July 22, 2017 |
How did we go about choosing this list of individuals? Did we pull their names out of a hat? Consult some sort of fortune-teller? No. Instead we asked someone to choose for us: Johanna Senyk, of Paris-based label Wanda Nylon and winner of the 2016 ANDAM Fashion Awards’ Grand Prix. And what is it about them that makes them so special to her? “I think a lot of meetings are related to chance, but that we meet some people for a certain reason. But they are so special to me because of the love I have for them.”
We start, though, with Johanna herself. Why does the brains behind Wanda Nylon do what she does? “Because I really think that I had the choice and that by passion, I really wanted to live my life as I wished. I am what I am, I make my own decisions, my own choices, when I want, where I want. I show my ideas to whoever I want. These are the voices of freedom and independence.”
What’s your first memory of making something?
“My mother was really manual and we always wanted to make the most creative objects for the school fair every year. But one of my first memories of making something was during the ‘improvised creativity workshops’ that I did with my mum when I was a child, spending hours with my friends to create crepe paper dresses and using flowers and leaves we had gathered to adorn them. That’s a really good memory that I have.”
Where did the idea for Wanda Nylon come from?
“Six years ago, when I was on my scooter in Paris, I got an appointment with a client and I was drenched by the rain. And during this time, the idea of rainwear became really clear and obvious to me. And it was at the same time that I started to do some research on technical subjects and clothes.”
How did you come up with the name Wanda Nylon? Why did you not name it after yourself?
“Because it was so not original to name my new brand Maison Johanna Senyk. It was so not matching with the modern spirit and impulse I wanted to give to the brand. And I think that from the moment that your brand has a strong identity, people don’t need to know who is actually behind it. It’s so much more exciting to create clothes and to live freely behind a name that isn’t mine. Wanda Nylon because I love the sound of the name. And I was a fan of the stage names at [cabaret club] Crazy Horse. On the one hand, I wanted a short Polish name – because of my origins – and on the other, something technical, a name of a fabric. And after much research, Wanda Nylon became obvious.”
How important is it to take risks?
“What is the aim, the goal, if we remain in our comfort zone? If we don’t really create anything, what’s the purpose? I always love to play with things and details that are characterised as fautes de goût. We have to create a lot of new interesting things and I don’t care about the right rules and ‘political correctness’. I don’t know if it’s important or not, but I don’t know any other way to create than with daring and audacity of proposals – otherwise I don’t reach my real goal.”
Stay tuned for the rest of Johanna’s people to meet – from Yasmin Sewell to Caroline de Maigret…
Text by Natalie Dembinska
Photographer Christian Borth
Taken from 10 People To Meet in the latest issue of 10 Magazine, ANGELS PLEASURE FLUID, on newsstands now.
