Lara Dizeyee's Kurdish couture

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Arts journalist Melissa Gronlund follows Kurdish designer Lara Dizeyee as she prepares a couture collection for Milan Fashion Week. The programme charts the challenges faced by those outside the fashion establishment, from financial hurdles to logistics, as Dizeyee tries to bring her vision to one of fashion’s most prestigious stages. Dizeyee fled Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, grew up in the US, and later returned to Erbil. Her designs draw on traditional Kurdish dress - layered garments, capes, and ornate headpieces - reimagined as bold evening wear. Her work is celebrated in Kurdistan, across the diaspora, and in the Arabian Gulf. Yet despite her growing profile, she lacked the funds to stage a show on the scale Milan demands. The programme follows her as she secures backing and races against time to source fabrics, sketch and sew designs, and collaborate with Kurdish artisans on jewellery and bespoke accessories. More than 30 outfits are completed and packed into suitcases carried by her extended family. It all builds to the big day, as Dizeyee fits each model and navigates last-minute crises - models too short, earrings that won’t fit, designs that misfire. But as the models walk out in her reimagined Kurdish looks, the emotion in the room is unmistakable. Many in the audience are Kurdish and fly in for the event. And in that final moment, as the Kurdish flag is symbolically recreated on the runway, Dizeyee presents her culture to the world. Presenter: Melissa Gronlund Producers: Melissa Gronlund and Ashley Byrne A Made in Manchester production for the BBC World Service Image: Lara Dizeyee and models wearing her couture at Milan Fashion Week (Credit: Andrea Zaniboni)