by Four days out from the London Fashion Week show, most of the designers would have woken up long ago, working around the clock and living on a diet of black coffee and Haribos.
So it was a quieter scene than I expected at David Koma’s Shoreditch HQ, home to an office, design studio and atelier. The staff were busy, but no one seemed stressed.
Koma is not himself either: “It’s a new me,” he says. “I’m trying to enjoy the ride”.
And what a trip it was. The Tbilisi, Georgia-born designer has dressed Adele, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. Beyoncé wears Koma on the cover of her new single /Texas Hold ‘Em/. At the Baftas after-party last Sunday night, Florence Pugh, Poppy Delevingne and Mary Charteris wore Koma. Not bad for someone who has never actively sought celebrity attention.
“Celebrities… It’s something that came naturally to me as an artist, as a brand. It was never my focus,” he says. It’s been this way since the beginning. Koma came to London in 2003 to study at Central Saint Martin’s, where he was recognized as a potential star and mentored by the late Professor Louise Wilson. A sketch of a look from his 2009 MA show and his pencil scribbled notes are framed and waiting to be hung on his office wall. Also scrawled out – by him, he clarifies – is the second half of his surname, Komakhidze.
That graduate collection won a slew of awards, showcasing his talent—enough to cross the radar of some top celebrity stylists. Within a few months, Beyoncé wore a David Koma dress to the MTV Europe Music Awards, Cheryl Cole wore one on The X Factor, “and then after that there was Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kylie Minogue, many others,” he recalls. “[The collection] there were only nine dresses [and] we found nine amazing people. And it never stopped.”
The relationship with Beyoncé is probably the one he is most proud of. He appreciates his attention to detail. “She’s so obsessive about everything,” he says. Nothing is allowed without her, okay: “She’s a big worry. And what I love about her is that I’ve worked with her for many years, and she works with multiple stylists, but they come back to me, so I believe that’s coming from her.”
He designed several looks for his Renaissance tour, including headlining a redescent leather suit. “When it comes to working on tour, the technical part is important,” he explains. “For certain looks, like the fuzzy one, we knew she would wear it for a part of the performance that’s quite active… You have to use certain metallic zips that are strong, and even if you do super high boots, you have to. They have to make sure they don’t move or slide down – there’s special boning that you put in.
“You do it and you do dancers too. So it has to be cohesive… Some looks she does, she really has to be in control, but I think in this particular look she could be herself and dance.”
Favorite Beyoncé moment so far? Two years ago, when she opened the Oscars with a performance of ‘Be Alive’, from the soundtrack of King Richardbiography of Richard Williams, father of tennis champions Venus and Serena.
Beyoncé performed in Compton, California, on the court where the sisters trained as children, in a neon tennis ball-inspired dress made for her by Koma. He did not expect to be treated in this context. “We were already working on the [Renaissance] touring,” he explains. “We were doing a lot of things so I didn’t really know what would be seen where.”
That Koma is a tennis nut, which made him even more impressive. “It was funny because my dad wanted me to be a tennis player. And I was like, that won’t happen. So he allowed me to make art. When this happened, I called him, and he was like, ‘Does it count, that I won the [fashion] Grand Slam?’”
Koma has a lot of respect for stylists, architects look at these celebrities. “There are so many publicists, so many opinions. Being a stylist is not an easy job,” he says. “They have to earn the trust of the celebrity, and then convince the designers to be bold and part of your vision.”
Every look is the result of a wider team effort: “Obviously, the dress is one thing, then the stylist, then this synergy between the stylist, the hair and the makeup, and the relevance of the message and the momentum – everything has to something to match. it was a successful red carpet ‘moment’.” He says. “Maybe the same dress on the same girl wouldn’t be as ‘wow’ if it was a month before or after, but some of them manage to be very relevant at that moment, and have the best team to achieve it.”
Koma’s reputation following means that his label has never really been out of the spotlight, but it has really gathered steam over the last four years. Before that, he was juggling a number of projects, including a four-year stint as creative director at Thierry Mugler, so his own label didn’t have undivided attention. “I decided ok, just, it’s time to really focus,” he said of this tipping point. “We did a few things, like changing investors, preparing something new [business] plan, strengthen the team – and then Covid happened.”
For another casual wear brand, this could have been the kiss of death, but Koma achieved the seemingly impossible and grew its business fourfold during the pandemic, driven mainly by sales dresses. “People were saying it’s not possible. For me, luxury is like chocolate; whatever it is, people still want to have it.”
The appeal lies in the gifted nature of his designs that celebrate the contours of the female body, a kind of armor for ass-kicking, agenda-setting women. “I’ve always had this idea of this superman,” he says. “Different collections are inspired by different incredible women. Somehow… they feel it and then they come back [because] there’s this chemistry.”
Contact sheets of past collections are pinned to the walls of his office. Last season was inspired by Marlene Dietrich, he tells me. The next one, pre-fall, was inspired by Truman Capote’s Swans – perfect timing, given an upcoming release Feud: Capote vs The Swans.
Ultimately, it keeps coming back to the same guiding principle. “I always want to bring out the best in the body and give the wearer confidence and strength,” he explains. “Because, yes, there are many beautiful people.”
