In Defense of Slow Fashion, Marrakshi Life Delivers
THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO
DOUGLAS HENRY LEWIS
a vibrant repertoire of unique, and organically sustainable clothing.
Marrakshi Life is transforming the weaving portion of the fashion industry with boundless creativity, steadfast determination, real love, and cutting edge execution.
6 MINS READ TIME
When thinking of the oh-so-timely presentation of design perfection that the Marrakshi Life brand brings, I can now fully grasp what Diana Vreeland meant when she famously stated, “fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.”
Founded in 2013, Marrakshi Life is aligned with a vibrant repertoire of unique, and organically sustainable clothing. On my virtual ZOOM tour of the atelier with founder, Randall Bachner and his partner, Nicholas Minucciani, one thing became crystal clear. The global collective society is craving the ideals of vitality, glowing health, organic connections, and pure, unadulterated, JOY.
Marrakshi Life delivers.
I discovered the magic of their showroom which is organized by color within each collection, functioning like an archive of sorts. I witnessed firsthand how their diverse clientele can come from the blue door into their pink room, speak directly to the designer at his desk while customizing their pieces; produced only a few feet away in the atelier.
Take a peek at their Caftans in Mixed Stripes or their Tunics with French Cuffs, done expertly in varied micro stripes of pink and blush. I assure that you will not be disappointed. There is a certain fluidity to the design process that is infectious, seeping through every aspect of the clothes. Via the power of intention and honoring the traditional Moroccan heritage, the Marrakshi Life team is transforming the weaving portion of the fashion industry with boundless creativity, steadfast determination, real love, and cutting edge execution.
Fans of sustainable fashion will be glad to hear that the designers only work with their own textiles, sourcing the raw cotton material from Turkey and Egypt; scraps are used to make patchwork pieces. Expounding on how he deals with the global issue within his own business, Bushner explains that “even though we don’t produce inventory we’re still left with quite a bit of stuff and it’s about how to then reuse that and not to make it waste. We don’t throw anything away. We keep it because I want to ideally make products from it.”
After my enchanting virtual tour of the atelier, I was able to engage in a truly eye-opening conversation with Randall and Nicholas regarding current fashion affairs and how they are using their distinct design operation to help transform what has always been done into a system that makes sense for everyone involved.
ON WORKING LOCALLY AMIDST A PANDEMIC IN MARRAKECH
Nicholas: The beginning of COVID mentally with the brand was dark and then we somehow got through last summer. Q4 was dark for the brand too, and the state of the world but we’re hopeful and we see the future bright.
That’s why you see a lot of bright colors from us. You’ll see a lot of colors, you’ll see a lot of vibrancy, you’ll see a lot of diversity as well. I think that’s a cool story we haven’t touched on. The casting and the environment we do here. Many people don’t know this but in Marrakesh and Morocco, from a “model” perspective, they don’t exist. It’s very hard to find. The good ones are in New York or Europe. It’s just the third world so it’s hard and people don’t necessarily realize that so it’s tough. If you want to dig deep maybe you’ll discover your next supermodel. From our perspective, we’re choosing to work locally. We’re choosing to work with those in Morocco, humans, models, whatever you are and I think, from that perspective, in staying local and supporting local you’ll see a lot of cool diversity in the humans we use from the campaigns, moving forward in the next few collections.
ON UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF SLOW FASHION
Randall: Slow fashion is about slowing down what we are making and meeting the demand and the desire versus being like “To make this much money, we have to make this many garments…we’re going to produce this many styles” and then you’re stuck with it. The world doesn’t need that.
Nicholas: My definition of slow fashion is a little different because I have the brand image in my mindset and I’m always thinking of the consumer first. For me, when someone hears slow fashion, they might assume they’re going to wait one or two months to receive their garment, then they might not want to purchase that because it's waiting too long. As Americans and humans of this planet, we’ve gotten used to instant gratification, myself included.
So for me, slow fashion rings true as quality. Doing things by hand, and appreciating the craftsmanship. It is also about making sure we’re delivering within a time frame that the consumer will still appreciate. It’s a challenge and I think since we’ve started working together, we’ve gotten our production and delivery down to two weeks which I think is fantastic.
ON GENDER NEUTRALITY AND THEIR CORE CONSUMER
Nicholas: We don’t define fabric or silhouette based on male or female. How someone interprets that as a consumer is up to them on what they choose to put on their body and identify as. We do preach this harmonious mentality.
Randall started Marrakshi Life because he liked seeing women in more male silhouettes and men in more female silhouettes. Our core consumer from the male perspective has changed and shifted for the better into what the future of fashion and “masculinity” means and is defined as. Our male demographic is queer, but also, they’re musicians, business people, cooks and artists. It crosses everything. Our core consumer is not the person you see walking down the street in New York City. It is this bohemian chic, refined, unique individual that seeks us out and wants us as part of their identity.
ON CREATING A UNIQUE LANE WITHIN THE FASHION SYSTEM
Nicholas: There are some amazing brands here. Some of our dear friends do some amazing things. It is that craftsmanship and it is that artist community. Everyone’s in liberal arts college during this time here.
Randall: Here, I consider myself independent of everybody and I don’t feel like there’s competition because I’m not paying attention to what’s happening. I never came here for that purpose. I came here to create.
ON MODERN LUXURY
Nicholas: Sometimes affordability does equate to good quality. Sometimes luxury does not always equate to great quality. Especially if it’s handmade. It’s about the craftsmanship and making sure you have the right people there to implement. For example, when someone orders online, we ship it within two weeks but we tie the yarn and hand-weave it per order and I think sometimes people have this connotation that the button is going to be placed in the same spot every time and it’s pretty accurate but we’re not using a machine to weave and tailor things. There’s going to be a beautiful hand-crafted element to it.
It is a luxury to be able to have things that are made by hand.
We do a lot of customization. About 40% of our clients say, I want this fabric on this silhouette and we do it! We’ll do the same silhouette but in twenty different fabrics.