new Designs for talented designers from around the world..

Our 1st Designer for the day is: MICHAEL MICHALSK

Michael Michalsky was born in Göttingen in 1967 and grew up near Hamburg. A photo reportage in the Stern magazine about Karl Lagerfeld so fascinated the 12-year-old Michalsky that he decided to tread in the footsteps of the fashion designer. After leaving school, he left the small town where he grew up in order to study at the London College of Fashion. He worked as a doorman on the side and became part of the dazzling London club scene. Back in Germany, Michalsky first took up a position as Design Manager at Levis, and soon became Chief Designer for the label.

In 1995, Michalsky was approached by adidas, a brand whose credibility and authenticity fascinated the designer. He restructured the departments at the sports article company and established an international team of almost 200 designers. In 2000, he was promoted to international Creative Director for adidas. In 2002, Michalsky developed the exclusive Y3 line together with Yohji Yamamoto. As Creative Director, he established and promoted the interlinking of fashion, brand and music at adidas. This resulted in collaborations with Missy Elliot, Stella McCartney and many others.

For his work at adidas, Michalsky was the first fashion designer to win the coveted global red dot award.

In the spring of 2006, Michalsky left adidas to fulfil a long-held dream of founding his own fashion label. He established Michalsky Holding GmbH in Berlin, and in January 2007, and for the first time, presented the MICHALSKY premium line and the jeans line MICHALSKY JEANS at a fashion show. Since then, the MICHALSKY fashion shows have become a permanent fixture at every Berlin Fashion Week, and the after-show parties have a legendary reputation.

Since May 2005, in his role as Creative Director, Michael Michalsky has also been responsible for the re-launch of the luxury handbag manufacturer MCM.

MICHALSKY caters for the high fashion segment and combines classic styles with streetwear influences. The result is impressive, with discrete luxury and urban flair for cosmopolitan customers who value the combination of high quality, tradition and the latest fashion trends. MICHALSKY JEANS is an authentic denim collection which is influenced by youth culture and music. The mantra for both lines is “Real Clothes for Real People”.

In the meantime, Michael Michalsky has become one of Germany’s most influential designers. He has collaborated with major companies such as BMW, Wella, Ariel, Sony, Seidensticker and NiguraMetzler. Michalsky regularly works with artists from Germany and elsewhere. The collaborative projects enrich and influence the MICHALSKY collections.

In the summer of 2009, Michalsky founded the MICHALSKY designLab. Here, under the guidance of Michalsky, designers from different areas of specialism fulfil design contracts for other companies. In this way, sportswear collections have been created for the biggest Chinese sportswear manufacturer, Kappa China, for example. Another highly commended project was the design for the “Sony Mobile Summer Collection 2009” products.

Michael Michalsky’s most important source of inspiration is music. His second great passion is photography. Michalsky has a large collection of photographs, including works by Herbert List, Yva, Edmund Kesting, Helmar Lerski and Horst P. Horst and fashion photographs from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

http://www.michalsky.com