Here’s a name we haven’t heard in a minute: Sander Lak. The Dutch designer of Sies Marjan, a New York label that burned bright during its brief existence in the late 2010s, is reemerging with an eponymous collection grounded in menswear but designed for all. He’s launching it in Paris later this month.
“It’s small, but big,” Lak said over herbal tea at the Beekman Hotel, displaying his trademark contemplative nature. “For me, it’s a huge thing. It’s my name, it’s my company. It’s not a relaunch, but it is something new, something on my own terms. I’m not allowed to say scared; I’m only allowed to say excited, but it is a little bit scary.”
Lak’s star rose quickly at Sies Marjan, where he went from a virtual unknown at launch in 2016, when he was backed by Nancy and Howard Marks, to the CFDA’s Emerging Designer Winner in 2018. He developed a reputation for his vibrant color palette and the verve with which he mixed and matched pattern and texture, tendencies he nurtured while working in Dries Van Noten’s Antwerp studio, and his “grunge peacock” aesthetic was embraced by stars from Zoe Kravitz and Zendaya to Glenn Close, all of whom wore his designs on the red carpet. |
