Is Sander Lak, creative director at luxury label Sies Marjan, New York’s new hope?
With celebrity fans including Beyoncé and Zoe Saldana and an optimistic attitude that lights up the catwalk, Sander Lak is helping business boom at a brand backed by billionaire investors Howard and Nancy Marks
“The landscape of fashion is not so simple any more,” says Sander Lak, the 34-year-old Dutch creative director at New York’s hottest new luxury label, Sies Marjan. “Back in the day, it was more like ‘this is my muse, this is my woman’, but now the customer is so varied and different. Here, you can have a cool 16-year-old girl with money, or an Upper West Side older lady who’s 65, and everything in between – there’s every skin colour and size and group.”
Sies Marjan’s latest autumn-winter campaign, shot by photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber, reflects this attitude to a tee. Models young and old reflect different looks and ethnicities, while the star-studded cast includes Isabella Rossellini and her photographer son Roberto, and supermodel Sasha Pivovarova with her daughter, Mia.
The pre-autumn collections are a riot of leather and bold colours
“We focused on who we want to reach as a customer, forming a sense of family and inclusiveness, regardless of age, sex, or gender,” says Joey Laurenti, CEO of Sies Marjan. “It was a dream working with Bruce Weber, who had the immense talent and deft ability to capture the essence of Sies Marjan.”
Today, Lak is wearing a bright pink top and khakis in the label’s stylish headquarters, a beautifully revamped atelier that once belonged to American fashion legend Ralph Rucci. We are in the midst of a freak New York snowstorm, but there are still staff buzzing around the West 26th Street offices preparing for a busy week ahead. Light floods in from big industrial windows onto racks of clothing showing off bright, beautiful colours and fluid shapes, and eye-catching accessories such as a towering 1970s-style platform boot in green crocodile leather.
This is an incredibly young brand. It has only shown three seasons of collections, with its fourth, marking two years of output, coming up at New York Fashion Week in September. Despite this, the label’s fresh and modern sensibility has already made huge waves in the American fashion scene. Fashion doyennes Anna Wintour and Cathy Horyn both sat front row at Sies Marjan’s first show, and it has received glowing reviews and built an impressive following ever since. Beyoncé and Zoe Saldana have worn its gowns on the red carpet and the brand has just released a men’s capsule line.
