Fifteen years ago…

Before MBP had any real clients we put together speculative ideas which galleries, artists and other designers, students and academics loved. ‘The Industry’ loved them too because they were interesting in a showroom setting or on a catwalk.

It was these sorts of collections and collaborations that caught the eye of press, curators and pop stars around the world. It’s a typical fashion star-rising story that people love. It was a fun time and a valuable and precious time but not for what you might think… going to Paris and Milan three times a year… the networking parties… the validation in Vogue Italia or being invited to send Bjork a dress, or being interviewed by Maison Margelia. Sure those things were great! To this day I am grateful to all the people who liked and loved our work enough to facilitated those encouraging moments. But the real truth is they didn’t add up to a sustainable, independent business that would allow the continuation and development of the MATERIALBYPRODUCT (MBP) vision.

The real enduring value of that time was the ideas we explored and developed into MBP’s unique, technical artisan craft practiced more rigorously today than ever, for real clients! Real clients who are the professional women defining the 21st Century.

It’s an amazing privilege to be able to consult and collaborate with these women, who I affectionately refer to as highly engagement and low maintenance. Through the consulting process I am able to work with them to come up with real solutions to add value to their lives.

And guess what? Working at that solutions driven level also adds real value back to our practice. It helps us get better and better at what we do. As far as I am concerned this is the real era of collaboration for MBP.

It is deeply satisfying to us to receive messages from our clients telling how much they love their pieces. Not because they looked ‘hot’ for three highly curated minutes on the red carpet with their tummy sucked in to get likes on their Instagram. They tell us they love them because they are their go-to pieces when they have to get dressed at 6am and go, go, go. Then when they do actually get a moment to exhale, they see a reflection of themselves in a plate glass window striding on a city street, or look down at themselves while sitting in traffic, or finally look at themselves in the mirror at the end of a long day and think, not only was I appropriate, I was comfortable, I am still fresh (12 hours later) and I like this piece too!

Tomorrow the team of MBP artisans come back in at 7.45am for our first briefing (over coffee) for 2018. We have so many amazing commissions this year for incredible professional women from law, to the new generation CEO and our core creatives. Tomorrow our MBP creatives will start prototyping the creation of a new sleeve and shoulder that is comfortable and feminine but quietly says ‘I am in command’, plus creating new functional embellishments using our painstaking technique of pulling metal ball chain (think army dog tags) through silk satin binding which are an instantly recognisable character of the MBP brand. Functional meaning something you will comfortably wear 9-5 on for a work day. More about that in future posts.

All of these beautiful experiences are being developed for private clients but we will share what we can with you.

Sincerely
Susan Dimasi

PS don’t worry if you don’t get the sketch out of my journal. You would have to understand the inside workings of a traditional tailored jacket and MBP technique plus the inside workings of my design mind to get it. This is what I will show the MBP artisans tomorrow morning when I brief before we all get busy creating and crafting the beautiful pieces that have been dubbed ‘live-in luxury’ by our clients because they are comfortable too!