Snog the Telfar, marry the Dior Saddle, avoid the Fendi Baguette: Welcome to Magda’s fashion love affair
Welcome to CHEW THE FAT WITH…, our long-form profile series where we invite you to sit down with fashion’s next generation as they dig deep into their memories. To chew some fat - defined as an informal conversation brimming with small talk - we encourage you to pull up a chair and take a big old bite as we spill the tea on the life and work of the industry’s need-to-knows. Just remember to mop up after yourself.
“I was dreading this question,” confesses MAGDA, Instagram’s latest fashionable phenomenon, over the phone. It’s another irritatingly muggy Wednesday evening when I call her and ask how a typical Magda day goes. With her Instagram feed a never ending stream of precisely polished editorial worthy fit pics, you would think it’s a constant mooch about town in NAKED WOLFE, NODALETO or D’ACCORI clompers. Accumulating over 50,000 followers, it’s a cacophony of tantalisingly dreamy outfits for a girl’s night out mood board. On the contrary, Magda laments about her current lack of a social life, one of many reasons as to why she’s calling it quits with her 9-5 ever-so-chic fashion job. “Come back and ask me that question in a few months and hopefully I’ll have a better answer,” she gushes.
As cliché as I’m about to sound, I couldn’t help but think about that scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Nigel turns to Andy and says “let me know when your entire life goes up in smoke, that means it's time for a promotion.” These days, fashion indeed pushes the rise and grind rhetoric onto us: the 9-5 becomes an 8-6 and then the 8-6 becomes finishing off work in bed with a Dr Jart sheet mask on. “I think if anything I need an escape from fashion. It’s consumed my life now 24/7 - I think when you turn something you love into a career you sometimes need to escape from it,” which is why Magda’s pursuing well… @_magda__ as a full time career now.
There’s no doubt from the minute you scroll through her page that she’s in the midst of a very doting love affair with clothes. Legs sporting a fairy pink pair of ASHLEY WILLIAMS tights teamed with cerise kitten heeled mules dangling out of a car window, fuchsia corsets with House of Sunny leopard print trousers and a healthy amount of MARINE SERRE are just some of the outfits Magda wants us to feast upon.
Phoebe Shardlow: How would you describe the Magda aesthetic?
Magda: D.I.Y. editorial.
Magda enjoys being somewhat ambiguous with her online persona but she thinks it’s time to start slowly shedding her skin. The initially largely faceless account was not an artistic decision but instead the result of not having the time to be personal online, “I’d never get off my phone.” Not to mention that taking photographs while concentrating so intently on a pose does not always do wonders for perfecting that sultry smize. But now her faceless form contorting in the designers du jour has become a signature Magda motif. “The stuff I do to take my pictures really makes me question myself sometimes, like ‘how am I doing this?’ The other day I was in a car park. I always go to the very top (Waitrose is my best friend) and take loads of pictures in these outfits. I’ve nearly killed myself doing this so many times, just hanging off ledges taking photos.”
PS: What’s your earliest fashion memory?
M: I think I was around eight when I went to Canada with my family and CROCS had just come out, in Canada they were huge before they even hit the U.K. My parents bought me this purple shimmery pair with all the jibbitz on which you couldn’t get in the U.K. at all. I remember coming back from Canada and going into school with my Crocs and everyone was like ‘what the hell are those on your feet!’ And then suddenly a month later everyone was wearing Crocs and I was so smug I felt like I’d started the trend. I genuinely thought I was the first person to wear Crocs.
PS: Ok snog, marry, avoid… TELFAR bag, FENDI Baguette and DIOR Saddle bag?
M: Snog the Telfar Bag, marry the Dior Saddle Bag and avoid the Fendi Baguette!
Magda talks about designers how I talk about boys, each one she adores is a different type of romance. She was a punky seven-year-old drawing skulls on everything when she became infatuated with ALEXANDER MCQUEEN. Nowadays she’s head over heels for MOLLY GODDARD, the London designer renowned for her dessert-like tulle concoctions - “I wanna get married in one of those dresses. I’ve always said that it will happen, it has to!” Magda coos. She’s having another affair too with Marcelo Gaia’s MIRROR PALAIS, the ‘90s It girl inspired New York label popping up on the likes of BELLA HADID and DUA LIPA, “actually I bet they could make a good wedding dress too,” she laughs.
PS: What was the first designer piece you ever bought and what was the story behind that?
M: The designer who really introduced me to fashion was Alexander McQueen, I will always have a lifelong love for him. I taught myself how to draw skulls and thought that I was the first person ever to do this and then I found out about McQueen! I became completely obsessed. For my twelfth or thirteenth birthday I really wanted a McQueen piece, my mum was like “that’s so expensive,” but I really wanted a scarf or anything with skulls on it; so she took me to Bicester Village (the designer shopping outlet)… We went to the store but it was still so expensive. That was the first designer piece I ever wanted but my mum did compromise and get me a McQ black t-shirt with a lightning bolt going around it. I loved it because anything with his name on I wanted. Can you believe I still don’t even have a McQueen scarf now?
PS: What three fashion designers would you host for dinner?
M: JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, Alexander McQueen and ZANDRA RHODES. Let’s cook them a nice pasta.
PS: Have you ever sold a designer piece and really regretted it?
M: There is one item that makes me deeply upset. I found a vintage grey “J’adore Dior” tank top in a shop for £70…
PS: That’s so cheap for one of those!
M: It was in perfect condition, such a nice top and my first ever Dior piece. Then I started buying too many clothes at the beginning of lockdown and decided I had to sell some of my old stuff. I thought about what would sell the quickest and decided it was this top. WHY DID I DO THAT? I’m so annoyed with myself.
Magda can’t even recall when, why or where she started up her Instagram account. I asked her if she’s ever had a ‘pinch me’ fashion moment, of course there was her first fashion week which she was honoured to attend, but she wistfully tells me she thinks it’s still to come. Thinking about the future of @_magda__ she beams, “I can finally say yes to anything I want.”
PS: What do you think is an overrated fashion trend?
M: I don’t even have to think about this one - VELVET FOR WINTER! I can’t stand it, I used to write fashion articles and every Christmas it was “you’ve got to write about velvet.” Velvet for New Year? It’s like florals for spring!
PS: Who are some underrated designers we should be talking about right now?
M: CELINE KWAN, MARIA ANTONINA KOPYTKO and STEPHANIE UHART.
PS: What’s a fashion faux pas you’ve made over the years?
M: I went to this party once and it was animal themed, I think I was about sixteen and just wanted to look good for boys. I was in a big grunge phase at the time, so I bought this pair of tights and just ripped them so much that I was barely wearing tights. I wore this leopard print bodysuit with a pair of American flag shorts. They must have been from Forever 21. Then I had this clashing print headband which was huge and my hair was puffed up super frizzy and to top it all off I had this ugly green bomber jacket. I mean, can you get anymore 2010?
PS: And finally, TOM FORD for Gucci or ALESSANDRO MICHELE for Gucci?
M: While Alessandro is more my style on Instagram... in terms of brilliance, it’s Tom Ford. If I were to wear anything for the rest of my life maybe it would be Tom Ford’s Gucci?
Photography and film by ANNA ROSOVA
Styled by and featuring MAGDA
Hair by NAKASHIMO SHINNOSUKE
Make-up by DAVID GILLERS
Produced by JEFFREY THOMSON
Editors MICHAEL PIETRZYK and JEFFREY THOMSON
Music by NEY LIQA
Fashion assistance by OLIVIA PATRICK
Special thanks to ROSIE KOPMAN at THE BLOOM
Magda wears
LOOK 1 Pink tulle dress by SORCHA O'RAGHALLAIGH; shoes by NODALETO
LOOK 2 Multi-coloured inflatable hat, gloves and top, and sculpted purple skirt, all by CELINE KWAN
LOOK 3 Portrait of dog skirt by GRETE HENRIETTE
LOOK 4 Chiffon dress and lip mask jewellery piece, all by JOHANNES WARNKE
LOOK 5 Red, mint and purple puff sleeve dress by AMBER HEALEY; Shoes by D’ACCORI
LOOK 6 Beaded wig by SORCHA O'RAGHALLAIGH; Green top by HOUSE OF SHELDONHALL from MY WARDROBE HQ