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Viral Style: Maria ke Fisherman Talks Rave-shaped Typography And Fashion In 3013

The Madrid fashion label discuss their F/W13 collection and finding inspiration in Dadaism.

F/W13 collection

Though a whole heap of designers are currently attempting to revive the 90s and early millenial styles in fashion right now (we're looking at you HediSlimane, with your UO-esque Saint Laurent grunge), Madrid-based label Maria ke Fisherman is actually managing to keep the look relevant, infusing collections with a futuristic, cyberpunk finish.

Launched in 2011 by Maria Lemus and Victor Alonso, the brand brings together tech-y fabrics with high-vis prints and super sexxy lines that melt ever more internet with each new season. With their designs getting attention in everything from Spanish Vogue to Brooke Candy's latest show, we caught up with the pair to chat digital inspirations and future fashion.

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The Creator's Project: We know your S/S13 Cybercut line was partly inspired by cyber elements—so what inspired the F/W13 collection? With the black and white colourways, it feels like you've taken a more minimalistic approach to the futuristic theme this time.
Maria ke Fisherman: We have distilled the gathered over-information floods in the digital world to process a clean, flat, digital, and futuristic graphic product. You can't be too thin, or too powerful: think 'Thinnovation'. Those kind of slogans helped us to understand our thoughts while composing the collection. We wanted to find the depth through the powerful, flat colours found in competitive skiing's technological fabrics, crossed with the sharp, accurate edges of techno rave-shaped typography and tribal designs using penetrating matte vinyl. What always really inspires us is to question ourselves as to what's coming next—then to exaggerate that idea a bit and to mix it with our ironic, relaxed view of life and fashion.

F/W13 collection

How exactly has the online "over-information" influenced the designs?
We have tried to squeeze all the digital junk found in the internet—like when doing a random search in Google Images, for example—to create the deep, pure opposite of it.

Your pieces often mix a futuristic vibe with distinctive 90s references - would you say that contrast is important to your work
Definitely! We hate typical themes like 'the sea' or 'fall in the '70s' or 'Andy Warhol spy friends' - we even hate theming our collections. Our inspiration and influences are often so mixed and personal that [designs] even graze Dadaism in feel.

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S/S13 Cybercut line

Why are you so often drawn to that kind of technology-centric feel in the aesthetic of your collections? And why do you think people are responding to it right now?
It's important for us to understand fashion like a move-forward game. We are in the ‘10s now. We love the idea of expressing this concept through our lines, though we're passionate about European classical lines and cuts too—it's important for us in the same way as the quality of the finishes, to create futuristic but realistic and mathematically perfect lines. This decade has seen the decline, commercialization, and homogenization of street cultures. The only way to fight this existential emptiness is to play your own game, to find a funny way to found your own tribe. I think people will love the opportunity of doing so through our lines.

So how would you describe founding the MKF "tribe"?
Like some kind of universal, digital-friendly quest. A bit neutral, a bit self-governing but world-dependent.

Do you use any advanced/cutting-edge design methods when putting clothes together? Obviously you're already pretty big fans of digital print.
We love using a computer for details and to design. This is good and bad because when using vector design software you can zoom to infinity—which means creating kind of fractal designs which get more and more complicated in the smallest pieces, meaning a lot of extra work for the dressmakers. The result is worth it when you look closer though. We work with positional digital printing too, using digital patterns and positioning prints in each piece. This allows us to create complex and developed stories in each look.

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F/W13 collection

More and more designers are starting to use new technology in their designs (e.g. people like Christopher Raeburn and Asher Levine have created clothes that can connect with smartphone apps)—if you could incorporate any kind of technology in your clothes, what would it be?
We would sell our souls for an elastic zipper!

As a brand known for its futuristic designs, how do you react when you see high-end labels continuously using references to retro periods in time? Like when there are looks from the 70s all over the catwalks, for example. Should fashion be more about looking forward than looking back?
It's a responsibility of the high-end labels to satisfy their investors, as well as mainstream clients that demand profits and socially accepted designs each season. They find a way to bore less through those cycles. We, personally, hate that, and find it terribly boring. We understand fashion as being closer to art, like something personal.

F/W13 collection

What are your predictions for fashion in the future? (What will people will be wearing in 3013?)
In 100 years, people will wear digital clothes. Humankind won’t be as we know today, their consciences will have been transferred to a global computer that lets them live eternally, ethereally. [Fashion] won't be about clichés or seasons.

And finally, can you give us a clue as to what you've got lined up for S/S14?
The only thing we can say is that we have been working in a flat tri-dimensional, deep, sharp, monochromatic set of prints for logomania lovers.

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William Edwin Wright and Charlotte McManus are creative director and editor at LOGO, respectively. LOGO is a London-based collective of stylists, photographers, designers, and directors specialising in making creative fashion content for the internet and beyond.

@williamewright

@char_mcmanus

@logoculture