Muse/Part 1: Bev Malik

To try and understand Bev Malik, you have to travel back to late 70's/ early 80's Africa, a rich, wild melting pot for the mind, the senses and the spirit. A young Bev collected bits of culture which had travelled slowly across from the UK, India, Europe and America, and it’s where her own vibrant and style - and joie de vivre - were born.

Now a highly sought after brand strategist and curator across fashion, art, travel, retail and lifestyle, we simply had to pin her down to be our next Preen Line Muse. Here, in part 1 of her conversation with us, she invites us into her own, delightful, ‘cerebral and unexpected’ world and tells us a bit about her life in fashion.

Hi Bev. Tell us a bit about what you’re up to at the moment.

I’m brand consulting across mens and womenswear and retail projects with an emphasis on digital (la bête).

Intriguing. Can you tell us a bit about what that involves?

What I do follows what I think about…and that is all about what real women want to wear, and how they feel when they wear it.

Preen muse Bev Malik

Bev Malik style

Sounds like you’re fighting the good fight! What would you say are the best, hardest and coolest things about your job?

The best – beautiful things.
The hardest – Tom Ford’s 1996 steel stiletto, possibly, or the eardrum piercing music from the Preen shows in the early naughties. Hardcore…
Coolest – layers and layers and layers and layers of bullshit, and an endless fascination for it all (Roland Barthes – 'The language of Fashion')

Early noughties Preen shows - throwback! Talking of history, can you tell us a bit about how your background and where you grew up has influenced your incredible style?

Bowie dropped ‘Low’ in 1981 on my birthday and it was for me I thought - ‘Well, actually he dropped it five years before, but we got everything late as I lived in the depths of Africa. Everything was out of chronological order and happily misinterpreted. …Blue blue electric blue’, my favourite colour for years simply because I remember the words in that song.

Fashionista Bev Malik in Preen

What an amazing place to grow up. Anything else that stands out?

A lot of fabric draped everywhere particularly Masai shukas, and kitenges, a lot of discarded Toyota car tires made into shoes, exquisite Indian sarees, bespoke Saville Row shirts (from London! Magical London…) Billie Holiday, and Mum’s specific, considered jewels, not to mention mindblowing food, beautiful people, incredible wildlife and a very deep sense of freedom connection and belonging to everything.

Check out Bev on instagram @bevandsaturday

You can follow the lovely Tabi on Twitter & Instagram @tabijgee

Photography by the talented Zoe Lower @zoelower

Muse/Part 1: Bev Malik

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