– CNN Prima on Talabaya – A beautiful report on a creation that combines European and Arab fashion. Thank you! Watch it too! CNNPrimanews
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Mirka Talavaskova operates under the brand name Talabaya, which hides the work of clean lines, feminine shapes, elegance both casual and social with a touch of the Orient.
“It’s a fusion between European and Eastern culture, specifically Arabic,” explained the successful designer.
Her dresses are variable and the intention is that they can be combined across collections but also continents. She mainly targets young, successful and active women. As she describes it, the lifestyle is loosening in Arab countries and young women are looking for a European style of dress that also meets their strict regulations. And this is the alpha omega of her brand.
“I try to do it in a way that not only the Arab, Muslim woman can wear the dress, who keeps the veiling, but also the European woman who combines it with her wardrobe,” she explained. And when her fashion is paired with the right accessories, it can be worn anywhere in the world because it is tailored for both European and Arab women, who can mix and match the pieces with leggings, jeans and can wear sneakers, as well as heels. The dress can therefore be worn to work, to dinner or to a social event.
The name Talabaya alone sounds like a name from the tales of a thousand and one nights, but as in her collection, it is a fusion of two continents. “The name is from the traditional Arabic coat for women, abaya, and the Tal at the beginning is part of my surname,” Talavashka explained.
Talabaya
The turning point to her journey to Middle Eastern countries was a client who was moving to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for work. She approached the designer five years ago to make her a dress that would honour the local culture and adhere to dress standards, but at the same time retain her identity and European flair. And so Mirka came up with designs that bridged the two cultures. “That’s where Talabaya was born,” Talavashkova said in an interview with CNN Prima NEWS.
As such, the oriental fashion business took off for the designer two years ago when she got the opportunity to do a sales presentation of her collection in Dubai, where her fashion successfully took root. “There was a positive response to the garment, so I thought of starting Talabaya and coincidentally there was a fashion fair of sorts in Dubai at the time where I was invited and I got interested. I was approached there by buyers from Riyadh, among others.”
At the Dubai fair at the time, she showcased seven sales models, with only five copies of each model. Today, her clothes are worn by successful women there, including the founder of the Islamic Fashion and Design Council in Dubai. However, the Czech designer has clients all over the world and her fashion has made its way to New York and Russia, for example.
Mirka Talavaskova’s clothes are simple and western. Which for Arab women who already go to work, run businesses and run companies is a very attractive and elegant option compared to their typical fashion. “At the moment, those women don’t use the embellished fashion to work anymore, but rather they use the fashion that is close to our fashion in terms of elegance and simplicity,” Mirka explained.
“Talabaya is not just about fashion, it’s all about bringing women together so that we have something to learn from each other. Mirka, like the rest of the team, we try to collaborate with other women who have similar interests. We draw inspiration from different spheres, but especially from the Middle East, where the primary market is Talabaya. What we are trying to show is that preconceived ideas about modest fashion (veiled fashion) have long been taboo. We want to explain that modest fashion can be beautiful and chic,” said Talabayi PR manager Martina Fajarudin.
Mirka Talavaskova
Since childhood, she has been looking under the hands of her mother, who was also a designer and had her own tailoring salon. Her artistic view of the world was shaped by 12 years of art school, not only in the Fashion Design Department at the University of Applied Arts in Prague – UMPRUM. A peek under the hood of life in the fashion capital of Paris added a European dimension to her work, where she gained invaluable experience while studying abroad at the local art school and working in a Paris studio. In later years, she worked as head designer of the luxury tailor DELOR in Prague’s Vinohrady district.
Today she has her own company with a studio in Prague, where she is visited by long-time customers. She tailors original pieces for her Czech clients in the spirit of Talabaya. “Of course, I had my clientele before Talabaya, it’s just that now I’m teaching my clients that my new brand is still in the spirit of Mirka Talavaskova. What I normally do for my clientele is now expanded to be suitable for the clientele, not only in the Czech Republic and Europe, but also for the Eastern ones,” the designer explained her current market presence.
Talavaskova has been interested in other cultures since she was a child, and not just the Arab one. She has been inspired by China, Georgia and India, so her focus on Arab fashion is not entirely accidental, as she says “it’s not just because of my first client from Riyadh”.
Autumn/Winter 2020 Collection
Business and company presentation is shifting to websites and social networks, helped by the current coronavirus crisis. As part of the new autumn/winter 2020 collection, a photo shoot and filming took place on the second Monday in June, which we also took part in. Due to its minimalist and elegant style, Talabaya chose the rooftop of Enforum as the location for the shoot, with a beautiful view, the space of which perfectly accentuated Mirka Talavaskova’s simple and understated style.