M by Musette

by Marian Pălie

Everyone speaks about success, except the people who got to it. You, through the Musette brand, are a success professional. How would you define this concept?

Success is a form of social recognition that arrives to some people, but it is also the food for the individual ego. True success is only when you are able to give it up, when you can live freely and happily without having success. It can easily be transformed into a disease that is difficult to treat. Success must never feed the arrogance and the shallowness because we never stop learning throughout our lives.

Since 1992, Musette is existing in the collective public consciousness of Romania. If you were to create a map of the important moments you`ve been through, how it would look like?

Musette was a line that Roberto and I had easily drawn in 1992. We were two young people who were supporting each other, who started out without any financial resources; the only capital we had was each other. Later on, in 20016, Alin Bâtlan has joined the team and together we have succeeded increasing the Musette family to the size it has today.

One simple question: What does Musette mean?

Musette for me, Cristina Bâtlan, means innocent freedom. Musette means the greatest challenge of our lives, with all the good and the difficult parts. Musette is a form of ethics; it is not just a producer of shoes and handbags. When you produce, even if it is only one object, you are responsible to understand what is being left behind it. Musette, despite the fact that it produces too little, has never traded quality over quantity. Musette avoids participating in the promotion of inflated consumerism, by creating models that are sustainable from the point of view of quality and looks. Musette doesn`t wish to express itself through more shoes or more handbags, but through functional collections, adapted to the times we live in.

Musette has invested in the product and not in the image of the company or of the brand. And because fashion is an urban culture, almost a social trend, Musette wishes to convey only real and valuable messages. Musette creates fair expectations through simplicity and naturalness.

Today`s consumers are always facing an unbearable choice: design or comfort? Which is the position of Musette in this regard and how did it solve this dilemma?

Design and comfort - this is the definition of Musette and it means looks and functionality. We do not wish to produce useless things that pollute the planet…

What is the message that a pair of shoes is sending out or could send out about someone?

The shoes defines the style and support the individual personality; most of the time they are the defining aspect of an outfit. The shoes are shaping out the posture of the person who is wearing them, they inspire and they express his or her inner state. If I were to be a pair of shoes, I would be glad to see the entire world from the ground…

You are the Creation Director who, tanks to intuition, has managed to entail some standards of design and elegance that are unique in Romania. Was it intuition, knowledge or inspiration?

Things happen when you are ready for them to happen. The collections represent who I am because my team supports me and they have confidence in my suggestions. It was intuition, knowledge and inspiration taken from everywhere in the surrounding Universe; we need all these instruments to create a collection. With each collection we tell another story, the story of our permanent transformation.

How does Musette succeed in delivering the perfect balance between the vanguard model (more difficult to accept by the ordinary customer) and the consumer product?

Musette represents innovation, the attempt to reach the impossible, the experimenting. Musette exists because the message of the collection was different from the other producers. The consumer line barely exists and the classical models are refined until they become the most desirable products.

For some years now, the brand has extended also to the international market. Are there any major differences between the abroad consumers and the Romanian consumers?

Nowadays fashion doesn`t have any boundaries. The consumer is very informed and positive when it comes to making esthetical choices. Kube Musette is a social – cultural dimension that has recently emerged in the company`s portfolio.

How did the idea develop and, in particular, what are the plans for the future?

The social dimension of the Musette business is important. Kube Musette has emerged because we couldn`t think of any other way of giving back our love to people, because we care. Kube is a project for the people and it is about people; it is a free project, an emergent space for the artistic expression that we are offering to the community.