Alemais is a brand synonymous with sartorial wanderlust thanks to its popular postcard-print resortwear, so it’s perhaps no surprise that for its first-ever international runway, the cult Australian label has chosen to show in Marrakech, one of the most picturesque destinations in the world. But what might surprise you, as it certainly did me, was that the collection and show were almost a decade in the making, years before Alemais even came to be.

“When I first came here eight years ago, I was only meant to come for a week and I stayed for about six or seven weeks,” said Lesleigh Jermanus, founder and creative director of Alemais. “I loved the grit of Marrakesh. You could go into the Medina and it’s chaos; there’s a snake charmer and a monkey and suddenly someone’s grandma’s pouring you a mint tea. When you see people embrace on the street, they’ve got a hand on each other’s shoulder, they shake their hands and they say hello for a good five minutes. It really stole my heart.” A chance encounter during that trip led Lesleigh to meet Laurence Leenaert and Ayoub Boualam, multi-disciplinary artists and founders of the celebrated ceramics and textiles house, LRNCE. “What was meant to be a very quick exchange turned into three hours and then eight years of long conversation,” said Lesleigh. “I just knew we shared a symbiotic language, and that something’s going to happen one day, I didn’t know what it was.”

Courtesy of Alémais

Courtesy of Alémais

Courtesy of Alémais

Lesleigh founded Alemais in 2020 during the height of COVID soon after she was made redundant in her role at the time. As she pondered her next steps, Indian suppliers began reaching out for ways to offload their abandoned goods. In an effort to help, the designer channelled her 20 years of design experience, including a stint at another Australian label Zimmermann, into creating her own brand. It began with upcycling deadstock fabrics, turning denim jackets into skirts, but soon, the world caught onto Alemais’ playful pieces grounded in sustainability, desperate for joyful clothing that reminded us of sun-soaked destinations while everyone was hunkered down in a pandemic.