Fashion L'amour

44Studio | Feature |

By Keziah Reed

We spoke to Franx and Xavi, creators of Madrid based fashion brand 44Studio. We wanted to find out more about their unique style, what makes them tick, origins and other topics. Included in our interview is pictures from their recent collection called “interlude“.

Tell us what gave you the idea to create 44Studio – how did it come about?

44STUDIO was born as a result of creating a concept store in 2014 called 44STORE. A multi-brand store where we had different international and national designers. At that time we wanted to add something more to our creative universe and we decided to create 44STUDIO, a brand without gender or labels, a free brand, based on classic tailoring and where we want to redefine the male and female silhouette.

We would love to know the reasoning behind your name! Why 44Studio – what does it mean for your brand?

First, Salon44 was created, an avant-garde hairdressing salon, related to the world of fashion, we have collaborated with different designers and stylists, the salon is located at 44 Valverde street. Then we created 44Store, and that’s where 44Studio comes from, the name closes our aesthetic circle, for us it made sense that our brand would have the number 44, since it all started there, 4 in numerology is the strongest number, that’s why all three parts were numbered 4.

Your current collection exemplifies the beauty of black and white monochrome clothing design. What inspired you to choose this colour palette?

Our color palette has always been white or black, since we create a timeless fashion that lasts over time, in the end, black and white will never go out of style, they are colors that will always be in our background. wardrobe. In almost all collections we always have a guest color or we introduce a direct color range, colors that have the same strength as black or white.

It’s clear that 44Studio prides itself on non-binary, unisex clothing. What’s the importance of non-gendered clothing for your brand and for your customer base?

We want the customer, whoever decides what gender the garment has, we do not believe that the ode has gender, each one should feel free and decide what to wear.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected lives and businesses all over the world. What have been the highs and lows of your journey during this unprecedented time?

For us, COVID19 has been a break, where to think, where we want to go and rethink what we want to do. Finish redefining our silhouette and where we see ourselves in the future. Confinement helped us to think about what we want to do and what not. Of course it is being a bit of chaos, because there is an uncertainty in the whole world, nobody knows what will happen, but for us it helped us to re-count ourselves and see that we are a small brand and that we cannot follow the rite of the super brands. We need our time.

Does 44Studio aim to incorporate sustainability and durability into its designs?

For us, sustainability is producing in local workshops and producing to order, we do not want to saturate the market or the world of garments, which then we do not know where they will end up. All our production is made in small workshops in Spain and Portugal.In our last two collections, we have included pieces that are made from recovered second-hand pieces, with these we create new pieces, which sometimes serve as prototypes for new collections.

What does 44Studio aim to reflect and depict in each of its collections?

Always in our collections, we try to give a message or tell a story. We can start from a song, a work of art, an artist or a current situation. We do not want to make clothes alone, we want our client to take a garment with history.

Are there any brands or designers who particularly inspire you? (or who you love to wear!)

We have several references, from Comme des Garcons, Raf Simons, Maison Margiela, Yohi Yamamoto …

It may be hard to pick, but do you have a favourite collection that you have put out thus far?

We like all our collections, but the ones that are closest to what we want today and in the future are The hunger, Silencio, Silencio Act 2 and INTERLUDE.

What are you most excited about regarding the future of 44Studio?

The future right now is uncertain for everyone, no one knows what will happen, but we want to grow, continue to collaborate with different artists and make the brand known internationally.

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