STYLE
Meet Rym Beydoun, the designer celebrating West Africa with garments that are chock-full of colour and packed with personality
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1 Dress, £2,080 2 Dress, £1,510 3 Shirt, £640 4 Skirt, £1,325, all SUPER YAYA
RYM BEYDOUN’S BRAND SUPER YAYA IS A LOVE LETTER TO West African culture. As a fourth-generation child of a Lebanese immigrant family, she spent her childhood painting by the sea in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and rummaging through her parents’ clothes to help them put outfits together. Even after a stint studying in London and a decade living in Beirut, her passion for the city where she was raised shines through in her vivid garments.
Beydoun launched her label in 2015 after graduating from Central Saint Martins, where she studied womenswear. Initially, she was a team of one, working tirelessly to grow her boot-strapped brand and even modelling the collections herself, taking selfies in the clothes she created. This approach only strengthened the fun, playful spirit of the brand she was building. And now cool girls such as Solange Knowles, Paloma Elsesser and Alexa Chung are wearing her creations.
Today the brand is embarking on its next chapter. After an injury in 2020 forced Beydoun to press pause on her business and take some time out, she’s now relaunched the label with more structure in place, hiring a team of 20 to support her. But the essence of the work remains: an exploration of texture and a celebration of artistry.
Her clothes are as intricate as they are loud – think woven leather microskirts, T-shirt dresses with hand-shirred detailing and colourful, chequerboard-style ruched tops paired with tactile, poofy microskirts. Most of the work is done by hand, at the brand’s atelier in Beirut, using fabrics dyed in Côte d’Ivoire. Even the name Super Yaya pays homage to her upbringing: ‘Yaya’ is a common unisex name in the region, while ‘Super’ is a nod to slogans used in Afr
