ODDA has proved itself to be the indie magazine that could. Having celebrated a decade in print last year, the cult publication recently released a special issue—its first to feature only menswear. Robert Pattinson appeared on the cover, his arm thrown over his tilted head, the better to reveal a manicure that featured a depiction of the actor’s handsome Twilight-era face, a nail job that caused quite a stir. Inside, Pattinson was featured in dialogue with his friend, the Dior Men creative director Kim Jones. This issue follows previous ones with the likes of Gaetano Pesce and Jonathan Anderson.
What makes ODDA a playground for creativity and collaboration? Maybe it starts with the title. An ode is a celebration of something or someone, and even after all these years ODDA’s founder David Martin is keen on searching out the wonder that exists in the fashion industry and sharing it; of showing the private (or more relaxed) faces of public people.
The desire to open doors in a welcoming way and to get beyond the surface of things relates to Martin’s own story. Born in Madrid at a time when fashion there hewed fairly conservative, his industry initiation came via the release of “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, which introduced him to the work of Alexander McQueen, which in turn inspired him to start sketching. Martin sent his drawings to Nicola Formichetti who suggested he enroll at Central Saint Martins. After starting the fashion design course the young Spaniard discovered he wasn’t as interested in design as the larger industry and the people in it. And so he started at ground zero, circa 2009, documenting his discoveries on a blog.
“At the very beginning it was pure discovery,” he says of his blog’s early days. “I was very passionate about photography. I was absolutely fascinated by the fashion at the time, which was very architectural. I started to explore all of these things that I had no idea existed; and honestly, if you don’t work in fashion, you have no idea. It is pretty complicated to know how this industry works because everything is so secretive.”
ODDA is an antidote to that kind of exclusionary thinking. The vibe is happy, horny, inclusive, and celebratory. What is an odist if not a fanboy or girl? While Martin seems to be everywhere all the time, he remains a private person. You’ll discover more about him by flipping through his playful magazine than doing a Google search, and that’s by design. Martin wants ODDA to act both as a mirror (you see yourself and your interest in its pages) and a guide.
Below we follow his thoughts on the state of menswear, the importance of print, and the benefits of collegiality.
Vogue: Why does print still matter?
David Martin: The fact is that there are more magazines, more magazines, more magazines, every single season and year. The new generations, as well as the talents, as well as people in the creative industries…it doesn’t matter how big they are on social media, they really want to be part of a magazine.
The fashion industry was very much obsessed with the development of digital and then COVID happened. During [lockdown] we understood the value of physical things, books, or whatever that you can see, you can touch, you can collect. I think digital at that time suffered a reality check. For me, the digital is something that you consume at that time, in that moment, in that second, but then has no value. If you go to your phone, for example, how many pictures do you have? I have—I’m not exaggerating—more than 200,000 images on my iPhone. I will never find what I want there unless I’m looking for something very specific, but in a magazine or in a book you know what to look for, where, how, what season, what year, what moments. I think it has a completely different emotion behind it. But I think both of them complement each other and it’s very important to have [both].
How has your view of fashion changed since ODDA’s launch?
Fashion today is not just that dress or that bag that you want to sell. Brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior are starting to sell a full lifestyle. You are not just wearing a coat, you are wearing Vuitton, and when you arrive at your house the carpet you have is LV as well and maybe your kitchen is all Dior Maison. Everything has changed so much; again, I think during COVID we understood the value of things that we had thought before were part of the past. [All digital] is not something that the new generations even want. If you are in touch with people who are 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, they are wearing wired earphones and they love to write letters and they read books on the tube. Everything has a moment in life, and I truly believe that everyone that has been growing up with phones in the digital era is more attached to vintage.
Who does ODDA speak to?
Connecting to people is the most important thing and that has driven me to do the magazine. I’m still here after so many years, because I love what I do. I think fashion is becoming more open and more welcoming. That’s what I stand for with the magazine. I think that we are speaking to everyone that wants to think about the future, people who respect life, respect each other, and are looking to make a mark in this world.
I’m not looking to impose specific meaning, but leave it open to find whatever you want to take [from it] when you have the magazine in your hands. That starts from the name, it is the same in every language. My idea is when people get the magazine and they open it they are like, “Oh wow! This represents me. This page is me, this look is me, this bag is me, this interview is me, this artist is talking to me….” After 12 years, you know what you’re going to find in the magazine, but at the start I wanted people to discover [what it’s about] by themselves, not having the title telling you if it’s luxury or not.
Since the very beginning, my biggest obsession has been to talk to men and women equally, and I always try to make the magazine welcome to every single person in this world that wants to have a great time, discover fashion, feel included, and discover something that they didn’t know until then. But we always want to pay homage to heritage. I have always been working to have the past, present, and future represented within the pages of the magazine. The past is so important to always keep in mind; it’s good to live in the present, and it’s also very good to think what’s coming after and what the future is going to be, being conscious, growing, changing.
Talk about ODDA’s queer perspective. Why is there more openness about the subject in general in fashion?
I think there are more queer people within the industry, also there are many more editors than before and I feel we now have a freedom of speech that maybe was not present before. In my case, I have to say I’m a gay man and when I was growing in Madrid, which is a very open-minded city—I’m not saying Spain, I’m saying Madrid—I never, never, ever in my life felt any kind of pressure or was questioned or insulted for being who I am. But I know what I couldn’t find and I know what I couldn’t see, and I know what I would have loved to have seen when I was [a teenager] and could not find. In my first years in this industry I was fascinated by Alasdair McLellan’s work. I think at that time he was doing a very beautiful job representing the queer, LGBTQIA community, but it was still in a way a small taboo. Fashion is just fashion, but out in the world it was very eccentric. And I think that has changed now.
I was still not finding what I wanted to see. In 2021 we did a project with Jonathan Anderson to celebrate [the idea] that you accept yourself the way you are. For me, that was creating a series of limited covers and posters celebrating the penis keyring that they have. [I felt] the model had to be straight. Why a straight model? Because if we want the queer and LBTQIA community to grow we need to make the straight community support [us]. From there we started to explore body inclusion and freedom in nudity, especially nudity with men.
What are you looking forward to this menswear season?
Men’s has always been too classic and has been always taken for granted, and I truly believe it’s the right time to explode. I think the fashion industry needs to push for menswear to be designed by way more different demographics, communities, and also by women. It’s very important that menswear is designed for Black communities and other kinds of cultures, not just European or American ones.
There’s been a lot of excitement about menswear recently. Do you think things have actually changed on the street?
The other day I was working in Soho in London and 80% of the people with designer bags or brands like Stussy, TwoJeys, or Palace were men. I didn’t see a single woman with bags in those streets. And I saw that 80% of young kids were buying fashion. That’s something that I don’t remember happening before, and the reason I decided to launch ODDA Korea.
Community has helped so much for masculinity to be more open. I am so happy to see, for example, 18, 19, 20 years old straight guys feel comfortable wearing nail polish, wearing skirts, wearing whatever the fuck they want, and the are happy with who they are, they know who they are, and they accept others as they are. I think [this is a kind of] evolution of how the queer community has been fighting for so long to be understood. We are the way we are, but we are not pretending that you are the same way. We are who we are and we are all human beings.
I think that men today…want to feel comfortable and they want to represent themselves. I truly believe that fashion has switched a lot [in the sense that] you feel identified with what you buy. Menswear has grown so much because it’s more nourished than it was before. I think men today want to dress in a more elevated way that is not just a suit or a sweater or a pair of trousers. Now, from the sneakers to the jewelry, everything [expresses] who you are, [whereas] I think before it was more like I just wear this because I’m a man, and now men dress to express the way they feel. I think people now identify themselves way more with what they wear and that is what has changed a lot in the last three to four. It’s starting to be like you wear what the fuck you want to wear because this is who you are and [brands] are giving you every single thing you need for you to wear and dress the way you want.
Many in the new generations prefer to have less money but a quality way of life. They prefer to have a job that is less powerful but live happier; it’s the same in fashion. It’s changing so fast and people don’t understand [that the kids are saying] ‘I don’t want to work for you if you’re a bitch. I prefer to work with others and maybe I have less jobs but I’m happy.’ That is one of the biggest changes that I see in the industry and I’m so excited for it. And I think it s so beautiful to see people more connected to what makes them happy than what makes them rich or powerful; they just want to be themselves and be true to their feelings and what they stand for. [The industry] takes so long to accept others or give validation to others.
What makes a good designer, in your opinion?
I think you need to be very down-to-earth to understand what other people need, and for people to feel connected to you. What fascinates me with fashion is when a designer is humble enough to be a normal person; when he remembers what he wanted to see, remembers that this industry is not made for fashion people, that this industry is made for normal people to understand what you are doing. I think we forget we are doing this work to sell clothes, and that they are bought by real people and not just for fashion people.
We have so many amazing designers at the moment that are really connected with reality, and I’m going to say that one of the most important names in the fashion industry has been and will always be Virgil [Abloh]. I think he was one of the first designers to really connect with everyone on a different level. He changed the game forever because he made us all see that he might not be a designer, but he knew what people wanted to wear, what people wanted to see. He did a lot of things that people weren’t taking into consideration before.
What are your thoughts on Pharrell joining Louis Vuitton?
I think it is the continuation of what Virgil created…and a continuation of what the Louis Vuitton brand is becoming, which is a lifestyle brand. Louis Vuitton is opening their first hotel [Editor’s Note: This is yet to be confirmed by the company], they are creating dreams, they are creating a way of living. You wear Louis Vuitton…because you feel you are part of that history. In the case of Pharrell, he’s been consuming fashion since forever; he knows what he likes to wear, so the thing that he’s wearing, why can’t he design it? I think it makes sense; also with magazines, you don’t need to be in fashion school to understand what looks great or not. You don’t need to go to fashion school to be a stylist. You don’t need to do many things for you to have an eye and have an opinion and have taste. And I think that it is something that the fashion industry needs to start to understand, you cannot make a creative, you are one or you are not.
How would you like to see the industry change?
I think fashion makes people talk and makes people feel and makes people change their opinions. But the problem is that fashion will always be a superficial industry for the people that are not part of it. The industry has to change so many behaviors and attitudes towards others. For example, when you are at Fashion Week, people that you have seen for, I don’t know, 10 years in a row, they still don’t say hi to you. That is a perfect reflection of why people see fashion as something superficial. [We need to] to start to be an industry that is welcoming. It’s important that we start to have more healthy relationships and support within the industry for making bigger statements within culture or the world. We need to start to be nicer to each other.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
