A love of textiles and pure, archetypal forms runs like a thread through Berlin-based designer Nobieh Talaei's biography. It’s an itinerant thread, if you will, one which emotionally and creatively references her grandmother’s nomadic family heritage as well as a background in traditional handcrafts and dressmaking skills.
Born in Tehran in 1978, Talaei moved with her family to Berlin when she was 11. Studying fashion at Esmod in Berlin, her graduate men's wear collection was chosen by Premium to be specially exhibited at the Berlin fashion fair in 2003. Later, she gained merchandising experience with a leading international women's wear brand, followed by retail management positions with a luxury designer label. A short stint in interior design came next, during which she created timeless yet modern environments starring hand-chosen pieces of Bauhaus, Neue Sachlichkeit and 1950's Scandinavian design.
These different chapters, she notes, all helped lay the conceptual and aesthetic foundations for her company NOBI TALAI, which she founded in Berlin in early 2015 with a first image collection. In July 2015, the designer made her official market debut with her Spring/Summer 2016 NOBI TALAI collection, shown in both a solo presentation and then as part of The Berliner Mode Salon at the Kronprinzenpalais during Berlin Fashion Week.
Just one day prior to that, Talaei was named one of the first two mentees in the Fashion Council Germany’s inaugural Fellowship program. Besides providing a season of professional mentorship, the Fellowship also took Talaei to Paris in September, where her creations were displayed at the German Embassy as part of the Berliner Mode Salon group exhibit. In another growth spurt, Talaei expanded her Berlin headquarters later in the year, installing a larger pattern-making and design atelier on a separate floor.
Now for Fall/Winter 2016/17, Talaei will kick off the fashion week proceedings at the Kronprinzenpalais with an intimate show of her second NOBI TALAI collection: NT.02. The numerals are to mark the progression of her label’s continuous and ongoing journey. For the journey is the message, she says. And the inspiration.