How beautiful is Strausberger Platz? Those who don’t work or live here rarely notice it; Strausberger Platz and its adjoining blocks of flats are not exactly an area through which visitors stroll from one neighborhood to the other. But now – on a hot day in early summer, with the nearby TV tower in the background, the lavish fountain in sight, wide streets, high buildings – it is now becoming clear: Berlin also feels like a wonderful cosmopolitan city on Strausberger Platz.
So it’s only too fitting that one of the ten-story, neoclassical towers that flank the spacious square is home to Aeyde – one of the few Berlin fashion brands that has successfully established itself on an international level. The label has just added additional premises in the former child’s house, and now it occupies the entire first floor; one of the teams is also active in a glass adjoining building of the tower: At Aeyde, the signs are pointing to growth.
The brand’s shoes and jewelry are already sold in almost 80 stores in more than 25 countries, including digital heavyweights such as Net-a-Porter or Mytheresa and traditional analog houses such as Bloomingdales in New York or Le Bon Marche in Paris; KaDeWe, Alsterhaus and Breuninger have Aeyde on offer anyway. And that despite the fact that Luisa Dames only founded her label in 2015. However, the boss does not want to rest on her laurels.
We started with twelve pairs of shoes, today we have around 200 models in the collection each season.
louis dames
“We’ve achieved a lot in the past seven years, we started with twelve pairs of shoes, today we have around 200 models in the collection each season,” says Dames, while sitting at a large, bright table in one of her conference rooms. “But I still had the feeling that it was time for the next development step.” It is the corporate design, the visualization of the company identity, and above all the logo, that the founder wanted to work on again: A few weeks ago she then presented it a new look for your brand, a new lettering. The entire Kino International had rented Dames for the presentation of the new logo, and a pretty campaign video by the Berlin filmmaker Sylvie Weber flickered across the big screen, which is supposed to accompany the change of wind at Aeyde.
Lucia Jost for Berliner Zeitung
Shoe fashion in self-test: Dames wears the Aeyde model “Maisie”.
And yet: Luisa Dames does not want to talk about a relaunch of her brand. “I’d rather say it’s an update.” The old logo, beautiful as it was, always presented challenges for her and her creative teams. At that time, Aeyde was still written in lowercase, with a crossbar over the a, i.e. aeydē. “It didn’t look good in all sizes and on all materials, partly because the spaces between the letters were relatively large,” says Dames. “For example, if we punched the logo out of leather or put it larger on a shoe sole, it never looked really elegant.”
Despite the success, I had the feeling that it was time for the next development step.
louis dames
For many years, the marketing principle was: “Don’t mess with your logo” – just leave the logo alone! In recent years, this maxim, which places the recognition value of an established lettering above every creative decision, has gradually disappeared. The many fashion brands, whose logos now shine in new splendour, testify to this: a few years ago, for example, the fine, slim Balenciaga logo became a stronger, coarser lettering, just like with Burberry, Berluti and Balmain.
Lucia Jost for Berliner Zeitung
This is how it looks: The models for next season are already in the office.
A real master of radical reinterpretation is the French designer Hedi Slimane, who, as creative director, stole a few letters or upward accents from labels: From an obliquely written “Yves Saint Laurent“ was under his aegis an objectively staged “SAINT LAURENT”, from “Céline” Slimane finally made “CELINE”. Plain capital letters, a concise, robust typeface – there are also trends in the field of letters.
We were looking for a classic German typeface, based on which we wanted to create our own typeface.
louis dames
With a capital A at the beginning and clear, gently formed letters, Aeyde now has a less playful, simpler logo than before – the uniqueness is in the details. One edge of the “A” corresponds to a slight crease on the toe of the significant Aeyde shoe model “Leandra”, a design trick that also runs through the jewelry collection of the label. To develop their own typeface, Dames and her team dug deep into the typography archives of the University of the Arts.
Lucia Jost for Berliner Zeitung
With a stern look: Luisa Dames examines the leather samples.
“We were looking for a classic German typeface that we wanted to use as a basis for our own typeface,” says Dames, while the sun spits light and warmth onto the conference table. “When we saw our old logo, many people initially had no idea where our brand came from, whether it had Asian or Scandinavian origins,” she says. “We want to position ourselves very clearly in the German context.”
I don’t just focus on the product itself, but on all facets of the company and the cultural context in which it is created.
louis dames
The fact that Dames’ brand Aeyde does not come from Tokyo or Copenhagen, Paris or Milan is a fact that is well worth emphasizing. An internationally renowned and globally distributed fashion brand from Berlin – that rarely happens. It is true that there are always noble success stories on the Spree; the label Rianna+Nina from Mitte, for example, now even sells its silk kimonos at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, the most important department store in the world; With Mykita, the city has an internationally extremely successful eyewear brand, with Highsnobiety, a fashion media brand that is hyped all over the world. Such developments are the exception, not the rule.
Lucia Jost for Berliner Zeitung
Spoiled for choice: color options are available for selection in the studio.
Corporate design is also crucial for the success of a brand, regardless of the industry – Luisa Dames is convinced of that. “Perhaps I’ve internalized that a bit more because I’m not a classic designer, but studied cultural economics,” she says. “Accordingly, I don’t just have an eye on the product itself, but on all facets of the company and also the cultural context in which this company is created.” But that the shoes and jewelery of her label, along with a small selection of silk scarves, are also convincing on their own Luisa Dames demonstrates this on a short tour of her impressive company premises, some of which previously housed the Gonzales Haase architects’ office, which designs stores for brands such as Balenciaga and Acne.
Back then, I was always looking for the perfect boat, and my company came about a little bit out of this desire.
louis dames
The Aeyde designs of the current and coming season are lined up on brute metal shelves in a small, bright adjoining room: simple loafers with angular toes stand next to more filigree two-tone slippers, purple platform boots in the style of the seventies next to silver boots with round toes; when it comes to jewelry, there are strong creoles that are half silver and half golden, thick ball earrings with different colored knobs on them, simple curb chains, eye-catching bracelets. And then there is “Leandra”. “The shoe that we started with seven years ago,” says Luisa Dames, picking up the ankle boot. He seems to have the almost perfect shape, the perfect shaft and heel height.
In Berlin, the model, which costs 345 euros, is almost legendary – there is hardly a fashion event or an art event at which some guest has not laid her feet in Aeyde’s “Leandra”. “Back then, I was always looking for the perfect boot,” says Dames, putting the boot, on the sole of which is no longer written aeydē, but Aeyde, from one hand to the other. “My company came about a little out of this desire, out of my own need.” At the time, the founder could not have imagined that something so big would develop from it, a Berlin brand on a world scale. “But I’ve already thought about how cool it would be if a label emerged from the city that also works well internationally.”
Having such a vision, a dream that becomes a firm goal, is crucial for great success. Just like the willingness to continuously try something new, to examine the different facets of a company for their significance for the present – not always reinventing a brand, but giving it an update from time to time. And yet there is something that the boss would never change about her label. “Leandra,” she says, putting the boot back on the metal shelf. “We won’t touch it, it stays the way it is.”