Glam rock elements, Prince’s influences, David Bowie’s eccentricity are some of your main sources of inspiration. Can you shed some light onto that?

David Bowie was our first icon inspiration. With his glam rock looks, he wasn’t afraid of other people’s gazing. He found a way to show his inner colours not only through his music, but also by creating a whole Bowie universe, which we fell for. As you can see on our logo, the I is replaced by a thunderbolt, which is partly inspired by Bowie’s album. As our pieces are inspired by parties, music and having fun, it’s also thanks to artists like him or Prince.

We also got very inspired by Grace Jones, Prince and all the eccentric parties at that time. Excess is sometimes a good thing and being different also. These personalities inspired us to make our lingerie “EKCENTRIK”.

You’ve lived in London, Berlin and Paris for a while. How have all these multicultural exposures affected your creations?

Above all, living in those different cities has helped us open our minds to new forms of creativity, onto meeting eccentric people and daring to be ourselves even more.  We believe each city has its specificity, its lessons to teach and we believe that EKCENTRIK perfectly combines all of those cities. Our hometown, Warsaw, always had a very fierce and fighter spirit of women, who inspired us to work hard in order to get where we want to be. London has taught us not to care about what others may think. With its eccentricity, London is probably one of the most interesting city fashion- wisely. We want to spread this audacity and being yourself, no matter what  another may think. A similar vibe came to us from Berlin, with its craziness and carelessness. The “Come as you are”  state of mind has never been so accurate, not in a neglected way, but in a very honest, personality-revealing way. Finally, Paris showed us a strong charismatic femininity and elegance.

For us, each of those cities has another personality, just like our different colours can express different characters or moods.

Which is your favorite decade and why?

Although you can guess that we were inspired by different decades when creating EKCENTRIK lingerie, our favourite decade is the 90s. First of all, whether you’re more into Rn’B Hip hop or pop, 90s were the most diverse musical decade in our opinion, hence we got inspired by the 90s party vibe. Also, in terms of fashion trends, the pre – 2000 decade has instilled a not only stylish vibe but also a very comfortable one. We love comfortable fashion too, which you will notice while wearing our second skin feeling lingerie, that is more a fashion accessory, a crazy statement rather than underwear you should simply wear under a shirt. Oh, and also, let’s not forget about how Kate Moss made slip dresses the go-to day-to-night looks and made preparing for going out so much easier.

What would you say are the most relevant issues that the industry is facing right now?

In the times we’re currently living in, whilst the fashion industry seems to be going in a good direction, there are some persisting issues as well as new ones that the industry didn’t have to face with the older generations.

Looking at the European market, above all, younger generations often seek to become creative directors, managers or often working digitally. However, in order to create good, quality lasting products, there are less and less seamstresses, lingerie constructors and the craftsmanship is now facing a decline. As mentioned before, the hardest part of creating EKCENTRIK was to find a good team, and that is mainly due to that reason. This phenomenon is leading to another issue: as there are less well experienced or innovative craftsmen, producing locally can become too expensive for the brands to be able to sell their products at an affordable price. Thus, small local brands need to face a disadvantage towards big brands that are often producing in countries where craftsmanship is very cheap.  It is then important to choose your expenses: buy more low-quality products with human and ecological consequences or buy less locally produced, high quality designs that are made with love.

Looking ahead, where do you see your brand in the future?

As an open minded and engaged brand, we would like to continue developing a safe space for everyone. Having grown in Poland, where the mindset is still quite conservative, we would like to spread awareness about the LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as give voices to  young talented voguers, dancers, artists and other inspiring personalities, as we care about our community. We would like to create more events for people to meet and share while having fun, trying to make each of our clients as confident as we can.

Also, as there isn’t enough focus on the male’s section underwear, we strive to going into a more and more unisex direction, by creating pieces that can be worn by everyone.  Our main goal is to develop an innovative lingerie brand that would be in opposition to conservative underwear codes while retaining the know-how of traditional techniques. Finally, no matter what, our aim will always remain to have fun with lingerie and to dare to show your inner colours.