Interview with the Designer

Following up the post about the Sumarie Pop Up Store at Holland Part, here the exclusive interview with our designer, Marie Su, that the lovely girls from the Chic and Seek Boutique made last week.

Hey Marie, what do you do?

I am a swimwear designer.

What are you most proud of?  

Knowing how to learn from mistakes and move forward, better and stronger. Finding balance between your own business and personal life.

What can't you live without?
My work and family&friends.

What is your most memorable fashion purchase?
I like mixing styles with classic pieces and street, love my Isabel Marant sneakers, wear them all the time.

What is your favourite shop of all time?
Colette Paris!

What is your biggest fashion mistake?
Not to stop and change faster

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Audrey Tatou

What's your Chic Beauty/Fashion tip?
Less is more always for me, so definitely love women who look effortlessly chic! Love beach hair, so sexy. 
Mix fashion and accessories, get a wardrobe that works all year around, buy smart. 

Conversation with Marie: Part Three

Design for Real Women

Does your swimwear suit any kind of body shape?

It depends on the piece, but yes. In my collection I work with different needs of different body shapes, I always try to have something for everyone. It doesn’t mean that every piece works for everybody. When I build my range for the collection, first of all I have the pure inspiration and I decide what it is about: I build the story behind it a

nd my mood-board. Then I narrow it down to what I actually want to do with it. Then I do the core pieces of the collections and I build on it the rest, designing something for every body shape. One sexy little thing, one sophisticated and clean, one more glamorous to wear when I want to feel super-beautiful. Another one is just to swim in a pool in the morning when you wake up and maybe you don’t want to wear something fancy and ruin it, maybe you just want something nice and not too complicated. Everything is available for every mood, every moment and every body shape. That’s why I spend a lot of time in the planning my collections. It takes me a while to make a collection I don’t do it over a night or two weeks, it’s a dedicated process that comes out of research.

What about all the other pieces, kaftans, jackets, resort-wear in general?

They have to work with the swimwear, I always design the collection together, everything has to work together. All the kaftans are part of the range so they are in the same colour theme and structure. In Femme Fatale you have the lycra jackets. They have the structure, they are quite minimalist with a touch of the sport elegant chic. The jacket is what you wear over your swimsuit when you are on a boat, because it’s windy. When you are on a boat and you go quite fast you can’t be just in your swimsuit. It doesn’t need to be warm because it’s not cold, it’s just windy. They’re designed for those who love sailing and boating, but at the same time you can wear these pieces out. If you’re coming from the beach and you don’t want to change, you don’t have to, you put this little jacket on your swimsuit and you already look chic. It’s about looking good throughout your day; it’s about having what you need. 

This way you’re confident in every situation…

Exactly, if you have a little jacket with you, you can just go out at the end of your day, you put your leggings on and it looks like a suit. If it’s very hot you put the kaftan as a cover up, if you go for a pool party you wear a dress. It’s about the holiday, the experience, looking good throughout wherever you go. It’s about looking stylish and good. Besides, not all women know how to wear things together, that’s why in my ranges and my collections I have pieces that work with everything. It’s not just swimwear, you have a wide variety of other items to wear with your swimwear, which is very important for me as a traveller.



Read parts one and two by following these links!
http://www.wherethelifeissumarie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/conversation-with-marie-part-one.html
http://www.wherethelifeissumarie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/conversation-with-marie-part-two.html

Conversation With Marie: Part Two

How It All Started

How did you start your career in fashion?

I wouldn’t say my story is very straightforward, it was a life journey. It started with a passion, that became a hobby, which then grew into so much more: it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

In my twenties, I was trying to figure out the way to do it, where I wanted to work, what medium in fashion I wanted to take. Fashion to me is an artistic way of expressing myself; it’s not for the love of fashion just as clothes, it’s a form of art for me. I chose resort-wear, lifestyle and swimwear purely because they represented my favorite lifestyle, the one I like to live and I’m inspired by.

When did design your first bikini?

I’ve always designed and made bikinis myself from the age of 17 years old, it was the perfect hobby, although of course they weren’t perfect! I was just making them home with the domestic sewing machine:  you really cannot get something nice with that, but you know, that’s how I started. That’s how I trace it back when I wonder “why am I doing swimwear?”. It’s because I remember I loved doing that… I’ve always had lots of swimwear and beachwear, because I travel a lot and I lived in a beach country, on a beach, that was a different kind of experience.

That was Tel Aviv, right?

Yes! I would wake up, go to the beach, wear my bikini, my little shorts, a t-shirt, flip-flops and I would walk on the beach, do my sport, have a coffee with a friend. That’s how I used to start my day: that lifestyle, of course, is still in my heart, it’s something I want to go back to, at some point. Obviously London is a place where you have to be for professional reasons, if you want to be creative. At some point if you want to enter this crazy business, it doesn’t matter if it’s photography, fashion, art, you have to pass through Paris, London and New York. But ideally I’d like to live in Ibiza or somewhere like that, have a bit of a different lifestyle and be based in between. That’s exactly what I would want to do, have my own beach boutique in which I would be selling lifestyle pieces, including swimwear.