fully transparent supply chain. It aims to express individualism, encourage a culture of respect, and embrace imperfection. LD13 debuted its latest personality-driven commercial and high fashion pieces at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks with independent designer collective Flying Solo.
I talked to Lisa Deur about sustainability in fashion. She says based on first-hand experience, fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world.
“The industry still produces and consumes at a rate that exploits our resources globally. It promotes a fast fashion cycle based on trends, creating piles after piles each week in Brooklyn’s warehouses with throw-away ‘second-hand clothes’ while also paying their workforce the bare minimum,” Deur says.
After visiting a landfill in 2019 in Pennsylvania while still a fashion student at Parsons School of Design, she observed a mountain of thrown-away clothes. “Back then, I already asked myself the question, how do we want to be remembered?”
After graduating from fashion school, Deur started her avant-garde brand LD13, which envisions a world where luxury in fashion doesn’t express excess but rather heritage, art of the craft, and transparent supply chains.
LD13 believes in smaller collections, primary colors not based on trends, a like-minded community, numbered pieces, and high-quality crafted products to create a less pollutant fashion brand in the future.
“I am convinced that the LD13 Wardrobe and our innovation in sustainability allow exchanging ideas to inspire our society with new Farm to Fashion approaches. Be it in Europe or the States, we take pride in our transparent wool supply chain and our collaboration with craftspeople: we know the sheep whose wool we use and the people who produce our fabrics and create our garments. LD13 clothes are not based on trends and fast fashion; they are non-seasonal and last through generations. We want to be remembered for and develop products that are worth being made together with people who care about sustainability, heritage, diversity, and craftsmanship,” Deur says.
Videographer Lisa Maslovskaya interviewed Lisa Deur for Urban Watch at LD13’s studio in Brooklyn. Watch the video here.