UMENCO: And that re-set will become such a big theme in fashion, an industry fuelled by pace and change – during our last conversation you were pushing the limits: you have an incredible drive, you were working nonstop, at the same time transitioning into a new city, while overseeing a new design team. How are you handling this new slowness?
Ben Mazey: I’m enjoying the fact that I’m giving myself the opportunity to be creative. I’m not at all a doomsayer about things, but everyone is acutely aware that the [fashion] systems weren’t working that well. I believe that once we come out of this, whatever that looks like, there will be a lot of new opportunities in the industry. Ideally, we’ll be in a place with a lot more integrity, which sounds idealistic, but I think we might have a less globalised landscape on lots of levels.

UMENCO: The world has changed so radically, so dramatically, since we last connected with you. You were based in Shanghai working as the creative director of streetwear label, D’ZZIT, and then a holiday to Australia coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese borders closed, and you are now locked down in your Melbourne apartment. How are you keeping up spirits and staying motivated right now?
Ben Mazey: I’m still working remotely but I’m in the process of detaching from my China role, it’s too difficult with the shut downs. On a personal level, it was always my plan to return to Australia. Shanghai is the most awesome city but it always felt like a professional tour of duty, a stepping stone between living in Europe and being based back here in Australia. So I made a conscious decision to turn this time into a sort of artist’s residency, it’s like a weird creative retreat, and that idea has been really cathartic. I’ve been treating my days inside like a job, keeping busy painting and making ceramics and the whole process has kept me occupied and sane. To be honest, I feel like I’m getting the re-set that I’ve been craving for quite a while.

UMENCO: Do you imagine that we will dress differently moving forward? Will this create a shift in terms of how studios design?
Ben Mazey: I imagine so. The whole activewear market, which has boomed in recent years, can only get bigger, hand in hand with the idea of luxurious loungewear, in the 70s sense, along with chic pyjama dressing. For instance, I just bought a pair of fur-lined Birkenstocks, they are so comforting, like an outside slipper. Of course, you’ll still have aggressive streetwear, sharper fashion, but there will be a real place for fashion that is calming, cocooning, soft luxuries.

UMENCO: Vogue Italia’s deputy editor in chief Sara Maino recently stated that fashion must value quality over quantity now. What are your thoughts on that?
Ben Mazey: A lot of brands are skipping the resort season this year, there’s a call to have that re-set – sell summer clothes in summer and winter clothes in winter, and not look to discount massive collections. I think optimistic realism is the only way forward. Things are changing so much, we just don’t know how this will play out. For one thing, luxury is going to be all about freedom of movement, and I think a consumer sentiment will come out of this that will be about buying with integrity. When I think about what I have bought online in recent days, it’s about the brands I want to support and see thrive. Personally, I have much more of a social conscious right now with what I’m purchasing online. We all know we can’t go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working, but we’re all desperate to go back to a version of normal, and that’s why I think there will be interesting opportunities coming out of this.

UMENCO: How does your own creative vision fit into that idea?
Ben Mazey: I’m really conscious of the luxurious position I am in to be able to use this time to recharge and rethink. I want to come out of this with a mindset that puts me in a really robust position. I’m letting the latent stress wash off. I feel very optimistic and excited about what we can do in fashion moving forward, and I am conscious of being strong and informed in order to be part of that. I’m not sure what that all looks like but I feel if you can be malleable and nimble right now you’ll have a better platform to build on moving forward. Thinking creatively is key.

UMENCO: So let’s go back to what ignited your own creativity early on. You spent your childhood growing up in one of New Zealand’s National parks, an unlikely foray into the world of high fashion – do you think the isolation pushed your inventiveness?
Ben Mazey: Absolutely, it forced me to be creative within my own head. I often feel so thankful that I didn’t grow up in a big city – the park was so beautiful, my dad was the ranger, I didn’t have one of those backgrounds where mum was a seamstress and I was smitten by her work. But there was always this interest in design, it was intrinsic. I was drawn to fashion but to be perfectly honest I suppressed that side of myself when I was in my teens.

UMENCO: When you first allowed yourself to start exploring the idea of becoming a designer, what were your goals?
Ben Mazey: It was only when I was in my early twenties, and living in Melbourne independently, that I was truly honest with myself about what I wanted to do. I began studying fashion at RMIT and when I started asking the right questions about my style and my work, I started getting the right answers in a way that felt like a very natural fit. I wasn’t even cognizant of being hyper ambitious, I was just excited by the idea of exploring [the industry]. I was determined to get an internship in London. At the time, there were two designers whose work I really liked, Richard Nicoll and Preen, so I put together a folio and contacted them both. Rich and I hit it off over emails, I began working with him and just kept delaying my return to Australia, I loved London.

UMENCO: You described your role with Richard Nicholl as being like a jack of all trades, you had to adapt and learn on the job?
Ben Mazey: I remember when we were in Paris selling his collection, it was such a small company, but the business side of it was exciting, it certainly felt like falling in love professionally. I worked with Rich as his kind of right-hand man across everything, which was wonderful because the work encompassed design, staging full-scale shows and selling to Net-a-Porter. I was getting visibility in absolutely all parts of the process. Fast forward five years, and I moved to Kenzo – I knew the designers Carol [Lim] and Humberto [Leon, Kenzo’s creative directors from 2012 to 2019], they had just been appointed and were building a team in Paris, so I emailed them and that eventually led to me working with them from Paris. It was an amazing role, I became an extension of them as creative directors – they continued to be based in New York so I was their eyes and ears and voice and the bridge back. It was definitely a baptism by fire at the start.

UMENCO: What do you think it was about your aesthetic that appealed to Kenzo?
Ben Mazey: I think they trusted my taste. I proved myself very quickly, too. Even if you’re working on your own brand, at the end of the day, you’ve got a customer you need to respond to. You have to be a bit like a chameleon in the job and absorb your surroundings and then actually make decisions creatively for the greater good of the brand. It’s never about ego.

UMENCO: You showed a maturity in your viewpoint from such an early age – what do you think it was about the role and the company culture that allowed you to blossom?
Ben Mazey: It all comes down to trust. By the end of it, I was directing 35 designers, and to be honest, you end up just having to make decisions for the right reasons. And I think it’s at that point, a brand should allow you to go left a little bit, I think that’s where the success lies – if you think about fashion’s success stories at the moment, like Gucci for example, you know the brand’s teams are all on the same page. You can tell that the company’s CEO trusts Alessandro [Michele, the creative director] and that trickles down to the merchandising team and so on. Of course, there will always be friction and challenges along the way, but if everyone is taking the ship in the same direction then the energy is being used in such a positive way. It comes down to trust.

UMENCO: There’s also a lot to be said for a strong work ethic – the way you pursued the brands that you liked and then worked tirelessly for them, that focus really boosted your career.
Ben Mazey: At the end of the day, I’m good at what I do from a design point of view, and I’m quite happy to get my hands dirty. I think if you approach your work with the right attitude, that will take you far. I’m also very confident creatively – sometimes that can mean being confident enough to know that if you’re work is criticised for whatever reason, that it’s not going to cripple your self-worth creatively.

UMENCO: So you had been living in Paris for seven years, how were you feeling, had your goals shifted
Ben Mazey: I had plateaued within Kenzo and on a personal note was also ready to transition home, back to an Antipodean lifestyle. I made the choice to leave Kenzo but they negotiated to keep me on as a consultant over a couple of categories. I then fortuitously went to Shanghai to see friends, I was curious about China and ended up having a few meetings there with various brands. I had this idea that I could be based in Australia and consult. The brand I was in negotiations with insisted that I work in the role full time. That wasn’t my plan, but I loved the city and the challenge. The job [as creative director for D’ZZIT] really rewired my brain. Sure, you had to be thick-skinned and at times it was complicated but always super fascinating. I worked with a team of designers, teaching them how to build a collection.

UMENCO: So now, when you look back, what do you think has been the key to your career success?
Ben Mazey: The fact that I went knocking on doors that I wanted to have opened for me. Also the element that if [that door didn’t open] immediately I kept on knocking – or picked the lock, so to speak, but in a very polite way. Then, once you get that break, don’t take anything for granted, don’t have a sense of entitlement. That has always been the biggest lesson and will remain so moving forward.