Léa Bellaiche clearly has an eye for the perfect match. A Beaux-Arts graduate, she studied the interplay of color and texture before translating them, in 2017, into knitwear of cashmere, mohair, alpaga, wool, and cotton. Bold pairings, generous volumes, a riot of color. Do matters of the heart obey the same rules?
It is the beginning of autumn, and the trees of Parc Monceau poetically strip Parisian women of their leaves. Heart on my sleeve, matcha to go from KoRo café (rue Lévis), Sunday morning walks with Alice are always simple. Cozy in my Giovane cardigan by Léa Bellaiche, channeling Carolyn Bessette, I share our next MERIQ Question: Can one have good taste in love?
Naturally, we think of that famous series of photographs of Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr. arguing in a park. Even upset, terribly photogenic… But is it enough to look beautiful together to be good at loving?
By dint of collecting the same images of iconic couples on our vision boards, perhaps we have ended up confusing love aesthetics with love desire. Does our taste in feelings really belong to us?
A question that Léa Bellaiche translates into fashion. At the Beaux-Arts, Léa Bellaiche was already interested in a question of harmony: why do certain colors and materials work so well together? In 2017, Les Tricots de Léa was born: sweaters, cardigans, and dresses in often oversized volumes, made of cashmere, mohair, alpaca, wool, and cotton that Léa prefers in bright pink, orange, sky blue, or green rather than a sensible beige.
The cashmere comes from Mongolia, some pieces are made in Italian workshops, while other current designs are knitted in Cambodia, and cotton is also worked by hand, with needles or crochet. Since then, the knits have traveled to over 300 points of sale worldwide and found their own home in Paris. The brand's first boutique opened at 3 bis rue des Rosiers, just in time, of course, for sweater season.
