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“Everything is so dark…” says Sander Lak, the man behind New York-based label Sies Marjan<\/a>, over coffee in London. “Everything is doomed, it\u2019s all so apocalyptic<\/a>; so there\u2019s something really nice about wearing a bright pink shirt on a day that you really feel like shit \u2014 it lifts you up.” Though the shirt Lak is wearing right now is actually a baby blue tie-dye number, it’s no less joyful.<\/p>\n The designer\u2019s optimism, charm, and lack of pretense \u2014 evidenced in his choice of attire \u2014 has garnered Sies Marjan a cult following, and unsurprisingly so. When a single scroll through Twitter reminds you of nuclear war and men abusing their power, maybe a piglet pink shearling coat, high-shine holographic two-piece, or egg yolk yellow silk camisole are the mood-boosting antidotes we could use right now.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t directly consider the political climate when designing but, like everyone else, I\u2019m in the center of it all. Sometimes, I want to crawl in a corner or hide under a blanket,” he says. “Other times, though, I want to just burst into color.”<\/p>\n With burnt golds, tomato reds, and mint greens, Lak’s collections really are a kaleidoscope of color. This vivacity came as both a shock and sweet relief to the monochrome New York fashion scene. When the brand\u2019s first collection landed in Barney\u2019s et al in February 2016, it stood out amid a palette of black, gray, navy, and white clothing. “People said to us, ‘You\u2019re in danger. Nobody in New York wears color.'” How wrong were they.<\/p>\n From the once-unspoken rule that New Yorkers only wore black, the city \u2014 and its fashion week schedule \u2014 is awash with color. Just look at the spring\/summer 2018 offerings: slinky serpent greens at Adam Selman, chirpy blue raincoats at Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, buttercup yellows at Marc Jacobs. Of course, this can\u2019t all come down to Lak\u2019s vision at Sies Marjan, but he has undoubtedly had a strong hand in making the city feel, well, welcoming.<\/p>\n Beyond serotonin-boosting color, what\u2019s so appealing about Sies Marjan is the sense that the clothes really are for everybody. Lak has cast transgender models<\/a> in his shows, presents menswear and womenswear together, and wears the pieces himself \u2014 acting as a walking advertisement for the tactile fabrics and playful cuts that embody the brand. While we lost over impressive clothes every season, it\u2019s not very often that we feel we can wear them in real life.<\/p>\n “We are a high-end fashion brand,” he declares. “And while our lookbook is always a fantasy, there\u2019s a reality in everything we do. Our clothes aren\u2019t driven by the full look, where if you have only one piece it looks out of place. I think that\u2019s why streetwear is having such a big moment \u2014 it\u2019s grounded, it\u2019s about reality; that\u2019s what people want.” Though that idea comes at an unrealistic cost, he has a point.<\/p>\n This outlook comes down to Lak simply being “a lover of clothes,” a designer who creates pieces he wants to wear; pieces that would suit his friends and fit in with their lives. “What I\u2019ve always found weird is when a designer proposes a certain look and then comes out to bow at the end of a show in a black T-shirt and black jeans,” he laughs. “I wear our menswear and womenswear. It\u2019s important for people to connect with me and the brand this way. I wear color and full tonal looks; I practice what I preach.” The same could be said for his contemporary cohorts, like Victoria Beckham and Jacquemus, who are rarely caught wearing anything but their own clothes.<\/p>\n We saw this at the 2018 CFDA Awards<\/a> in June, when Lak wore a playful Sies Marjan ombre red and black suit, accompanied by actresses and models Julia Garner, Bria Vinaite, and Lineisy Montero, all of whom wore the brand\u2019s pastel-hued and reflective pieces. The color naysayers certainly ate their words that night, as Sies Marjan picked up the sought-after Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent<\/a>. Yet despite that newcomer nod, Lak is no industry novice.<\/p>\n Before moving to New York City in 2015 for Sies Marjan \u2014 he\u2019s based in Manhattan because “Brooklyn for me is like London, Berlin, Antwerp…like a fake Europe” \u2014 he worked at Dries Van Noten in Paris as head of design, and before that at Balmain with Christophe Decarnin, Phillip Lim, and Marc Jacobs. “What\u2019s great about the experiences I\u2019ve had is that they\u2019re all so different \u2014 not just in terms of aesthetics, but in how they run their business,” he explains. “I loved having a frame to push up against, where it wasn\u2019t about me and I had to navigate through it.” Learning the various aspects of a fashion house \u2014 from new languages and a social presence to business models \u2014 gave him a 360\u00b0 perspective, meaning he could jump into Sies Marjan knowing what was to come.<\/p>\n Adaptability comes naturally to Lak, who grew up all over the world. “I was born in Brunei, I lived in Malaysia, Africa, Scotland,” he says, “so I was exposed to so many different things, from the color of nature in a place to people\u2019s religious beliefs.” While he wouldn\u2019t say his work is a direct product of that global upbringing, he admits it brought an openness to his designs. “I\u2019ve seen so much from such a young age that not a lot surprises me \u2014 there aren\u2019t a lot of things I find really ‘wrong.'”<\/p>\n This broad-mindedness could also be attributed to his time studying under the late Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins. “She was very tough but really understood what she was able to do with me, to push me,” Lak says of the legendary professor. “For me to doubt myself as much as I did when I was under her wing was so healthy, because it broke down all of the little tricks and trades I had always thought I could charm my way into,” he laughs. “She broke you down and expected you to build yourself back up, and she created this stressful environment that totally prepared us all for the industry \u2014 it was like therapy, one of the most important experiences of my life. I do miss her.”<\/p>\n While Lak \u2014 like many of Wilson\u2019s students \u2014 is now thriving in the industry, attending Central Saint Martins wasn’t his original plan. “I only went because I didn\u2019t get into film school. Fashion was sort of an unimportant mistress on the side of my marriage to film,” he notes. “I\u2019d never even touched a sewing machine, but once I got to school, it made so much sense. Being a designer and a director are the same thing with a different end product; you have a vision, a team of people that contribute, a premiere or catwalk show, reviews… Then you have to see if your film has longevity, if your clothes work off the runway. There are so many parallels.”<\/p>\n It\u2019s unlikely we\u2019ll be watching a Lak-directed Sies Marjan fashion short anytime soon \u2014 “I never look at films and fashion with the same eye” \u2014 but one film that inspired him years ago was The Fifth Element. “It\u2019s a shitty movie, but Jean Paul Gaultier did the costume design and had Milla Jovovich with orange hair in the orange braces. That was the first time I was distracted by the clothes in a movie.”<\/p>\n This first love is one of the many reasons Lak is an intriguing designer. Another is his avoidance of Instagram \u2014 unlike figureheads like Virgil Abloh, who use it to promote their brands, friends, collaborators, and hype. While Sies Marjan the brand has an Instagram account with 90k followers, Lak says he\u2019s seen what overexposure and an invasion of one\u2019s privacy can do to a person. “I\u2019ve been in the industry for a while, and I\u2019ve seen what both immense success and crashing failure do to someone,” he explains. “I\u2019ve always been behind someone going through that, and I know what it would do to me. I stand by social media as a tool to make my business work, but I want to keep a part of myself for me and my people, because I know I could get lost in it.”<\/p>\n Luckily, he says, he\u2019s not a creative that needs to be battling his inner turmoil to make great work. In 2018, when it’s easy to be seduced by the followers, likes, and fame that one\u2019s personal brand brings, it\u2019s refreshing to hear someone in the center of a circus assert the importance of self-preservation. In an industry full of egos and characters, Lak is someone you\u2019d want to grab a drink with and chat for hours about a director\u2019s best film \u2014 and of course, to dress you in every color of the rainbow. Even in the face of the relentless volume and the fast pace of collections, presentations, and shows, he remains optimistic. “I love working, I love creating, and if I have to make more, I will \u2014 I don\u2019t want to do anything else. And anyway, we get to rip up the rulebook now \u2014 it\u2019s so freeing.”<\/p>\n Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?<\/p>\n And The 2018 CFDA\/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalists Are…<\/a><\/p>\n Genius, Beauty, & Perversity: The Alexander McQueen Film Is No Fashion Puff Piece<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.r29static.com\/\/bin\/entry\/a74\/1200x900\/2002401\/image.png\")
Artwork by Olivia Santner![](\"https:\/\/s2.r29static.com\/\/bin\/entry\/52a\/1200x900\/2002398\/image.png\")
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