Marques'Almeida's Spring/Summer 2014 show was like the millennium party I wish I'd had. Acid brights and sheer, spaghetti-strapped dresses floated down the runway in what was the brand's biggest show yet. I paid a visit to the design duo's studio inside the London College of Fashion building in East London, where we spoke about their drastic change in direction, their noughties influences, and why Marta cringes at the word "sexy."
Eloise Moran: It has been a big year for Marques'Almeida!
Marta Marques: It has been good, it's gone really quickly because we've been really busy the whole time. I think we're aware that something is happening and there has been this big shift with people becoming more aware of the brand, although I don't think we're ever that conscious about what that means. I think what we've noticed mainly there's been more interest and we've been busy!
EM: The spring collection went in a bit of a different direction; you used sheer silks, bright colors, and spaghetti straps. Why did you decide to go all-out feminine?
MM: I think we're always a bit girlier and light in spring collections. We felt the need to go to the complete opposite of our fall collecTion which was a bit gloomy. It was like the first time we used the word "sexy" to describe what we were doing. Even though we were slightly scared of it, I think it worked. We started realizing that we should probably go a bit more into the noughties rather than 90s grunge. Although we relate to that time intrinsically, we want it to be relevant now and don't want it to be stuck in something too referential or nostalgic. Suddenly we were researching Dolce and Gabbana and Cavalli from the 90s, or Tom Ford at Gucci, which when we started out we probably would have said it would never be part of our research. It's just nice to find out that we could actually respond to those references and then translate them into our aesthetic.
EM: Your studio is based in Hackney, do you gain any inspiration from East London? I read somewhere that if a Dalston girl were on the red carpet she'd be dressed in Marques Almeida.
MM: For fall we thought a lot about how the Marques'Almeida girl would do evening. It is about a lot of girls that we see around East London. A lot of our research is based on just walking around East London and looking at random girls; sometimes it's a 6-year-old girl who is really stylish, or someone our age who has a clear sense of style which you don't see much anywhere else in London.
EM: Denim is a staple feature of all your collections; did you always have a love for denim?
Paulo Almeida: When we were doing our master's degrees, we were really concerned about finding the point of making something—because there is so much stuff around—so we wanted to find a special thing that we could be doing. We took a lot of time researching a consumer target, and decided there was a gap in the market for a cool young consumer. We researched teenagers and youth and got down to the core look of a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt.
MM: We started looking at old issues of i-D and The Face like we did when we were teenagers; there's so much street style that focused on those white T-shirts and jeans. It was the effortlessness which we were so fascinated by. It was a new thing because I don't think any other graduate designer had done a whole collection just with denim. We couldn't escape from it and it was part of a coda that we became obsessed wi
Eloise Moran: It has been a big year for Marques'Almeida!
Marta Marques: It has been good, it's gone really quickly because we've been really busy the whole time. I think we're aware that something is happening and there has been this big shift with people becoming more aware of the brand, although I don't think we're ever that conscious about what that means. I think what we've noticed mainly there's been more interest and we've been busy!
EM: The spring collection went in a bit of a different direction; you used sheer silks, bright colors, and spaghetti straps. Why did you decide to go all-out feminine?
MM: I think we're always a bit girlier and light in spring collections. We felt the need to go to the complete opposite of our fall collecTion which was a bit gloomy. It was like the first time we used the word "sexy" to describe what we were doing. Even though we were slightly scared of it, I think it worked. We started realizing that we should probably go a bit more into the noughties rather than 90s grunge. Although we relate to that time intrinsically, we want it to be relevant now and don't want it to be stuck in something too referential or nostalgic. Suddenly we were researching Dolce and Gabbana and Cavalli from the 90s, or Tom Ford at Gucci, which when we started out we probably would have said it would never be part of our research. It's just nice to find out that we could actually respond to those references and then translate them into our aesthetic.
EM: Your studio is based in Hackney, do you gain any inspiration from East London? I read somewhere that if a Dalston girl were on the red carpet she'd be dressed in Marques Almeida.
MM: For fall we thought a lot about how the Marques'Almeida girl would do evening. It is about a lot of girls that we see around East London. A lot of our research is based on just walking around East London and looking at random girls; sometimes it's a 6-year-old girl who is really stylish, or someone our age who has a clear sense of style which you don't see much anywhere else in London.
EM: Denim is a staple feature of all your collections; did you always have a love for denim?
Paulo Almeida: When we were doing our master's degrees, we were really concerned about finding the point of making something—because there is so much stuff around—so we wanted to find a special thing that we could be doing. We took a lot of time researching a consumer target, and decided there was a gap in the market for a cool young consumer. We researched teenagers and youth and got down to the core look of a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt.
MM: We started looking at old issues of i-D and The Face like we did when we were teenagers; there's so much street style that focused on those white T-shirts and jeans. It was the effortlessness which we were so fascinated by. It was a new thing because I don't think any other graduate designer had done a whole collection just with denim. We couldn't escape from it and it was part of a coda that we became obsessed wi