PARIS HILTON BFF
BRITTANY FLICKENGER
THE FUNKY TECKNICIAN
MS.TRINITI
X.O
MAMA CLOTHING
MAMA CLOTHING INTERVIEW (Gabriella A. Davi-Khorasanee)
The Boy Hollywood
CHAMP: What's goodie Mama clothing? What are you guys up to at the moment?
MAMA: I just launched my winter line, Mi Vida Loca, and I’m gearing up for 2009. I’m really excited about the new line because it’s exploring a theme that I covered in one of my first collections. My production capabilities have come a long way since then and I wanted to give my Chola girl collection another shot. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and it’s a look that I love and think is timeless. In a way, it’s West Coast Americana style. The east coast has the preppy Hamptons-look; the west coast has the Chola look. Though I’m originally a New Yorker, I relate more to the Chola.
CHAMP: I wanna start off by getting in to history of your brand, and where you guys started off and what was your vision when starting the line up?
MAMA: I started Mama in 2004 and Mama was born out of the ashes of another women’s brand I started in 2000 called Cybelle. There weren’t any indie girl’s lines out and I wanted to create a line of tees for the ladies that weren’t overly cutesy but still feminine. I don’t have any formal fashion training and was actually a lawyer for about 2 ½ years before I realized that I hated what I was doing. I just knew that I had a vision, I couldn’t find clothes in stores that fit that vision and I wanted to make something for the ladies. I knew that I wasn’t the only girl out there who wanted cool tees to wear.
CHAMP: Now in terms of fashion, is there a specific area you guys specialize in?
MAMA: I guess you could say that we specialize in contemporary sportswear. Casual clothing that can be dressed up or dressed down. Key pieces that girls can add to their wardrobe that are fresh enough to make a statement, yet not too loud to mask the person wearing the pieces. I like to create pieces that girls can add their own personality to in how they wear it or accessorize it.
CHAMP: Who are some of the other clothing lines you've worked with?
MAMA: We haven’t really worked with other clothing lines but I’ve worked with other companies to make collaborative product including Adidas (Pro Mama sneakers), New Era Cap (the first Women’s 59FIFTYs designed by ladies for ladies), Bijules NYC (jewelry) and Montana Colors (tee and paint marker set).
CHAMP: Now I peeped the Spring and Summer 08 lines and they were bananas. For each season what are your strategies and missions?
MAMA: Thank you. For each season, I come up with a theme and try to tell a story related to the theme through the graphics, clothing and visual presentation of the line. My goal is always to create clothing that makes girls feel sexy and confident by letting a woman’s inner beauty shine through. I try to let girls see that they can look sexy without revealing everything, and that sexy can be conveyed with a smile or swivel of a hip. Taking all your clothes off and revealing everything is not only “easy” but really cliché. Women are smarter than that.
CHAMP: How long does process usually take prior to each season?
MAMA: It takes about 1 year to 1 ½ years in advance of the time that a collection hits the stores. Developing the theme and designs, and then dealing with the development and sampling, sales and tradeshows and then production all takes a lot of time.
CHAMP: What other designers are you into and could we expect and collab projects in the future with them?
MAMA: The stuff that I like tends to be high end (my head is always in the clouds) and I love things like Chanel, Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and stuff like that. I would love to collab with brands like that, though I’m a bit realistic and know that they may be a bit out of my league.
CHAMP: What else can we expect from MAMA?
MAMA: One of my side projects with Mama is M.I.S.S., a women’s online lifestyle magazine that I co-founded with Liz Baca. M.I.S.S. takes the Mama message of being “Always a Lady” and the overall messages of female beauty and empowerment and applies it to a much larger audience. I’ve been putting a lot of my time into M.I.S.S. lately, as I feel that I have a greater voice and reach using the M.I.S.S. vehicle. M.I.S.S. also takes my love of fashion to new heights because I don’t just focus on one brand (Mama), instead, I get to cover all of the fashion that I love – from couture to kicks, from perfume to nail polish, I get to write about whatever I’m feeling at the moment. I also feel like M.I.S.S. is a great vehicle for marrying my left and right brain: I get to be creative in the things we cover, editorials that we lay out, our monthly sneaker/manicure calendar playmates, while at the same time the nerdy part of me gets to geek out on research and writing. Liz and I are also using M.I.S.S. as an outlet to do creative work with other companies. As a small indie brand, there are lots of limitations built into it whether it’s lack of resources or financing. So, we’re taking our collective creative talents and helping larger companies with finding creative solutions to their projects. It’s really wonderful working with larger companies. They have the resources and the infrastructure to handle our vision.
CHAMP: Appreciate the opportunity and let the people know where they can stay up to date with MAMA!
MAMA: Thank you for taking the time out to learn about Mama! Stay tuned for info and new projects at mamaclothing.com. And stay up with the daily “word on the street” at missomnimedia.com.
