According to David Koma, his menswear line is a “selfish” project. “I wanted to have new experiences and to have something to enjoy on top of working hard,” he tells me. “It’s the first time I’ve had myself in mind as a customer, so there have been nice surprises along the way.”
Even though the London-based designer has been designing menswear for three seasons now, he’s only just felt ready to put on a menswear show — and what appears to have been the perfect opportunity presented itself. Koma is showing as part of Berlin Fashion Week (BFW) organiser Fashion Council Germany’s primary talent scheme, Berlin Contemporary, which offers a €25,000 grant to put towards a show. The invitation to show in Berlin came a few months ago through one of his PR agencies, Reference Studios, which is based in Berlin with offices in Milan and Paris, and has been working with Fashion Council Germany to invite buzzy designers to the schedule as part of its showcase, Intervention. GmbH and Ottolinger are also taking part.
“I’ve always loved Berlin, it’s one of my favourite cities; and somehow, there are a lot of Berliners on my team across the projects I do, so I always had the idea of doing something in the city,” Koma explains.
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Though the brand declined to share its annual revenue and revenue growth, Germany is one of its top-performing markets, accounting for 21 per cent of wholesale sales largely driven by Mytheresa. The 15-year-old company has a minority investor and is actively seeking a new round of investment to scale both the womenswear and menswear lines.
Georgia-born Koma launched his eponymous line in London after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2009. The brand — which is known for bodycon eveningwear with couture-like embroidery — rose to fame quickly as celebrities including Beyoncé, Cheryl Tweedy, Rihanna and Lady Gaga became early adopters. Koma was appointed creative director of Italian label Blumarine in July 2024, and has so far received positive reviews for his reinterpretation of the house’s playful heritage. It’s not his first rodeo: Koma was creative director of Mugler from 2013 to 2017, where he helped to put the brand’s ready-to-wear back on the map.
The first David Koma menswear collection dropped on Davidkoma.com a couple of months ago for Spring/Summer 2025. And even though it’s too early to tell how it’s performing, the collection has received positive reviews, with Usher wearing a custom piece during his London tour earlier this year. Aside from Koma, the menswear team is made up of just two others, though teams across additional departments are involved in supporting the project, too.
The SS26 collection is titled ‘I Love David’, a nod to the personal nature of the project, and is inspired by Michelangelo’s Italian Renaissance marble sculpture, British football icon David Beckham and Koma himself. “I wanted to have fun and to explore different masculinities and identities,” Koma says. There’s a reimagination of Beckham’s one-of-one Adidas “I Kiss Football” sweatshirt; draping and crochet aprons inspired by Michelangelo; and Koma’s classic embroidery in the shape of hibiscus flowers.
“David loves Berlin, and everybody loves David,” says Mumi Haiati, CEO of Reference Studios. “His menswear target audience is the sexy, hedonistic club kid. Besides, Berlin is the gate to the East, which renders it the perfect place for David’s Georgian heritage. Berlin is the place for new things, it carries on the creative energy that has defined London, so there couldn’t be a better choice for his debut menswear show.”
The first two menswear collections will be exclusively direct-to-consumer (DTC) — a bid to build a strong brand identity and customer base — but the brand will look to add wholesale partners from its SS26 menswear collection and beyond. For its womenswear business, wholesale makes up 86 per cent of sales, with DTC accounting for the remaining 14 per cent. The brand has 91 stockists worldwide including Mytheresa, Revolve-owned Fwrd, Al Othman (in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and London), The Webster, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.
Koma acknowledges that adding menswear on top of the Koma and Blumarine womenswear lines is a lot to handle. Throughout the creative director reshuffle of the past couple of years, there have been many discussions regarding the difficulties designers face when juggling multiple brands. For independent designers who take over established houses, there’s also the question of differentiating the two sufficiently — though critics would say Koma seems to have handled this well, with a lighter touch at Blumarine than his more glamorous Koma designs.
“Since my student years, I’ve gotten quite good with a high-intensity workflow. There’s never an issue with the creative side or ideas; it’s about handling the teams that support all those projects. With experience and knowing so many talented people on my team, I’ve had the opportunity to have an organic flow and manage the timing,” he says.
After his Berlin show, the designer is planning celebrations in London for his brand’s 15-year anniversary. And of course he will be busy working on the Blumarine collection, which is set to show in Milan in September. Koma emphasises: “I’m extremely busy with a lot of different projects, so if I’m going to add menswear to the load, it’s crucial for me to enjoy it. Otherwise, it won’t work.”
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‘I’m flexing new muscles’: David Koma on introducing menswear
