Plain, elegant and comfortable at the same time. Sophisticated and abstract shapes, with bold details and colors: the new DYAN sneakers make us feel as if we wore a work of art on our feet. We interviewed Diána Polgár, the founder of DYAN.
How did DYAN start: what made you design shoes? What is the most important feature of a pair of shoes for you?
I knew that I wanted to work in fashion at a quite early age, and so I adjusted my studies to this goal: after graduating from the Szombathely Secondary Art School, I continued and finished my studies at the Department of Textile Design of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Over the years it turned out that shoe design is the field where I cannot only fulfil my potential fully from a professional perspective, but where I can also express myself in the easiest and happiest manner possible. For me, combining aesthetics, form and function is the most important in a pair of shoes.
In the color and shapes of your new collection, Blue line, the works of Polish Neo-Avantgarde artist Edward Krasiński are echoed. Why did you choose him as your source of inspiration? Do you tend to reflect to the works of other artists in your other collections?
I was always amazed by Krasiński’s work, especially his use of forms and colors. An important characteristic of his works is the poetics of irony, which creates a distance from reality by making the apparently serious intentions easy. Krasiński used the blue tape for marking the space around the artist and defining the “intellectual cycle.” The tape has often been interpreted as the visualization of linear time, and the artist himself considered this an action similar to Dadaist jokes.
As Krasiński wrote:
“I don’t know whether this is art or not, but it’s certainly scotch blue, width 19mm, length unknown.”
My previous collection, Invert was also inspired by artists, such as Ellsworth Kelly or John McLaughlin – I often reach back to my favorite creators.
Your previous collections were mostly dominated by black and white or grey tones, with a more characteristic color here and there. Perhaps Blue line is your first collection that is dominantly built on a specific color. What made you start experimenting with colors? Do you also plan to use more emphatic colors in the near future?
The new collection puts blue and its different shades into focus, starting from the visual world of Krasiński. Some more vivid colors also appeared in previous collections, including coral or orange, but yes, it’s the most dominant here. Earlier I had a black and white wardrobe, but then I started to open up towards colors, which I now adapted into my new collection, as well. Matching colors and experimenting with different shades is very exciting, as some colors can change the character or atmosphere of the shoes fundamentally, so yes, this experimenting process is far from an end.
It’s like your pieces were separate characters, with separate personalities. What are the new shoes named after, and which one do you prefer the most?
I couldn’t really highlight a single favorite, as I bond with them so much already during the design process, with all the changes and polishing that each and every piece becomes a part of me equally. They were named based on the personalities, which I think suit them, but there were also cases that a piece was named after a friend of mine or a customer.
The DYAN shoes are very characteristic and can be recognized in an instant. Your previous collections were typically not about designing sporty sneakers, you rather created elegant pieces. However, the renewal of the brand does not stop here: what novelties can we expect from you in the near future?
In the future I would like to expand the brand with various accessories: I plan bags, jewelry and glasses, of course all in the style of DYAN.
You can find the pieces of the new collection in the online store!
Photos: Nóra Dénes
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