10 Questions with Lueder

Straddling the past, present, and future, German-born designer Marie Lueder executes a welded vision of medieval shapes infused with contemporary flair. Launching her brand, Lueder, mere weeks before Covid, Marie is a designer who understands risk more than most. Yet, this maverick approach to her business manifests throughout her craft as she continues to present collections that defy confining aesthetics. Medieval-style trousers, armour-like hoodies, and fur accents are elevated with completely contemporary detailing. Bisected zippers, indigo denim, and sporadic slogan tees tug Lueder’s pieces between the past and the present drawing us into her unique vision, honed by impeccable craftsmanship in shaping garments. Most recently debuting her AW25 collection in Berlin, Lueder showcased a ‘Men are so back’ slogan tee. Naturally raising some eyebrows and prompting a few sharp questions, the tongue-in-cheek tee was a dizzying addition to the show. The curiosity that Lueder inspires is where she truly excels, keeping observers on the edge of their seats and refusing to settle for easy assimilation. Marie herself constantly aims to question. Ahead of her London presentation, we spoke with Marie about unusual sources of inspiration (even stranger than medieval streetwear) and how she plans to celebrate after the chaos of the last few weeks. 

Describe your AW25 collection in three words

Swag is so back

Why do you do what you do? What keeps you motivated to keep creating fashion collections?

What motivates me is working with an amazing team and having a great time travelling for it. I have to do it. It’s the only thing I feel like I can do and it’s very exciting and nourishing, it keeps me excited and awake and it inspires me a lot.

Have you found a technique, or a supplier, or a contributing craftsperson that has excited you to incorporate into your new AW25 collection?

The supplier that supported and inspired us very much during the season was Stratasys. They’re developing a very cool new technology to do prints and embellishments directly on clothing. So it’s done through 3D printing on clothing directly, and we’re working with them for the first time, we’re excited to share the print we have done with them which is super tactile, super 3D and immersive as itself. Then also we work with incredible new fake fur, which is made from wood pulp, so it has no carbon footprint we’re very excited to incorporate the textile into the collection as well as Pointex who sponsored our carpet, which we used in Berlin for the set design. We also worked with BAD short for body amplification devices, an incredible designer making 3D printed shoes, it’s inspiring to be working with footwear.

What’s one element of your design process that might surprise people?

I design very much through conversation, I need to have contact with people and I think that’s one of the biggest inspirations for me, meeting people talking with them, and being inspired together in community.

ChatGPT. Yes or no?

I use ChatGBT because I’m dyslexic and it helps me every day. When I’m stressed and when I’m busy, mainly in writing. Sometimes when we have to communicate an idea very quickly, we also use AI, but yeah ChatGBT is mainly in applications, but then there always has to be a person who looks after it as well to ensure authenticity.

Over the past few challenging years - with Brexit, post-Covid, with the retail landscape a bit of a mess - how have you thought about what you make and how to make it connect with your customer and community?

Brexit has really changed the way wholesale works and the exporting of any products made in the UK. We’re still producing locally in the UK and Birmingham and in London, but our quantities are not as high, we really endeavour to work on demand or produce on demand so, for us we still want to keep things local. There are a couple of stockists who like to work with accounts which are outside of the UK, which makes it more difficult. For sales, everyone just goes to Paris, which has changed how we engage with our customers. We have done pop-ups as people want to try on our clothes and meet us. So we’re trying to do a lot of activations and do events in the church and work with artists together.

What is it about London that continues to energize your creativity?

I tried to explain this when I moved here once to a friend that what I like about London is that I’m the person in the room who doesn’t understand anything ideally. I want to always be in the position of questioning who I am, and how I think about things. And to be the person who is curious and not too comfortable

How will you celebrate when the show / presentation / showroom is over?

It’s my birthday and my casting director’s birthday as well, Emma, and another person in my team and my flatmates so we’re going to have a kind of party marathon starting with our show, then we’re going to have a dinner and drinks. There will be days of celebration and some rest after that.

What’s the one product that is NOT your own, that you can’t live without, or has stayed in your wardrobe for constant use, and why?

It’s a bit more functional but I have these split gloves (Swix) which I use when I cycle that look like Tabi gloves. I need them because I cycle every day so that’s something very functional which is essential for me. Other than that I think other than my jewellery, I wear second-hand or my friend’s brands clothes or my things, for shoes, like my cowboy boots, I’ve had them for 10 years and I always take them to the cobbler.

What has been your strangest source of inspiration?

Ooh, the strangest source of inspiration. It can be everything. I don’t know if it’s strange, but dating people is a source of inspiration and trying to find out how to make their lives better or find out what they need, or what their friends need. For this season, it was looking at carpets and that’s maybe a strange source of inspiration, but I think researching it is not unusual in that way, like taking inspiration in your surroundings. It can be a smell as well. I’ve worked with that before. Like it’s because it’s often emotive, like how I start it’s more like a feeling, a general feeling. um and then the visuals that come after. So maybe it’s more sensual, more spiritual. So it’s about like a bodily feeling. And then afterwards, trying to figure out how this manifests as an image.