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Behind the scenes at MALAM’s London Fashion Week show
Published October 26, 2011
For the second year in a row, Malam took part in London Fashion Week. She takes us behind the scenes, from putting the outfits together in her workshop in the Paris region to the last-minute alterations backstage at the show.
How did the adventure begin?
I was contacted in July last year about putting on a show during London Fashion Week that September, and I found the challenge really interesting. So I did it again this year, with a little more time to prepare!
What was your main challenge?
Because I offer a permanent collection rather than seasonal collections, it is quite a complicated exercise. I have to present new pieces that work with the existing ones. Above all, I need to make sure there is a sense of coherence between all the pieces that will be shown together on the runway. That is completely different from the way I normally work, when I create pieces gradually, depending on the fabrics that catch my eye.
Another challenge is preparing the show alongside everything that makes up my normal day-to-day work: creating clothes and accessories for stock and for made-to-measure orders.
How do you go about creating the pieces for the show?
I start by loosely sketching the silhouettes that will make up the show, then I get all my fabrics out and choose the ones I plan to use. For 16 looks in the show, I need around 20 to 30 different fabrics that work together harmoniously. I put them aside so I can be sure not to use them for orders!
I work first on the main pieces, such as jackets, then the dresses, and finally the supporting garments that are mainly there to highlight a particular piece. At the same time, I chose the shoes from my partner Eject Shoes, a Portuguese brand that had already provided shoes for my models the previous year.
It is important to plan the accessories at the same time as the clothes so that the colours and styles can be coordinated as well as possible. The models’ hair accessories were lent by jewellery designer Hélène Delacour. I also asked Niflheim Seele to create the soundtrack for the show, so I could be sure the music suited the looks and so I could publish the video afterwards without running into copyright issues.
How much time did you spend on it?
From the beginning of September, meaning the final two weeks before the show, I devoted almost all my time to it. There was still almost everything to do...
Of course, I changed my mind repeatedly, right up until three days before! But I met the deadlines. To leave for London by Eurostar on Friday morning, I finished in the middle of the night the evening before, after spending several hours deciding the running order for the clothes, shoes and models...
Once you were in London, what was your schedule?
The show was on Friday evening, so the afternoon was spent doing fittings and adjustments on the models... The show was almost perfect! There is always at least one garment that goes awry, or an accessory forgotten in the backstage rush. But just one isn’t too bad.