Sies Marjan stuns with sparkling fall runway show

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Feb 11, 2019

Luxury ready-to-wear brand Sies Marjan transported the audience of its Fall 2019 show to a glittering otherworld where love at first sight isn’t a possibility, but a truth.

A continuation of what the label calls “an unplanned narrative” that began one year ago with Sies Marjan’s Fall 2018 collection and continued with its Spring 2019 collection, the third chapter of the label’s story “is about love, and the friction that happens between comfort and discomfort.”

The setting for the show's runway was somewhere between outer space and a manifestation of the ethereal place of the heart where love is born. Located inside SIR Stage 37, Sies Marjan covered a ring-like center circle of the venue with a thick layer of crystals, creating a glittering grey effect like the surface of a magical moon beach.

Soft love songs began to play as models emerged, transporting a spectrum of richly colored garments in rosy pink, orange, pastel and royal purple, neon and emerald green, as well as a handful of melting, iridescent pieces resembling swirling watercolors. A large portion of the collection’s dresses, pantsuits, tunics, overcoats, shirts and trousers had a slightly rough, unfinished quality to them, adding to the dreamlike quality of the presentation. It was if the dreamy looks were being created for the audience as they walked by.

Standout looks included a highlighter yellow-green pantsuit with an exposed ruffled shirt underneath, a pastel green and white trench coat paired with creamy orange trousers, and a floor-length, leathery black gown. While the crystals decorating the ground made a stunning statement on their own, eyes were drawn to the collection’s two hand-sewn looks adorned with sheets of crystal mesh. Created in collaboration with Swarovski, the two Sies Marjan pieces mark the famous jewelry company’s second major partnership at this season’s New York Fashion Week, along with Jeremy Scott.

As the show’s final look, a mass of gathered multi-colored tulle on a banana-yellow turtleneck fluttered out of sight, models suddenly sprang back into view, criss-crossing the circular stage as The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” rang out overhead. As applause rang out, it was clear that attendees couldn’t wait to build their love affair with Sies Marjan.

Since its debut collection in 2016, the New York-based label has been globally well-received, garnering praise in past seasons for its fine tailoring, lush fabrics and creative use of color. In the past, the young label has kept itself fresh with the debut of new categories: unveiling its first footwear collection during NYFW in the fall of 2017 and launching its first menswear collection later that same year. This season, creative director Sander Lak did not rest on his laurels, choosing to challenge himself during the design process.

“I wanted to push my own boundaries and not rely on the comfort that I feel working with some colors and fabrics, and instead use shades and textures that don’t feel exactly right to me and make them work,” Lak said.

“For example, we pushed black and coin grey into becoming colors in their own right, when traditionally they are not considered so. We took the neon shades that we have worked with before that were feeling cliche, and made them feel fresh [...] we also explored lace to create something that felt right for Sies Marjan, although it’s not a material I’ve ever been comfortable working with in the past.”

Lak, a veteran of Phillip Lim, Balmain, and Dries Van Noten, guides the label’s creative direction under Deia LLC, a holding company founded in 2012 by millionaire couple Nancy and Howard Marks.

Joey Laurenti, former wholesale director at Opening Ceremony and president of New York-based multibrand showroom Goods and Services, continues to serve as the label’s chief executive officer.