时尚街拍网There is a giant roll of orange furry fabric sitting on the desk of the designer Sander Lak.Discovered in an antiques shop on a recent trip to upstate New York, it sums up the playful approach of the 33-year-old whos creating just the right blend of slouchy-yet-sumptuous clothes that women want to wear right now."Im figuring out whether to reupholster one of my chairs in the office, cover a sofa at home or just make a coat from it,"says the creative director of Sies Marjan (a composite of Laks parents names), the cult line of cocooning knits, Fortuny fabrics, silk roll-necks and cargo pants in a zingy palette that staged its first show to much furore at New York Fashion Week in February."It happens all the time – Ill find a fabric and then it just starts living its life however its meant to be."
Its this kind of idiosyncratic thinking that has come to define Laks career.He first found fashion as a film-obsessed teenager with ambitions of being a director:"I would draw fictional film posters,"he explains in his pan-European accent."There was a clear moment when I became preoccupied with making the clothes look as real as possible, thinking about the shape of the pocket and how the fabric falls and drapes."After studying menswear at CentralSaint Martins under the late Louise Wilson (he counts Mary Katrantzou, Mark Fast and Christopher Shannon among his fellow alumni), Lak worked at Phillip Lim and Balmain, before becoming head designer at Dries Van Noten.It was the American investors Howard and Nancy Marks who enlisted him to create a new brand out of the former atelier of Chado Ralph Rucci Collection – and less than two years later, Sies Marjan was born.
Lak has led a remarkably nomadic life.Born in Borneo, he grew up between Gabon, Scotland, Malaysia and his mothers native Holland."My late father worked on the Shell oil platforms so we moved every four years,"he says from his Midtown studio, which, like his apartment, is decorated with midcentury modern furnishings and objects collected along the way (he counts his African masks, Hans J Wegner chairs, Brunei ceramics and a table picked up by his mother at a Scottish aristocrats house sale among his favourites)."Whether its on your body, in your house oron your bookshelf, the stuff we surround ourselves with is such an important part of who we are,"says Lak, who has curated a series of objects from the online auction house, 1stdibs.com, to sit alongside his clothing collection in stores."To build a brand today you have to tell a story beyond the clothes."
While their aesthetics are radically different,Lak is aligned with the Alessandro Micheles and Demna Gvasalias (with whom he shares the Vetements stylist Lotta Volkova) of this world, who have been pushed into the spotlight after years of working behind the scenes.Laks is an understated vision of luxury thats rooted in reality.The Sies Marjan debut was peppered with high-low references from floral shower curtains to scenes from Nineties club culture (recreated in jacquard)."My generation approaches women in a much more human way,"says the designer, whose "Girlfriends"campaign features real-life pals (including Trish Goff) rather than an anonymous army of models – "No one wants to be a fashion automaton any more."
His creative process is unusually methodical and deadline-driven.Colour comes first, then fabrication and gradually the garments and "the story"evolves.But out of precision, magic happens."We spend a lot of time just looking at what people are actually wearing on the street.We really use that and play around with it.Thats all thats left for designers.Were not going to reinvent the wheel.Its about playing with those codes.Thats what I love doing,"he says, adding mischievously:"If that stops and I get bored, Ill just start making films."
Sies Marjan is available at matchesfashion.com
