Courtesy of Joseph Voci

Sitting in Starbucks waiting to interview fashion designer, Salem Moussallam, was kind of like going on a blind date – until he walked through the door. I knew right away that the good-looking, tanned model sporting a massive Louis Vuitton duffle, chic sunglasses, casual sweats and patent leather loafers was definitely the mystery man I’d been waiting for. And yet, his playful smile and double-cheek kiss made me feel like I’d known him for centuries. Not your average stuck-up, I-don’t-have-time-for-the-masses fashion designer, Salem wants to share his style with the world. His bold and beautiful looks have been seen on stars such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna, but surprisingly, his adventure all started with simply needing an outfit for the semi-formal.

Pony: What’s your story, Salem. How did you initially become interested in designing clothes?

Salem: It started out when I was 14 years old and basically, I came from a moderate family. They weren’t rich so they couldn’t afford designer luxury goods. This was hard for me, especially since I was attending a private high school where everyone was rich everyone had nice clothes. Not to mention I used to be skinnier, so I’d have to tailor my clothing to fit. But it all really started with my semi-formal. My parents couldn’t afford to buy me an expensive suit so my mother, she’s a seamstress, basically helped me design my own suit. I picked the fabrics and designed it exactly how I wanted – it was all black with fire engine red lapels. What’s funny is that people who used to make fun of me for my style or lack of designer flare actually complimented me when I showed up to the semi-formal in my suit. Afterwards, I just built up from there, going to design school and honing my skills.

Pony: Where do you get your inspirations?

Salem: Artists, especially musicians. I mean, the type of clothing I design is not for everybody to wear; at least, not yet. When I see a performer wearing my clothes I think it’s so cool because let’s face it, you’re not going to see someone on the street wearing lime green tights or anything eccentric. Then you take someone like Lady Gaga, she’s worn my pieces and is a huge inspiration for me. Ciara as well and Rhianna; these artists are all big inspirations for me. Designers not too much though, because I feel as though it’s the person who wears the clothes and who get’s talked about in them that’s most important for me as a designer. When you see stuff on the runway, only like 2% of people actually wear the clothes, then fashion houses have to make a commercial collection for the rest of us. Perfect example, Alexander McQueen’s underwater collection, three people wore that, so the house had to make the collection more subdued for everyone else so that it was sellable.

Courtesy of Joseph Voci

Pony: Do you find that the same thing has occurred for you, in that you’ve had to find a balance between the ready-to-wear, sellable, commercialized aspect and the more artsy, creative and unique quality of your collections?

Salem: Yes, definitely. Oh my god the past four years have been a struggle for me. I’ll tell you an experience that was very nerve-wracking for me. When I did my first ever Toronto Fashion Week show, we were in tents working with L’Oreal, it was the worst experience of my entire life. I was almost in tears and suffering from acute stress attacks because I literally felt that my creative talent was being degraded from beautiful art to sellable, mainstream clothing. I was working with the FDCC and they would tell me that my pieces were too crazy, too out there; that no one would want to buy, let alone see, my clothing. So, wanting to be part of fashion week as badly as I did in those days, I had to tone down my entire line. As an artist, I felt that it wasn’t my collection any more, it was something so detached from me.

Pony: If you had to pick someone to dress right now, who would that person be?

Salem: Her name is Little Boots. She is the UK pop version of Lady Gaga, but she plays her own guitar and instruments. She’s cute, bubbly and an eclectic. I mean, if I got to pick the next artist I could work with it would definitely be her.

Pony: Let’s talk about Toronto, as a city that is slowly growing in terms of fashion and style, do you think people in this city are afraid to take risks when it comes to their wardrobe?

Courtesy of Joseph Voci

Salem: Oh, yes, absolutely. I call these people fashion followers, instead of fashion leaders. Let’s take for example me and you sitting in this coffee shop right now, people around us are constantly looking at their surroundings, at other people, watching to see what they are doing, what they are wearing in order to judge whether or not they can pull it off. For the past five years in Toronto, I was made fun of for my style and for the way I dressed. Now, people are asking me to rip their jeans for them. Why? Because they see all these celebrities wearing my ripped jeans; they want to follow. Last year in fact, one of the designers from Urban Behaviour was at my show, and low and behold a year later they had knocked-off two of my skirts and were selling them in store – followers!

Pony: As a fashion designer, do you feel that you would benefit from a stronger presence of the sort of middle-man who isn’t working for a store or getting paid to publicize a brand, that people can go to in order to see what’s new, get ideas and style inspirations from?

Salem: For me yes, because every day I see people who quite frankly, could be wearing H&M and rocking it. Then you see people wearing Dolce & Gabbana and they look horrible. Everyone in Toronto is driven by you know, the Holt Renfrew aesthetic, where they blindly go into Holts and think OK, if I assemble my whole outfit from this store I’ll look good and be in style. That’s not necessarily true because as you can see, the person wearing H&M may actually rock their outfit 100 times better. That’s why I feel that the presence of someone who can set styles regardless of the designer name or the price would be beneficial to people like me, who obviously don’t sell their pieces at Holts.

Courtesy of Joseph Voci

Pony: What’s the must-have for Spring 2010?

Salem: Well for me, it’s these [pointing to his Christian Louboutin studded, patent leather tuxedo shoes]. I bought these in New York, from Louboutin’s first-ever men’s collection; I basically spent my entire spring budget on them so I’m never taking them off – look I’m even wearing them with sweatpants! I love them. But for everyone else, this spring it’s all about colour; one colour is definitely neon! A lot of designers are doing the whole neon-technology thing.

Pony: The profits from your show are going towards your project for Haiti, what are you hoping to do with the funds you raise?

Salem: My project right now is that I’m trying to go to Haiti next month and I’m working with MTV and MuchMusic to get this off the ground. Basically, I wanted to see what happened there and by raising money, I want to make 2-3 thousand pieces of clothing to bring back with me to Haiti. I want to experience what they are experiencing right now in rebuilding the country and by doing what I can to help provide clothing for those who lost everything they had. I feel as though sometimes we don’t do enough to give back to people who aren’t as lucky as we are, so I feel like this is a good thing to get involved in.

Courtesy of HIBEBE

Check out Salem’s upcoming show DIVA this Thursday at Century Room.

– Justine Iaboni