Theatrical fashion has been having a bit of a renaissance of late. Voluminous ruffs, corseted gowns and campy references have likely been filling your news feed, spearheaded by a number of young labels. Polyhedron in Paris, Erik Charlotte in Los Angeles, Miss Claire Sullivan in New York, and Madomorpho in Berlin are all proponents of the charge, brands unashamedly looking camp right in the eye. You might’ve heard of the latter a few years back, when a pair of custom boots made for Doja Cat went viral, along with the label’s other ballet-inspired designs. Since then, the brand, led by designers Emma Postma and Saga Peterson, has only released collections sporadically, preferring a slower approach to the fashion calendar.
Luckily for us, though, Postma and Peterson are back for SS26, and this time they’re pushing the theatricality to the max with their new collection, The Resort. “We like to work from a specific scene or story and pull characters from there, building a small world or scenario as a collection,” Peterson told us of the pair’s design process. For SS26, the pair found inspiration in exaggerated versions of women you might find at a holiday resort or on a cruise ship, or as Postma puts it, “spoiled housewives that are day-drinking in their silk robes by the pool.” Jacquard silk robes, roomy balloon trousers and linen bloomer shorts are paired with tasselled marching boots and Harlequin diamond patterns, while nautical references come via shells, sailor caps and an actual wooden ship’s wheel. Madomorpho takes all those camp references and injects them with some Berlin cool, and that’s the reason Madomorpho is one of the city’s buzziest brands.
In the conversation below, we catch up with Postma and Peterson about their new collection, showing in Berlin, and the worst advice they’ve ever been given for their brand.
Madomorpho SS26Photography Shauna Summers
First of all, when was the brand founded?
Emma Postma: We started while we were both still in uni, which was in 2021. I was in Amsterdam at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute [AMFI] and Saga was in Berlin at Weissensee. We got a studio together in 2022, where we slowly started building Madomorpho together.
The brand has quite a specific aesthetic – how would you describe it, and where did it come from?
Saga Peterson: We like to work from a specific scene or story and pull characters from there, building a small world or scenario as a collection. We are both very attracted to quite literal translations of characters and events, but coated with a strong essence of our touch. I would say our style is very theatrical, playful and campy, with hints of hedonism and sass.
And what was the inspiration behind the SS26 collection?
Emma Postma: The idea of this collection started off with wanting to take some of our previous collection characters on a summer holiday. We see this collection as all the types of people you’d run into at a campy resort or cruise ship. Spoiled housewives that are day-drinking in their silk robes by the pool, the cruise managers, a captain, the captain’s mistress, sailor girls and so on.
Our style is very theatrical, playful and campy, with hints of hedonism and sass – Saga Peterson
What’s the most challenging aspect of running Madomorpho?
Emma Postma: You have to be able to do everything yourself, especially in these first few years, and they take so much time. We both work six days a week, from 10am to 10pm, we’re never not thinking and working, and yet still there’s always so much left to be done. I think it is really hard financially to build a brand. You need a lot of resources and help to be able to grow – or be extremely lucky – but, even so, you need to be able to know what to do with this luck. It’s hard. I think we both learned so much, especially in the last year, and it gave us more confidence about knowing where we can take our brand.
What’s your favourite thing about the community of customers that you’ve built in Berlin?
Saga Peterson: We love it when people pick up their order in person and we are able to connect with people in real life. It really warms our hearts when people are so happy with something that we made with our own hands. We also had our first BFW event in July, and it was so amazing to see how many people came to support us and hear how inspired they are by us for their own creative journeys!
Let your predictive text finish this sentence: I am a designer because I love___ but people don’t know that I am actually___.
Saga Peterson: We are designers because we love endless sewing but people don’t know that we actually simultaneously watch the Real Housewives all day long learning all their taglines.
Madomorpho SS26Photography Shauna Summers
Which celebrity are you dying to dress and why?
Emma Postma: I think on the top of our lists are Chappell Roan and Doechii. They are both just so unique in their style, and really stand out in the scene right now. Our dream is to make a full custom look for them for a red carpet. Can’t wait for that to happen!
Any secret styling hacks?
Saga Peterson: Always ask yourself: How about a hat?
What do you reckon you’re most likely to get cancelled for?
Emma Postma: Our future show starting five hours later than planned. Too much makeup, too many hats, too many cocktails.
What’s a fashion holy grail you’re yet to get your hands on?
Emma Postma: A good bikini! In my opinion, it doesn’t exist. They never tick off all the boxes: sexy, unique, quality, comfort and fit.
Money is no object – where are you staging your next catwalk show?
Saga Peterson: We have a dream of hosting a catwalk collection in an abandoned vintage airport with huge plane hangars, silver tin aeroplanes and the luggage belts as runways. It would have it all – tray food, champagne, sexy captains and air hostesses, the smell of tax-free perfume and the excitement of going on the trip of your life.
George Michael’s ‘Too Funky’ was the inspiration for our first collection video and we still always put it on when we want to get in the mood – Emma Postma
What’s the soundtrack for your next show?
Emma Postma: George Michael’s “Too Funky”. The music video was the inspiration for our first collection video and we still always put it on when we want to get in the mood for the collection.
If you could only wear one designer for the rest of your life, who would it be?
Saga Peterson: I do love some Alaïa, but I will have to say our own brand, of course.
Emma Postma: Our own brand!
You encounter a hostile alien race and fashion is their only mechanism for communication. What would you make them to inspire them to spare you and the rest of the human race?
Emma Postma: I would make them really long pants, so that they would trip every time they tried to come for us, and that is how we beat them. The long-pant death.
Saga Peterson: You could also always give them a grand hat and a huge mirror. We do believe your inner diva comes out with the right hat and we would possibly be spared for showing them this life-changing advice.
Madomorpho’s SS26 collection The Resort is available now at madomorpho.com.
