Marta Jakubowski
originally published in her. magazine volume 10
Photography_ Adam Titchener
Styling_ Jordan Dean Schneider
Hair & Makeup_ Tomoaki Usui
Art Direction & Design_ Daniel Titchener
Model_ Leila Zandonai
A Conversation with Marta Jakubowski
Writer _ Daniel Titchener
Marta Jakubowski was born in Poland and raised in Germany before arriving in London to do her Masters in Womenswear at the Royal College of Art. After graduating, she was selected by the British Fashion Council to showcase her Autumn Winter 2015 and Spring Summer 2016 collections during London Fashion week as part of their NEWGEN initiative of supporting upcoming talent; she has been a fixture of London Fashion Week ever since. Her now unmistakable minimalist aesthetic has gained international recognition, obtaining nominations for both the LVMH and Woolmark Prizes in 2018 and has garnered celebrity fans from the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna with international stockists including Liberty, Browns, Luisa Via Roma, Isetan and Sister among others.
Why did you decide to start your own brand and go it alone?
I didn’t really choose it, I guess it was more kind of getting into it after graduating from university. It started with showing projects and maybe even a few more ‘art’ type installations and then it developed into presentations and grew from there. I never really thought about getting someone in at that point and making it into a business as it was so personal but I do think that once the business grows to a certain point, it’s harder to do it totally alone.
Is there a part of you that feels that if you are doing it on your own, it’s your baby and you have more control?
Well… I think you need a family, like parents for a baby! (laughs) I guess though I obviously want to retain the creative control but I also like having people to ask for advice which is where friends come in that I really trust. I show them stuff and get their feedback so I feel it’s important to have a team - like when I have a show coming up, I work with a lot of people during those busy periods. Sometimes it does get really lonely though!
You’ve come a long way in just five years, being nominated for the LVMH prize must have been a high point so far; what did you take from that experience?
Yeah LVMH was really fun… I just really enjoyed that. I usually go to Paris and it’s quite stressful, building the showroom and being there all day for seven to ten days and with this, I was there for maybe three. It was like a showroom but people were really nice - even if they don’t like your stuff, it felt like that had to pretend to like it (laughs) or just be very polite… so it was just nice. It's just a good time. I stayed at my favourite hotel - the Margiela Hotel (Hotel La Maison Champs Elysées), it’s amazing. I had friends there, Faustine (Steinmetz) and Charles (Jeffrey), so it was just a nice atmosphere and it was good to meet so many people.
You were also shortlisted for the Woolmark Prize; what new developments were you introduced to and how did you work with them during the design phase of your Woolmark collection?
Well, I tried to develop and introduce a sneaker-like knitted sportswear material that would form shapes that were great for fitting the body of a woman. So, it was still my tailoring but something very comfortable but still quite feminine, it had shapes and holes too.
Talking of tailoring, you’ve garnered a reputation for it that’s both minimalist and sophisticated, but also very elegant and feminine; when did tailoring first start to interest you?
I can’t really tell you exactly when it started…. It was just the way my mum dressed, she always used to wear a suit or a blazer and I think as I got older, I found that I preferred that look myself over, say, floral dresses or something. I think it always needs a little more detail and attention, so to do a collection around tailoring every six months, like, that gets quite difficult because I’m not just placing a print on the same suit and then maybe a jumper or shirt. I mean, that's cool and everything, but I want to try to develop the tailoring techniques to come up with something new and spend more time concentrating on that aspect of it a bit more.
Did studying in London, with its history of Saville Row and designers like Lee McQueen training as tailors, influence your outlook on tailored garments?
Oh yeah, absolutely! I love McQueen’s tailoring so much; I feel even right now they are doing great stuff with it. Definitely! It's so good to go to the fabric shops in London and there are all the nice wools, and you can really do your research into tailoring here, but I feel like there’s not enough for women yet.
I read a review of your show where there was a reference to a feeling that you might fill the ‘gap in the market’ after Phoebe Philo's departure from Celine, and you having the feminine tailoring that celebrates woman…
…Oh, I don’t know. I think Celine was very ‘trendy’ so I think brands like Joseph or Bottega Veneta do that better, whereas I think I want to do more timeless stuff that women can buy and wear for a lifetime. I feel that it’s also quite difficult to showcase that because you need colour and excitement everywhere; however, tailoring really is such a tactile thing that you need to wear it to really appreciate it. If people are just looking at a black suit, then the fashion press and buyers aren’t going to be excited about it… or at least that's what I’ve been told!
You’ve been a part of the London Fashion Week schedule since 2015; what do you think has changed about runway shows during this time?
I’ve been doing this for 7 years non-stop and I think it’s just many things that have come together or changed to make me feel like I need a break from the show schedule and to do something different. I would say that any ‘artist’, whether releasing albums or doing a series of paintings… you know, there has to be time to reflect. In the fashion schedule, it doesn’t really allow for that because before the runway, it’s the designing and then planning of the show, then after that it’s the sales, then the production and business stuff to handle... it's just constant.
Where do you think the fashion industry is heading in terms of presenting the collections? How would you ideally like to show your collection?
It’s definitely changing as I have friends who were also doing runway shows who’ve now decided to look at other ways to present their work. I don’t know what is right for me yet - that’s why I feel I need a break. When I was in university, I did so much research whereas now I feel I don’t have time to explore and do proper in-depth research anymore. There has to be a better way, right?
Do you decide on a concept or theme prior to the creation of a collection? Where do your main sources of inspiration come from?
I think that now, after deciding not to do a show, I will approach it with what the customer wants and I’ll consider how to bring products together that they feel they need. There were always so many issues with pushing to do something new every season, so I now want to really get a feel for what the customer wants from me and get that right. I want to find solutions to what I have done rather than constantly putting out new things I don’t feel I have spent enough time on. I feel that with designers like me, we’re so small and very creative in the way we run things, we can just change things so much quicker than the bigger companies and adjust with more flexibility.
Can you talk a little about your process to take a garment from an idea to the runway?
I usually start with a mood and then it gives me a bit of feeling... if it’s more of a happy collection or melancholic in a way, and then from there, I go straight to the body. I will put things on my assistants or interns, get them to walk around and really feel it. There’s not much work going straight onto a mannequin. I also try loads on myself; for me, it’s more about feeling whereas one of my best friends, Sadie (Williams), is more from a textile background and will gather swatches of fabric and prints first and the colours and then will think about the silhouette, but I think I do it the other way around; mood, then silhouette and then fabrics.
What was behind this spring-summer collection?
I think it’s always more of a natural process. In the beginning, they were quite different and then as it moves on, we just experiment as every colour looks different on different people, especially with the show when we present it. We have to get the casting right, it gets more challenging getting those things right and bringing them together, but that’s also part of the reward, but I hope I can go back to thinking more about the silhouettes and then work in the colour.
What is your favourite piece?
It’s always, like, a black suit I’ve done that season that I would wear myself all the time! This time it’s a double-breasted suit… it’s probably quite boring for other people, but I could live in that suit. I feel like every season there’s always one suit that I get attached to. It’s always nice to have one piece in there to design for myself.
You’ve had some support from huge cultural figures, with women such as Beyoncé and Rihanna purchasing your pieces; who would be your ultimate Marta Jakubowski woman?
I mean Beyoncé was really good! We’re actually sending her something right now and we did something else for her before Christmas. I listen to Jay-Z all the time, also Beyoncé and Rihanna, of course, so it’s quite surreal to be in contact and sending them stuff. However, I am obsessed with Oprah. This year, I want to dress her. I think she’s amazing - I don’t know how to reach her but I just want to work with her and be her personal tailor! I think she and Michele Obama would be great because they are really morally driven and just great, proper women. I mean it’s important to me that they are real women with their shapes. I would love to do more shapely women on the runway but it gets difficult with the agencies having enough girls, getting the right shoe sizes, fitting for all the different shapes… but I really love doing stuff for the more shapely girls like Beyoncé and Rihanna so hopefully, Oprah and Michele Obama are next!