A truly avant-garde designer, Damir Doma is able to express his seemingly inexhaustible energy in the simplest of ways. Doma showcased his first womenswear collection earlier this year in Paris...
A truly avant-garde designer, Damir Doma is able to express his seemingly inexhaustible energy in the simplest of ways. Doma showcased his first womenswear collection earlier this year in Paris. As with his menswear designs which he has been showing since 2007, the collection created a new, unique identity, this time for the elegant modern woman.
After several successful seasons of menswear, why did you decide to start a womenswear collection?
I always wanted to build a fashion house, so that’s why the women's collection needs to be there – I want to create an overall image, we all felt that it was just the perfect moment and a very natural evolution of the label.
For menswear, you wanted to design clothes that didn't revolve around a rigid structure, of a suit for example, since that has been the basic template for a long time. Is there a similar process behind the womenswear designs?
I would describe myself as an avant-garde designer in its original sense – I'm trying to find new ways and perspectives. It's not enough to just do nice clothes. I need a deeper meaning in order to feel the right to exist. In my first season I introduced volumes that hadn't existed for quite some time in womenswear. The reactions where quite diverse, but I'm used to tha.
I find your designs very masculine but very elegant. To me they are similar to those of the 80s avant-garde Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, but you achieve them in a simpler way, with fewer seams and an incredible focus on the details, like the fabric.
Purity, simplicity and elegance are what I aim for. I adore early Issey Miyake and Giorgio Armani. My woman is a beautiful goddess. She is very proud and strong.
I fell in love with your fabrics, and the details – even how the clothes drape and move from the back to the side. What was the original concept for this collection?
The first season was all about creating the Damir Doma woman. I had a very clear image in mind when I started the collection – my woman was a proud and noble personality, someone very pure and elegant.
The Damir Doma A/W10 collection is available in Dover Street Market.
CREDITS: all clothes by Damir Doma AW10-11 boots by Repetto
Photographer: Lowe H Seger
Text and Styling: Nobuko Tannawa
Hair: Stephen Low for Neville
Make-up: Alex Babsky @ Frank using Dior S/S '10
Model: Jennifer Foley @ IMG
Photographic assistant: Rea Kim Hair assistant: Sunny
