David Koma

From Tbilisi to St Petersburg, then London, Paris and Milan, David Koma’s life has been a constant evolution with different landscapes as a background. Everyone’s personal journey is different; some find their path by chance, maybe destiny, or perhaps fighting the odds, but it is not often you hear of someone that has always been so sure of not only the life they wanted but also the one they deserved. With a love for beauty, an unshakeable determination and a savoir-faire that has been carefully and consciously acquired from the earliest age, the universe has been giving Koma what he has asked for, not as a gift, but as recompense for the time, energy and work invested in his dreams. Whether sculpting bodies on his namesake label, power-dressing women in the French maison Mugler in the past or evoking the warm nostalgia of a heritage label like Blumarine in the present, the Georgian designer hasn’t let darkness and shadows dim his light. In his world, if you dream it, you can most likely be it.

Thank you! I’m really good, working in Milan. The weather is great for me.

There is rain here as well, but it’s the perfect weather for work.

I’m feeling great. I’m feeling extremely busy, but I love to be busy. I love to work, so the more things I have to do, the better, so all is good.

Quite controlled. I always plan things ahead. I have my own system. I always know what I want to do and what’s going to be happening within at least the next three years (laughs).

Yeah, specifically a year and a half. I mean, three years is a bit more vague, but a year and a half, I try to imagine, wish or predict things to be as prepared and as focused as possible, but obviously, every day it’s a new day, and then you react and shift accordingly, but I like to have this mathematical approach to my schedule, and that really helps even with the collections. I try to imagine them one year ahead.

The thing is that because I work so much and for so long, the line between my personal life and my work life is kind of blurry. They blend into one, and everything is related. I need to be happy in my personal life in order to be happy at work. So, I do not separate. It’s all linked.

Yeah, I’m optimistic. I often feel that I’m optimistic, but I don’t have... I mean, I’m trying my best now, but I don’t have crazy reactions; even if something amazing is happening, I would still be saying yeah, good, nice. I don’t give strong emotions, whether it’s bad news or good news.

I don’t know. It’s just my nature because there are so many things happening in the world, in work, and in life. I just like to be a little bit more reserved and take things a bit more easily.

Definitely. I’ve had different chapters in my career, and in the way I approached the work in the past, I connected with what you describe a bit more. It was this idea of the artistic self and deep thinking, but nowadays, for some reason, this has shifted a bit, and I don’t use that type of approach that much anymore. Now I prefer to know things ahead and be as happy and as present as possible, feel more emotions and be happier. With that I produce better work.

I think it comes with experience. As an artist, as a human, you know what you need in order to perform your best, and I always prepare certain methods of working. It’s like a sport for me; the amount of collections that we do is like a marathon. You need to have your beautiful team; you need to have your support system, your physio, and your gym. So, you just surround yourself with the environment that is best for you to perform to the max of your ability. For this chapter of my career, it’s more about knowing things in advance, being present, feeling happy and just enjoying life and today, particularly, in Milan.

It’s a constant self-discovery and self-learning. We’re talking about every day, every evening; I like to be alone quite often, just because of the nature of my work. I do travel a lot, and I’m always surrounded by a lot of people, but I really need my own time just to be prepared. So, even when I’m alone, I’m still working.

Yes, but with experience and with time, you just learn what’s good for you, and I’m quite lucky to be doing what I absolutely love and live where I live. I live between London and Milan, two cities that I admire. I travel a lot; I work with incredible people internally and externally. So, I have a quite cool and happy life. It’s all about keeping yourself busy, keeping yourself happy and active and just enjoying life as much as possible.

I’ve been consistent with my work and my aesthetic over the years; obviously, it’s been evolving, but the essence really stayed the same. We were just discussing that with my colleagues yesterday, about my early days. I started working, doing some art and fashion when I was a kid, like twelve or thirteen, and my style then and now didn’t really change. Of course I grew as an artist, and I grew as a designer, but things that I loved, things that excited me — it’s quite surprising — but it stayed the same. I would describe my style as sculptural, sensual and timeless.

Not really, and I don’t know how to explain it. Basically, I’ve always known what I really wanted to do, and I’m very optimistic and very dedicated and very passionate about what I want and what I deserve. So, for me it’s about having a dream and moving towards it and being determined and super focused and even fixated on your dreams and your future, and that was always my approach when I was a child, a student and even now. I think that’s part of my personality; it’s what helps me to be who I am or to be where I am. An uncompromising belief in things: that I will have what I want, or I will work hard enough to deserve what I want. Everyday working and manifestation really give results. Of course, as a student you have some doubts or insecurities, but if you make yourself busy and focus, things will come to you.

Since I was a kid, it’s been happening. I never knew that it was called manifestation or that it was a thing, but it’s been something that I’ve always relied on, and then later in life, obviously, I discovered what it was, and it’s definitely working for me. In my life, I’ve manifested quite a lot of crazy things that didn’t seem possible to happen, but I believed in them, and then they ended up becoming real. Whatever you ask to the universe, the universe will definitely, if you deserve it, give it to you, but you need to be ready to take it. I learnt it with experience and maturity. I know if I ask correctly, I will receive, but before I would just ask with no thought behind it. Now I know I need to be sure that I definitely want what I ask for, so once the universe gives it to you, you really need to take care of it well.

Yeah, but it’s not so easy. You really, really need to use all your body cells, everything. You really need to feel that you need it; you deserve it. That when it gives it to you tomorrow, you can definitely take it and handle it. Everyone has different timing, but if you do that and stay fixated on one thing for like a year and a half, I promise it will come.

There is still a long way to go. There is an endless road to crazy dreams and success, but I’ve been quite lucky to discover my passion and my interests at a very early age, and I’ve been lucky enough to have supportive parents, environment and to be doing what I truly love all my life. Goals and success: it’s kind of unlimited. It’s more about trying to appreciate and identify things that you have today and be happy about them. So, while thinking big about the future, I try to be extremely thankful for what I have today.

It’s an easy and hard question at the same time. I don’t know. I’m a proud Georgian; I really love and appreciate the country that I’m from. But it’s hard to put into words what exactly coming from Georgia adds to my creativity; I don’t know. I think it’s more about the family that you come from and your childhood. I was quite a happy kid surrounded by a loving family and beautiful memories growing up in Tbilisi, so I think those values that I got from that time of growing up there really helped me to succeed in my career. But it’s hard to really put together, maybe kindness and respect, but I don’t know if that’s only because I’m from Georgia.

I have a lot of ideas, and I always had them since I was a student, so having multiple jobs has never been an issue. When I worked at Mugler, it was beautiful — that was actually one of the things I manifested. When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted, and one day I just received it. Plus, it was interesting to live in Paris and work for such an iconic French house; I learnt a lot, and it was an amazing experience.
Then, of course, my own brand is a very important priority in my life to just keep me happy and excited about what I do. For me, it’s important to express my creativity the way I want and also understand the business side, a kind of three-sixtytg, basically. I have to say when we talk about fashion, obviously creativity, identity and uniqueness are all important, but without the people skills and understanding of business, you cannot do this job. Having my own brand helped me to do that part really well.
And about my move to Italy specifically for Blumarine, it all started basically like six months before I was offered the job. I was in Milan again with close friends; a lot of my friends started to move here and talk about it and how much they love it. I just visited them, and we always had a great time in Milan, which I’d never done before, and basically six months before I got the job, I manifested it. I just said, oh my god, I do love Italy and I love Italians, and I wondered if I would receive some call.

It’s funny, but it’s true. When I received the call, I was like, okay, yeah, let’s do it! I spent a week in Milan, and it felt good; it felt right. I wanted to do something here, and here we are: I’m doing it.

It’s not difficult for me, but it really depends on the team because, obviously, as a creative director, without a strong team, I cannot do much. I have a beautiful team in London, and I’m extremely happy that I joined this Italian heritage house with an already beautiful team inside. I’ve been here for, like, half a year, and we’ve expanded and built things on top of the existing heritage and the identity, and because the brand already has quite a lot of its own heart and soul, then it’s not difficult, but it’s more exciting for me to then apply my own filters and my own tastes, the result of the fifteen years where I’ve built my own identity, my own archive, and my own vision. With Blumarine, I play a lot with the heritage and the codes that were built by Anna Molinari and try to add my own personal twist to it.

I don’t think it’s a risk; I think it’s the opposite. It’s risky not to do this. Every brand, every creative director needs enough time to put together the team, the thoughts, and the processes. Because in order to run a brand successfully, it’s not just about the beautiful collection or having a great show. The success of a business, for me, is about the synergy across all the fields inside the company, so it was really important to make sure that not only the creative team but also the business side and the production side worked well. There are so many people working on the project; I really wanted to get to know them and make sure that we are all on the same page, and, yeah, it didn’t really take that much time.

For me it was perfect, but you just need to know how much time you need to do things right and stick with that, and do not rush. That’s what I learnt from experience.

You feel supported, whether it’s work or family; it really inspires you and makes you feel good. It makes you feel human. Just creating good memories and enjoying life now, that’s what connection and humans give me. And obviously inspiration because exchanging feelings and emotions is vital. As a creator, I need to be fed with the reaction, with emotion and with some feeling in order to create, in order to feel inspired. So especially in this time, maybe that’s actually the best link, the idea of love and family and closeness is what helped me. And generally, I think it can help all of us to feel better and create good things, whether it’s more global, little things that you can do to support others or whether it’s a beautiful dress to make women happy.

You know, I don’t know. I’m one of those designers; I don’t really think about this too much. Obviously, every decade things change, the presence of social media, blah, blah, blah. The world is changing, and we’re all moving forward and progressing. But I do it without thinking about it too much or without over analysing it; I just follow my instincts. As a creative director or as an artist, especially working in fashion, it’s all about the dream and fantasy and creating something that they don’t know they need. I cannot think about what they need in order to give them what they don’t know. So, no one knows. I just do what I love, and hopefully, the stars align, chemistry is there, and I deliver the vision that inspires clients to be part of my universe, whether it’s for Blumarine or for David Koma. There is this part that we don’t know. I’m just doing what I think is right and then magic happens. Maybe it’s wrong; I don’t know, but I really do not study customers.

To be honest with you, as a creator, as an artist, I really always try to connect with something positive and dreamlike. Obviously, we need to be aware of what’s happening, but there is always space for a dream. I just connect to the positive energy and keep dreaming, and hopefully with the beauty, I just make life better for me and for everyone else around me. So just focus on that.

I treat this slightly differently because for me, every decade, every five years, something is happening in the world, whether it’s climate change, coronavirus or economic issues. As an artist, as a human, and as a businessman, obviously I have to be aware of it and adapt. But again, we’re working in the art industry that gives people dreams and gives people this kind of happiness. So, I just need to be aware of what’s going on and keep the business running; I connect with my inner child and stay on the positive side.

I pay more attention than ever to environmental health and climate change. Going back to the fashion side of it, the idea of sustainability and climate change has been in conversations for so long, and I’m super glad that now it’s not a know-how that only a couple of people do or support; it’s become more generalised, and that’s what makes me happy. We as a brand really try to do as much as possible to produce things as correctly as possible. I think it’s important to leave a healthy planet after us.

I always saw Blumarine as a very beautiful Italian heritage brand that’s always associated with the idea of Italian family and love and the relationship between mother and daughter. That’s the angle that inspired me the most about this brand: spreading love, spreading good memories about the past and creating memories for the future with a lot of beautiful things that Italy has, whether it’s a landscape, art, music or culture. Just stay within your family and create happy future memories, so that’s, I think, what Blumarine stands for to me.

What can beauty do for us in times like this? That’s a great question. Maybe nowadays, the idea of beauty is quite wide and diverse, which is beautiful, and for me, beauty gives inspiration, beauty gives hope, and beauty gives just good vibes.

The main nightmare has always been this idea of the end of the world, I think.

When there was Covid and when the whole world stopped for a bit, that was just my worst nightmare coming true. But as you can see, we got through that, and it feels like it was such a long time ago. So maybe that would be the example of overcoming this idea of the end of the world. I just feel like the end of the world already happened, and we’re still alive and things keep going.

My childhood dream was to be a successful artist and work for beautiful companies around the world while having my own label in place.

The current dream is to continue pushing. Go big or go home. Just global domination (laughs).