From Antwerp to Milan, the essentialist style of Damir Doma

The Antwerp aesthetic, canonically traced back to the famous "six," but also to designers such as Raf Simons and Haider Ackermann, has had an enormous impact on contemporary fashion and on many new generation creatives. Among them, Croatian designer Damir Doma is certainly a good example of the metabolisation and reinvention of this stylistic current. Doma first trained in the field, working in his mother's atelier in Germany, and then studying at ESMOD in Berlin. At this point he moved to Antwerp and began working for Ann Demeulemeester, one of the "Antwerp Six," and then for Raf Simons, fully entering the aesthetic universe that would strongly shape his style. It was in 2006 when he launched his eponymous brand, debuting in 2007 with his first menswear collection in Paris. A few years later, in 2015, Doma moved to Milan to get as close as possible to Italian suppliers and manufacturers; but this moment also marked an equalization between his men's line and his women's line, which would begin to share, in an increasingly evident way, aesthetic codes.

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The worlds of Simons and Demeulemeester have profoundly influenced Doma, who therefore proposes collections that play on monochromatic elements ranging from blacks, whites and reds on lean and layered silhouettes, often asymmetrical, evoking precisely the style of the Belgian designer, but also oversized and enveloping volumes in a uniform style derived from Simons. Obviously, all of this is translated into a personal style that distinguishes him and makes him highly appreciated by a substantial fan base, so much so that he has been able to occupy stores such as Dover Street Market, L'Eclaireur, Joyce, and Le Bon Marché, as well as opening his own flagship boutique in Paris. All this is also joined by reinterpretations of cultural and traditional references from Balkan Europe, his homeland, which are often integrated into his creations, without ever exaggerating into the folkloric, like barely hinted tributes.

In 2017, Damir Doma collaborated with the Italian sportswear brand Lotto for a capsule collection presented at the SS18 show with the aim, rather typical for these operations, of expanding his audience and, at the same time, for the range of his ready-to-wear products to also include proposals more explicitly inspired by the world of sport. Despite the designer's success and public approval, the men's SS19 season was the last one presented by the creative in his most recent times, those of Covid, creating a hiatus interrupted only by the launch of his new project in 2021, called Diomene. «'Dio mene' in my mother tongue means part of me and as a brand it does not represent the end of the Damir Doma brand, but a sort of rebirth,» said the designer at the presentation of the first collection. A rebirth that follows, therefore, the realisation of a necessary change in the fashion world that needs new rhythms and greater responsibility. And indeed, Doma envisages much slower launches, no longer subject to seasonal frenzy and based on evergreen garments made in a more ethical manner. If the brand's Instagram profile of Damir Doma has now become a sort of moodboard, that of the new Diomene is the perfect showcase for a return to purity and essentials that will hopefully replicate the success of past years for a designer capable of grasping the needs of contemporary society.