“Tonight, she’s going to the pub,” Marta Jakubowski grins backstage after her debut catwalk show (she has previously held static presentations). Fashion critic Sarah Mower had asked where her ‘woman’ was going in the collection we had just seen, but Marta was clearly answering for herself. In fact, they are one and the same: Marta designs clothes she wants to wear. It is no surprise then that other smart, creative women want to wear them too.
Presenting her most comprehensive collection yet, Marta revisited her innovative tailored-and-draped jackets with asymmetric cuts and wrap details, and cigarette or carrot-cut trousers with skirt panels at the back or side (pleated this season), which have become a signature. She developed the slashed-and-tied style of autumn/winter 17’s tight velvet turtlenecks, rendering them in lemon sherbet, lilac or bottle green denim and sheer, polka dot chiffon for spring/summer 18.
There were also sleeveless denim shirt dresses, mini skirts, three-strap vest tops, full trench coats, and even swimming costumes and sheer robes. Basically everything a woman could need, from her bedroom to the beach, the office, the street, and indeed the pub.
“The focus was to understand the needs and desires of real women,” Marta’s show notes explain. “These are clothes with light and energy, that transition from day to night, and that work with a woman not against her for 24 hours a day.”
Though the soundtrack was late 70’s disco — Sister Sledge and Cheryl Lynn — Marta acknowledged the ‘power dressing’ vibe of the collection, albeit one described with a light, modern touch. “I love the 80s!” she beamed. “In fact, a lot of the inspiration comes from my parents and how they used to dress” — in Poland, under communism, that is, when it was difficult to get imported fashion. “When they got something from the US or Germany, they rocked it really hard!” she explains.
What is it like to hold your first ever catwalk show? “Stressful! Really Stressful!” Marta laughs, straightforward as ever. “But amazing I think.” How better to describe the experience of ambitious, creative women at work?
