Walking into Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida’s east London studio is like stepping back in time to the 90s; the decade of The Face, Kate Moss’ Calvin Klein ads, and Helmut Lang, When I was still at Helmut Lang. Next to a bookshelf of old magazines is a mood board covered in photocopies of everything They think is cool. There’s a picture of Kate and Liberty Ross from 2001 Mario Testino shoot, a picture of Mariacarla Boscono, a few of Angela Lindvall and more than a few of Devon Aoki, pinned next to print-outs of Dakota and Elle Fanning as kids, Bambi Northwood-Blyth wearing blue lashings of eyeliner, and India Salvor Menuez, co-founder of the art collective You Luck. The wall evolves each season. “But there’s one thing That has stayed since season one,” says Paulo, pointing to a black and white photograph by Corinne Day, of an awkward but pretty girl wearing a string vest and low-rise jeans, “It’s just the vibe of it , “she says.
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2011, with a collection Entirely made out of bleached denim, ripped to shreds purposefully, established Marques’Almeida Have What They call a “youth code”. It’s a combination of jeans, a white T-shirt, . maybe a leather jacket, and a feeling of relatability That has carried interest-through Their clothes and made them two of the MOST simply brilliant designers of today The Portuguese pair Showed With Fashion East for two seasons before Receiving NEWGEN sponsorship; and Have Just Been Announced as one of fifteen designers in the Swarovski Collective initiative. They are launching Also With Their first collaboration Topshop this October.
“High end fashion does not motivate us. We want to relate to our generation and create clothes for People Who maybe can not Afford to buy ten pieces but Could save up to buy one. “
THROUGHOUT our interview, the word “obsessed” comes up a lot. Marta Paulo and use it to describe the films, books, girls, colors and so on That Have Their fancy tickled before totally seducing them and becoming the basis of a collection. It Reminded me of the phases my friends and I Went-through growing up: being Entirely absorbed by the notion of Lords of Dogtown and wanting to be a skater, dress like a skater and go out with a skateboarder, or watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and wanting to dye our hair blue, be in love and our exes erase from our memory – the sort of things You Could research / watch / Tumblr over and over again for a month or so before finding yourself Completely infatuated With something else. The same thing Seems to happen whatever With Marta and Paulo are into at the time and what Their collections look like. Over a desk glittering Swarovski crystals With loose, I ask them acerca Their obsessions …
“I was reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids,” Marta says of the inspiration behind Their autumn / winter 14 show. It’s a tale of glamorous poverty and middle-class misfits. The heyday of the infamous Chelsea Hotel and Smith’s life there With Her boyfriend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Became the basis of the whole collection. “There’s scaffolding all around the hotel Because It’s Being re-built, but When we visited, I just felt something – Being In That area in general not just the hotel,” Marta Explains. The invite to the show was “a shitty picture” they took of the outside of the hotel. With Janis Joplin’s (one of Chelsea Hotel’s previous residents) Cry Baby-through echoing the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, it was a ghostly, 70s glam recreation of New York That sent shivers up your spine. Girls with side partings and lashings of eyeshadow walked out in lush fur, crushed velvet and sexy, silky slip dresses, all mixed With Their trademark ripped denim, synonymous With The boudoir aura of what Smith called the “guitar bums, stoned-out beauties, junkie poets, playwrights, broke-down French filmmakers and actors “who passed-through the Chelsea Hotel doors.
“We love discovering things from the 90s. The Anna Molinari show from 1999, styled by Venetia Scott, is one of our all-time favorites. “
But That was last season, and everyone knows That the cure for one obsession is another. Since then a has-been Janis Replaced With Dolly Parton (“! But that’s a weird, weird, weird obsession”) and Just Kids has-been shelved to make room for the new girl in Their Lives for spring / summer 15: Joan Jett. “We were Obsessed with Kristen Stewart after seeing The Runaways,” Marta gushes. “I Realised it the other day when i was scrolling-through my phone and there was a huge block of Kristen Stewart pictures!” In the images on one half of Their mood board, all the clothes Were blacked out With permanent marker. It Was That, Joan Jett and locking Themselves In Their studio listening to PJ Harvey That inspired Their recent, more rocky spring / summer 15 collection.
While Their motivations change each season, They find inspiration from the 90s youth culture Seems to never run out. “There are all things from the 90s in Original we’re still finding out about, shows That We Have not seen and still get obsessed comfortable with. Like we found esta Anna Molinari show from 1999 or something and it was so nice Because Venetia Scott was styling it. It’s probably one of our favorite shows, “Marta says. “I think it was an Interview with Alexander Fury When We kind of Realised That We Were not that fashion-aware,” Paul adds. “I was saying That I remembers watching John Galliano documentary on the BBC, but in Portugal you would not See That at all, so we just found it last season on YouTube. For us, it’s like we’re still studying fashion and becoming aware of why Tom Ford Tom Ford is and why Gucci is Gucci. “
There’s one other, not quite so obvious, influence That has stayed the same since the start: “Every season we watch a documentary called Wildwood, NJ It’s about the Boardwalk in New Jersey in 1994 so it’s pretty much like a 90s version of Jersey Shore . “Type it into YouTube and you’ll find the film’s highlights, featuring girls who look impossibly, but only talk effortlessly cool acerca boys, fights, fake nails and first sexual experiences. “There’s a girl we’ve Been Obsessed with since the first season and you Realise at one point in the documentary whos That She killed a person, so it’s very weird! It’s all in Original girls just walking along the Boardwalk in the summer and none of them Have any money, but They all pick up guys and pick fights with other vouchers girls from Philly. “The girl in question had a blonde perm, pretty face and was wearing a blue top With The shoulders cut out. “That’s why we DECIDED to do our shirts with the shoulders open in spring / summer 12,” says Paulo.
“Every season we watch a documentary called Wildwood, NJ for inspiration. It’s about the Boardwalk in New Jersey in 1994, it’s pretty much like a 90s version of Jersey Shore. “
Marques’Almeida are the Spearheads of a movement in fashion That is seeing a huge resurgence in the use of denim. From boyfriend jeans providing the only color in a black-on-black showdown in Marc Jacobs’s final show for Louis Vuitton, to Kris Van Assche’s full denim suit for Dior Homme, all the powerhouses are reintroducing casual wear to the catwalk. “We’re bombarded With Fashion information,” Explains Marta, “when you think acerca fashion, you think acerca high end fashion and luxurious things, and what people keep talking acerca is amazing how the finishings Should be, or the touch of the fabric and it was not motivating us. I think, to us, it was acerca Being relatable to our generation. Something precious and luxurious does not need to feel detached or untouchable. When we started doing things, we found people like you, and people of the same age group Who Really liked it Because They Could relate to it. We wanted to do high end for people like us, lowest maybe can not Afford to buy ten pieces but Could save up to buy one. “
We talk a bit longer acerca Their other obsessions, past and present – Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Alanis Morissette, Missy Rayder Frankie and – before our time is up. The beauty of Marques’Almeida That is, ideally, Although Their line-up catwalk Might Appear to be an array of Struggling artists, 90s beauties and girls in punk bands, in fact, They’d rather get Marta’s sister to walk it (“If I Could convinces her! “) than any of the models Mentioned here. “It would be amazing to have any available line-up of Devon Aoki, Angela Lindvall and Frankie Rayder, but it would not feel like our stuff, Because our aim is to whos get something new out there,” says Marta, “I mean , looking at the 90s and the 00s – Because They’re very close – one of the things we’re conscious of is not literal being. It has to feel exciting. “They May be Constantly working-through a long list of Their own obsessions, but well and truly Marques’Almeida Have Themselves September up to be obsessed over without getting crossed off anyone’s list.
Credits
Text Felicity Kinsella
Photography Oliver Hadlee Pearch
Styling Julia Sarr-Jamois
Hair Kei Terada at Julian Watson Agency.
Make-up Janeen Witherspoon at Julian Watson Agency using NARS.
Nail technician Michelle Humphrey at LMC Worldwide using Maybelline New York.
Photography assistance Tegen Williams, Federico Radaelli.
Styling assistance Rosie Williams.
Hair assistance Michael Pitsillides.
Make-up assistance Kamila Forini.
Casting JN Casting.
Model Malaika Firth at Premier.
Malika wears all clothing Marques’Almeida.