Mark D. Sikes, best known as an interior designer and lifestyle blogger can now add fashion designer of his very own RTW collection to his repertoire. He designs and produces it in L.A. with his partner Michael Griffin. This collection incorporates two of his favorite signatures….the colors, blue & white and stripes. With some encouragement from his friend and fellow Houston-based lifestyle blogger, Paloma Contreras of La Dolce Vita blog, Mark brought his stripes collection to a bientot this past week and the Houston women loved it!
I had the chance to do something that I don’t normally get to do, sit and chat with another blogger that I follow and read faithfully, daily, and learn so much just by talking and comparing notes and always trying to learn more, more more about this thing we all do! So when Mark Sikes came to a bientot for his Stripes Trunk Show, the opportunity was there and I grabbed it. I hope you will find it as interesting as I did!
I’m sort of putting the horse before the cart for many of you, in talking to his stripes RTW collection if you do not know Mark and what his true passion and claim to fame is…..that of an interior designer and lifestyle blogger. We’ll talk more about his fabulous blog, which hooked me, a little later in the post. Truth be told, Mark, like many of us, believes that fashion and interior design are so inter-related that they are one story that plays off of each other.
RP: Mark, tell me about how MDSSTRIPES came to be?
MDS: So, having been a blogger in the lifestyle world, since 2011, I had also always had a love for fashion. I had my early beginnings working for such an apparel maven as Banana Republic, over visual merchandising from Nashville, where I started, to the corporate offices in San Francisco. We then moved to L.A., I had been doing the blog since 2011 and working on interiors and one day Michael just came in and said why don’t we do our own thing and make striped apparel since you love it so much! My partner, Michael Griffin, had a background as head of merchandise production for Banana, Gap, Williams Sonoma Home and most recently Lucky Brand Jeans. So he had the know-how to make it happen. We began producing in L.A. our own take on what we loved…..classic American Sportswear with a feminine, modern twist. We had total control to do it as we wanted so we produced it in fabrics that we loved such as Japanese cotton and looked to Vogue and the Runways for our inspiration and my style aspirational icon was Claire McCardell. So, we did it and MDSTRIPES was born and launched in February 2015.
Editor’s Note: What we saw here in Houston was Resort 2016 and know it’s just the beginning for these guys, with lots of great projects in the works. After all, who doesn’t love stripes and what don’t they work with??? Even non-print people like myself love stripes to wear and to live in in my home, especially awning stripes, my personal favorite take on this look!
RESORT 2016
Although all that he was showing at a bientot was for Resort, for Fall, Mark has shown his Stripes worn with Cashmere, what could be more classic than that and is exactly how I would love to wear it now…and yes, a collection of cashmere pieces should be in their future, don’t ya think?!
RP: So Mark, tell me about how and why you started a Blog? And how that related to your Interiors work?
MDS: I was doing some interiors for friends, and in 2011, thought I would start writing a blog for no particular reason…….not to get clients or build a business but just because I wanted to. It has proven to be the best decision I made and has done wonders for building my brand. We had moved to L.A. and I immediately did our home. It just happened that some House Beautiful editors were in town that some friends knew. They stopped over, loved our home, took photos in October, fast-tracked it to the Dec/Jan issue, it made the cover and I became known for that and our marketing began. That really started everything for me.
The Blog: Mark D.Sikes…Chic People, Glamorous Places, Stylish Things (name & link to Mark’s blog, check it out here!)
House Beautiful spread that started it all for Mark Sikes
As we chatted more, different images kept running through my mind of shots from the blog that I recalled and/or had saved on my computer. The quality of his imagery is something that always has drawn me to his blog and I told him, that, in fact, I use it as a teaching tool for new interns in my office to get a visual of the quality I am always striving for in my blog as well. Which brings me to the discussion on just that….
RP: Mark, tell me where you find such beautiful imagery for your blog, what is your process? (It’s one of the things I love the most!)
MDS: It all started with my Mom who used to rip up mags and save beautiful shots. I have archives of magazines that I keep and refer to all the time. I have a catalogue memory of images! To me the right picture says it all, tells the story and I focus my blog on more beautiful imagery and less text as I think that’s what people care about.
Random Shots from Mark’s Blog…too many choices, must check it out for yourself!
Chic People….Two Special Favorites of his whose style he loves!
Lauren Santa Domingo, co-founder online luxe fashion site, Moda Operandi & Vogue contributor
Leandra Medine, Editor-in-Chief/Blogger/Fashion Influencer, Man Repeller…does classics with a modern, edgy twist!
Glamorous Places….again, one of so many
Hotel du Cap Eden Rock….French Riviera
Stylish Things…..countless examples, these are most recent from The Row runway presentation in Paris Gardens
As I mentioned, we chatted for quite awhile and it was delightful and informative for me….for you to know, there are several ways you, too, can enjoy the talents of Mark Sikes.
Coming soon…..
*Ongoing daily is his blog, you must take a look and I assure you will enjoy….MarkDSikes.com
*Rizzoli book coming out next Fall with pre-sale in Summer. (a special note for me, is that the Foreword will be written by filmmaker Nancy Meyers, a mutual friend, it was on her Instagram that I first found Mark as they work on many projects. If you watch the ‘elevator scene’ closely, of her newest movie “The Intern”, you will see Mark!
*Newest ‘celeb’ gig…..design and decor for Reese Witherspoon’s new home in Nashville
*Fabric collaboration with Shumacher; Furniture with Henredon, a Rug collection TBD…..all due out next Fall; a chair collection for Soane is happening right now.
*MDSSTRIPES Collection can be purchased online at mdsstripes.com
I know this was a lot to read but a lot to say about this many-faceted and talented man. My suggestion: pick up something Striped from his collection (I did and got many compliments online!), it’s going to be huge. You can buy it online now and I’m sure at many other locations in the future….good things don’t stay a secret in fashion world for long! Then browse his blog, as I am sure, like me, you will get hooked!
THE END!