Berlin Fashion Week: The label COLRS promises a summer that never ends
Cologne-based designer Zec Elie-Meiré is about to take the capital by storm. We spoke with him ahead of his second show at Berlin Fashion Week. A portrait of a ray of sunshine.
It's summer 2017, and Zec Elie-Meiré has just finished high school. He's looking forward to his newfound freedom, plenty of time to skate, plenty of time to watch movies. Dennis Hopper's "Colors," a 1988 action thriller about the gang war between the Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles, is also flickering across his screen.
One scene in particular remains in Elie-Meiré's memory: When the warring groups finally confront each other in prison, everyone shouts in unison. "All I see is Colors!" they chant, "Colors, Colors, Colors!" This energy is burned into the memory of the young Cologne native, he tells us in a video call.
We want to talk to Zec Elie-Meiré about COLRS, his fashion brand, which he now runs with a small team in his hometown—like Colors, only without the "o." Following his Berlin debut last February, his collections will also be featured at the upcoming Fashion Week , which begins on June 30th. He previously presented them at Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria and in his own showroom during Paris Fashion Week .
A long journey for a label whose origins lie in a Cologne children's bedroom: At just 16, Zec Elie-Meiré explains, he discovered his passion for upcycling projects, for reprocessing and repurposing discarded materials. After graduating from a private school in Cologne and finally no longer having to wear a uniform, a whole new sense of freedom opened up for him. "Instead of studying for exams, I spent every evening painting shoes or mending trousers with colorful fabrics."
The Cologne native had previously had many different ideas about what he wanted to be when he grew up. Until he was 16, he was actually convinced he would eventually become a 100-meter sprinter; at some point, he wanted to earn his living as a director instead. He then came to fashion less through a concrete plan than through a "vague feeling."
To describe this inspiring feeling, Zec Elie-Meiré draws a comparison to a summer that feels endless: Sitting outside with friends late into the night, cheeks still warm from the sun, a gentle breeze on your nose, that first kiss – these are all childhood memories that the 26-year-old aims to bring back to the viewer's consciousness with his work. "And I realized that clothing is the medium that works best for me."
Perhaps Elie-Meiré was indeed following pure intuition on a path into the creative scene. But perhaps this step was also the logical consequence of a childhood in which fashion had always been a topic: clothing is more than just surface, it's an expression of personality – something his parents had taught him early on.
Michelle Elie, his mother, born in Haiti, is a model, style icon, and a passionate collector of the Comme des Garçons brand. Mike Meiré, his father, born in Hesse, is one of Germany's most well-known art directors and founded the renowned design agency Meiré und Meiré. York Elie-Meiré, one of his two brothers, currently heads the Mutter agency, which also represents the COLRS label.
Immediately after graduating from high school, Zec Elie-Meiré says, he accompanied his mother to Paris Fashion Week, dutifully carrying her bag, "because she could often barely move in her clothes," he says – and those familiar with the avant-garde label Comme des Garçons can vividly imagine it. Then, on a rainy September day, the epiphany came: "It was cold, wet, and crowded. We were standing on wooden beams, the floor was muddy," Elie-Meiré recalls of a fashion show by Japanese designer Junya Watanabe. "But then the music started, the first model arrived – and in that moment, I knew I wanted to do that too."
This was followed by initial industry experience, including internships at Marni, Bottega Veneta, and Nina Ricci; at the latter label, Zec Elie-Meiré eventually worked in corporate design and later as artistic director of visuals. At the age of 22, he felt a desire to further develop his craft and began studying men's tailoring at the École supérieure des arts et techniques de la mode (ESMOD) in Paris.
"I design what I want to wear myself," says Zec Elie-Meiré today – vibrant fabrics, intensely colored, sometimes enhanced with rugged leather elements, sometimes with pink, glittering sequins. COLRS's aesthetic oscillates between a childish delight in all things playful and an uncompromising clarity in tailoring. Elie-Meiré's multicultural background and rebellious energy are always incorporated.
This is also evident in his Cologne studio, located in an inner-city industrial building, which one of our photographers visits parallel to our video call: Inspiring photographs, color palettes, sketches, and notes hang carefully next to each other on a thin string; scraps of fabric lie on the gray floor, next to bright yellow Havaianas flip-flops.
Magazines and books are stacked on tables, including the illustrated book "Mario de Janeiro Testino" with a dancing Gisele Bündchen on the cover. On the upper floor of the two-story, open-plan studio, there's a long white table where Zec Elie-Meiré's team works, including the seamstresses Julia Gottschick Daskalakis, Tim Welpotte, and Barry Burant.
When asked why COLRS is still based in Cologne today – and not in Berlin, Paris, or Milan – Zec Elie-Meiré answers almost monosyllabically: "Perhaps one advantage of Cologne is that not everything here revolves around fashion." Furthermore, the people of Cologne, like him, are proud of their city, "always on board when something new is planned."
The designer and his team are nevertheless particularly looking forward to Berlin Fashion Week – because they want to "bring a year-round summer to the city where it feels like winter all year round." Berlin is also a place that supports young creatives like no other, not least in fashion. Fashion shows like the one by COLRS, for example, are realized with funding from the Senate. "Whenever I tell my homies in Paris about it, they say they almost wish they could work in Germany," says Elie-Meiré.
On Thursday (July 3), COLRS will once again present its latest collection in Berlin. After Fashion Week last February, during which the label was seen on the capital's catwalk for the first time, Elie-Meiré and his brother York traveled to Brazil. "In Rio, we were able to escape the winter for a short time," he explains; the vibrant chaos, the beaches, the sunsets inspired his new collection. "Jumping Fences" is the name of the line, which also features Brazilian kids who zip through the streets in flip-flops and jeans, zip through the streets on bikes, jump over fences, and run to the beach.
In a way, the collection is also intended to represent a return to Elie-Meiré's beginnings in his childhood bedroom in Cologne, a homage to upcycling, which always includes the element of imperfection: a variety of recycled materials casually combined, vibrant color combinations. Zec Elie-Meiré has collected the materials for this collection over the years: fabric scraps from his student days in Paris, finds from flea markets in Brazil and Morocco. A lot of denim will be on display this time – a material that the designer enjoys in all its variations, although "I also love classic men's tailoring."
Zec Elie-Meiré gives our photographer a little preview: Visibly proud, the 26-year-old holds up a khaki-green, slim-fitting jacket to the camera, somewhere between a traditional blazer and a casual bomber. It's made from fabric scraps from old 1960s military duffel bags, which the designer has disassembled and meticulously transformed into new patterns.
A pink ribbon is applied along the interior seams—a detail that once again demonstrates Zec Elie-Meiré's penchant for striking contrasts: the worn and raw meets the uplifting and playful. "The bags have their own story—and we're adding our own story to it," he says, a story about "the kids who jump on their bikes and have the time of their lives." It's summer 2025, and Zec Elie-Meiré is about to breathe youthful lightness into Berlin Fashion Week, which has often presented itself as deadly serious and dreary.
On July 3rd at 10am, COLRS will present the Jumping Fences collection in cooperation with the NEWEST format of the Berlin creative agency Nowadays – at FÜRST on Kurfürstendamm.
Berliner-zeitung
