16 April 2025 |
David Siwicki
A sweet gent from Virginia has quietly become a leading force for zeitgeisty designers on the global fashion scene. Say bonjour to David Siwicki.
David Siwicki hops on a Zoom from his sunny Paris office two days before Christmas. It’s around 4 p.m., and he is seemingly the only person there, chasing down UPS deliveries that have gone AWOL. It’s worth noting that David Siwicki’s public relations agency is called…David Siwicki Communication. Which means he’s the founder and the boss. Since it’s his name on the door, he’s intent on seeing things through, but understandably he’s end-of-year-spent. “Thorough is what I know,” he jokes.
To hear his friends tell it, this level of commitment is not unique to the holiday rush. Siwicki, 34, built his business from the ground up. Raised in northern Virginia, he got his fashion fix during high school by scrolling through the collections of Balenciaga, Balmain, and Alexander McQueen on Style.com. After graduating, he moved to New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology and stayed in the city for eight years. During that time, he found his way to the doorstep of high fashion. He interned at Louis Vuitton, Altuzarra, Tom Ford, and Balenciaga, where he worked with the PR maven Cynthia Leung during the tail end of the Nicolas Ghesquière era. He was one of the few staff members who spoke French, so he quickly became the de facto translator for the Balenciaga design team and was promptly enmeshed in their creative process. “It was kind of the best boot camp you could ever have,” Siwicki says. “Cynthia was super-precise, and that instilled in me a very high level of exigence.”
From left: David Siwicki, Gabriel Figueiredo, Morgane Camille Nicolas, Fidan Novruzova, Mark Gerardo
from left: Meryll Rogge, Bror August Vestbø, Benjamin Barron, Ellen Hodakova Larsson
Then came a full-time role at fashion-PR powerhouse KCD, where he worked on the Alexander McQueen account, but by 2015 Siwicki was burnt out on New York’s corporate culture and yearned for something more fulfilling. He moved to Paris, started working for Ritual Projects, and then with Demna at Vetements. Two years later, Siwicki was unemployed but profoundly committed to staying in Paris, so he audaciously created his business to sponsor his work visa. At 27 years old, David Siwicki the man became David Siwicki the agency. “I’m very happy that I have the space here to create these communities and bring people together and push ideas that I believe in,” he says. “I don’t think I could have done that had I stayed in New York.”
Community-building has been key to his success— as evidenced here by the 14 friends and clients (in two cities) who came out to support this feature. He’s likable, reliable, and extremely dedicated. Siwicki and his eight-person team work with anywhere from 12 to 15 brands. His secret sauce is homing in on worthwhile emerging designers and helping them find their light. “I didn’t move to Europe to peddle crap,” Siwicki says. “I really believe in what I’m doing, and I think it’s refreshing and necessary to support brands taking a stance. There has to be a certain level of authenticity.”
An early example is Commission, founded by Jin Kay and Dylan Cao. It’s a deeply personal brand inspired by the designers’ mothers and dedicated to visually representing East Asian culture in America. It may sound niche, but notably, two years after they started working with Siwicki, Commission, like many of Siwicki’s clients, was shortlisted for the coveted LVMH Prize, and now their pieces are worn by the perennially cool, like Ayo Edebiri and Lily-Rose Depp. “David has brought a lot to our collaboration, not only his utmost professionalism but also genuinely being a kind and patient friend,” Cao says. “PR is quite a competitive arena—people can be cut-throat, but David’s ability to maintain focus and kindness is admirable. That has taught us a lot— regardless of which pocket or specialty you’re in, you can mirror the same energy.”
from top left clockwise: Mark Gerardo, Jacquemus; Fidan Novruzova, designer; Gabriel Figueiredo, De Pino; Meryll Rogge, designer
Another designer in Siwicki’s stable, Stockholm-based Ellen Hodakova Larsson of Hodakova, took home the LVMH Prize last year. Her line is 100 percent circular, focusing on upcycling old materials into luxurious goods. (“Everything will be repurposed, and it’s not about some half-assed approach,” Siwicki says of Hodakova.) The Azerbaijani designer Fidan Novruzova is creating clothing based on Soviet power dressing, and Meryll Rogge is an accomplished womenswear designer who hails from the Belgian countryside. For Siwicki, it’s as much about a cultural exploration as it is about style. “It’s very instinctual for me,” Siwicki says of whom he decides to work with. “Does the brand imagery or story fascinate me? Can I tell that there are things beneath the surface that deserve to be told? Curiosity drives me.”
“He treats every client as if they’re his only one, and he’s incredibly thoughtful and attentive,” says the Lebanese designer Cynthia Merhej of Renaissance Renaissance, who has worked with Siwicki since 2022. “He believes in every brand he represents as if it’s his own. He’s there to make your dreams come true and make dreams you didn’t even know you had come true.”
Merhej hails from a long line of couturiers, and her label, which she works on with her mother at an atelier in Beirut, continues that tradition. They aim to keep their generational knowledge and talent alive while making cool, compelling clothing. “Cynthia persists against many odds—against war and conflict and everything—to see her build something like that with her mom is so beautiful,” Siwicki says. “It’s so much bigger than just fashion, you know, it’s culture. Stories like hers make me proud.”
from left: Amanda Murray, Cynthia Leung, Austen Turner, Durga Chew-Bose, Jin Kay, and Dylan Cao
Realizing that PR alone will not sustain his business, Siwicki has already started to use his growing influence and creative connections to branch out. For the writer-director Durga Chew-Bose’s debut feature film, an adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s novel Bonjour Tristesse that premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Siwicki connected Chew-Bose to Merhej, who then connected her to the designer and costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, another friend in Siwicki’s creative circle. The result was Bonjour Tristesse, Chew-Bose’s debut film featuring indie darling Chloë Sevigny as a French fashion designer draped in Merhej’s custom wares.
“Clothes are one way of telling stories,” Siwicki says. “I see my job as being able to help tell more significant stories and create these universes in which the brands can live. It’s about bringing a brand’s depth to the forefront and allowing people to discover them.”
Chew-Bose, calling from Montreal, says: “Sometimes, having a dream can feel like a burden, but he’s one of the first friends to carry the burden with you. There’s nothing transactional or networky about how he connects people. He understands artists want to make their art and are probably not very good at being in front of the camera. He promotes others around him.”
from top left clockwise: Amanda Murray, stylist; Durga Chew-Bose, director; Cynthia Leung, PR specialist; Jin Kay and Dylan Cao, Commission
Being protective of art and originality when the fashion industry is in a bloated state of mass production is not lost on Siwicki. Can artists dedicated to their craft prevail in 2025 and beyond? Siwicki is trying to make it happen. And perhaps witnessing these creatives accrue wins here and there is reward enough for now. “I’m happy to see my stable of designers find their footing and have people celebrate what they’re doing,” he says. “They’re selling, and many of their budgets aren’t decreasing like the mega-corporations that were already overselling to begin with. I’m happy to see them do well and to keep supporting them and pushing them to do more projects.”
When he’s not chasing packages or tending to his growing empire, Siwicki can be found doing Pilates— which he also encourages among his friends. When I mention to Chew-Bose that Siwicki seems like a unicorn bestie she should safeguard, she laughs. “I’m not going to gatekeep David,” she says. “People should know. They should know.”
Photographer LAURA PELISSIER
Text SARAH CRISTOBAL
Makeup MARCO ROSCINO
Photographer’s assistant THI-LÉA LE
Portraits by HUY LUONG
Sittings Editor IMAN DABBOUS
Makeup ALICE LANE
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 04 – MUSIC, TALENT, CREATIVE – on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
