Interview from La Cambre student Mariam Mazmishvili

By Margot Thibaut

When and how you decided that you wanted to be a designer?

Actually i decided that i wanted to study fashion design really late but i have always enjoyed art in general.

It was your dream job?

When I  was younger, I wanted to be an artist. Today I changed as my dreams but I really want to keep the way I work, mix art and fashion.

Which is the first thing you designed and for who (yourself,a friend…)?

The first thing that i stitched was for my dolls, a little skirt with flowers on it.

Who’s the designer you admire the most and why?

There are so many inspirational people that i can’t really choose only one. I admire news ones for the courage and  and the old ones for the endless creativity. For me it’s not always about the designer but about the collection,  teams,  moods.

Who’s your muse, your icon, when you create a dress?

It depends, I never really have a muse when a create but it’s always about feminine woman in a strong way. For the last collection, I worked with Marisol Escobar’s sculptures, it was about her and her work.

If you had to design an entire collection using just one colour, which is the one you’d pick and why?

I would pick white so i can easly dye the fabric myself ! I really like working  with colors and try to find  and mix the same color in different fabric.

Who’s the first person you show your sketches to?

I only sketch if i have to. I always work with dolls and fabric so i have more possibility and surprise than in my sketches.

The fabric you love the most…silk, lace, velvet and why?

I work a lot with woolen fabric and technical  fabric  for the stability and heaviness and mix them with something more  feminine and more subtil.

If your clothes had a soundtrack, which songs you’d choose?

It depends of the collection, for the last one it was Pulp-this is hardcore. I’m not really good in music, i love to work in silence or with the radio so I always ask my lovely friends to help me to choose something nice for the catwalk and the show.

Do you have any trick to avoid that “blank page” moment when you’re at the beginning of the designing of a new collection? Do you watch a movie, flip an old magazine…

For me the thing to do is just go outside and don’t think too much about it.  I start working  early morning with free mind and some coffee, I open some art books and start to visualize the mood, the construction of pieces and  pick some fabric.

If you weren’t a designer which job in the fashion world you would like to do and why?

I guess  I would like to be a photographer or iconographer. Something with pictures and art.