When we sit down in Paris hotel Maison Cassandre on a hot spring day, PR agency founder David Siwicki is exhausted from lugging boxes. He’s just moved into a new, bigger office in the city’s 17th arrondissement, with his team of 14 PR managers, assistants and interns.
The week prior, he’d made a cameo in Charli XCX’s “SS26” music video, invited by her stylist Chris Horan to sit alongside his clients, designers Ben Barron and August Bror Vestbø of August Barron. Siwicki is also about to venture into menswear, with his roster of newly signed men’s clients Edward Cuming, Ernest W.
Baker, and Post Archive Faction.
The Charli XCX video cameo is a testament to Siwicki’s role in the Paris fashion scene. From Ellen Hodakova Larsson, who took home the 2024 LVMH Prize, to Meryll Rogge, who became creative director of Marni this year, alongside her namesake label, the founder has a knack for discovering young names just before they get buzzy.
Siwicki is not used to giving interviews; his job is to loom over designer interviews, in-person or camera-off on a Zoom call, to listen and observe. But on this occasion, he agreed to sit down and chart how he built his agency.
“I spend so much time thinking about these things, but I never usually say them out loud, so it’s a bit cringe for me to do it,” he says, “I did bring notes.”
We start from the beginning. Siwicki, who hails from Northern Virginia, moved to New York in 2008 to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) after high school.
Upon graduating, he interned at Altuzarra, Louis Vuitton and Tom Ford, before landing in Balenciaga’s New York office at the end of the Nicolas Ghesquière era. Siwicki was the only one in the office who spoke French apart from the CEO.
Suddenly, he found himself “babysitting” the design team and the merchandising team when they were in town. Then, Alexander Wang took over the house, and New York became Balenciaga’s epicenter.
“I started fashion with this really integrated perspective on branding, it wasn’t just PR; it was what’s actually relevant to the store, what’s relevant to wholesale,” he says. “I got to know all the teams as a young employee.”
After, Siwicki tried agency life at major New York firm KCD, in 2014. But quickly, he grew tired of the New York hustle.
He left for Paris in 2015 without a job, but with the conviction that the city was where he needed to be. It was there he met Robin Meason, founder of Paris agency Ritual Projects, and she hired him off the bat.
“Robin had such an interesting stable of designers back then, Demna at Vetements, Glenn Martens at Y/Project, and they were really starting to break through,” Siwicki says. His first task was working on Vetements’s third show, Fall/Winter 2015, in the basement of gay sex club Le Dépôt.
After three years, Vetements was getting big. The brand left Ritual Projects, and Siwicki followed, continuing to work on their PR for another year.
He left shortly before Demna did in 2019, and with his feet firmly in the Paris fashion scene, he felt it was time to strike out on his own. Siwicki met Dylan Cao and Jin Kay, the founders of New York-based label Commission in Paris, through a friend, and they decided to work together, as his first client.
Siwicki speaks about each of his clients in immense detail, and can reel off their unique qualities and history at the drop of a hat. With Commission, he felt their campaigns and social media were particularly well-developed, at a time when brands weren’t storytelling the way they are today.
And so, David Siwicki Communication (DSC) was born, adding Andy Wolf Eyewear and Stéphanie D’heygere in its first year. Shortly after launch, however, Covid hit, and campaigns, shows and events ground to a halt.
Siwicki managed to secure furlough support from the French government, which allowed him to keep his business. “If I had to do this in New York it wouldn’t have been the same story,” he says.
“I have a lot to thank France for.”
Once the world reopened, it was time to sign some more clients. “I first met David through a friend almost 10 years ago, long before thinking of starting a brand.
We reconnected when August and I moved to Paris and started showing here — he came to some of our earliest shows,” Vestbø of August Barron says. “It was exciting to see the business he was building, and we felt we would be in good hands when we decided to collaborate with him for our SS24 show, Allina.
David and his team have always felt in tune with our project — over time, some things don’t even need to be said anymore, they are just understood.”
One of the first times I met Siwicki, he was working on an oversubscribed August Barron (then All-In) party in Paris’s 9th arrondissement, during his first season with the brand, wearing a pair of studded August Barron Level boots. As his clients explain, he really lives and breathes the work.
“David believes in building something new, you can tell he is so personally invested in the success and correct representation of his brands,” adds Vestbø. “His level of care and passion makes the work you create together feel important and exciting.
Also most importantly, we have fun!”
A distinct point of view
Siwicki’s clients span categories, from Meryll Rogge to subversive jewelry designer Justine Clenquet. And this Paris Fashion Week, he’s working on shows for Hodakova and August Barron, a presentation for Fidan Novruzova, and a dinner for Korean label Amomento.
But the PR is also finding new opportunities in film. He linked up Renaissance Renaissance’s Cynthia Merhej with costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, and the two collaborated on looks for 2023 film Bonjour Tristesse.
This fashion week, he’s working on a fashion-adjacent project to promote the new Hunger Games film Sunrise on the Reaping with a dinner at Musée Rodin.
While Siwicki is keen to keep growing his business, he curates the client list carefully. “My bar is quite high in terms of what I expect, which is like a balance of craft, concept, and culture,” he says. “I kind of knew I needed to build the business in a way that would attract business. You really need to have a distinct point of view, and that’s your calling card.”
Most of the big houses make “merch”, Siwicki says. Instead, he wants to work with young names that have a distinct story.
When talking about Merhej, Siwicki becomes emotional. “Renaissance Renaissance is three generations of [founder] Cynthia [Merhej’s] heritage in Lebanon,” he says.
“Cynthia’s great grandmother had an atelier in Palestine in the 1920s. That’s design history; that’s culture.
That means so much more to me than working for a big house. I want to help make the next big house, and not just ascribe to what the conglomerates are telling us high fashion is.”
Merhej was always wary of PR, but this emotional connection is what drew her to DSC. “David is courageous, and he’s not afraid to put himself out there for his clients and his team,” she says over email from Beirut.
“As an Arab designer, specifically Lebanese Palestinian, it’s not always easy being in this industry. You can feel isolated very easily.
David always made me feel understood. He just gets it because he is empathetic and comes at everything from a human angle.
He has integrity, which is an incredibly rare [quality] these days.”
A new phase of growth
Now, with his new office, DSC is ready to enter its next phase. The space will function as a showroom, and allow Siwicki to host contacts and clients more easily. “I think that’s always been important to me, to build this physical space that represents [DSC]. Building my brand as a PR is so important. I feel like if you don’t have your own [identity], how is a brand going to respect you?”
He’s also continuously scouting new talent to add to his roster. “Growing our menswear clients had an instant impact on the [business] financially,” he says.
And It’s his approach that helps him secure coverage and placements for his clients, attracting new business. “I think for me, it’s always how do I contextualize my designer’s work?
You know, what do the buyers need? What does the press need?
What do you need for SEO? What do you need to get your monthly clicks?
I can’t do my job well if I’m only thinking about myself,” he says.
Sometimes, that means pushing the designers, too. “It creates a good tension between the service of my clients and the service of the media, because I know I need to push my client to get more for you to do the story.”
Siwicki’s roster involves smaller businesses that don’t have the budget to pay big celebrities to wear their brands or attend their shows. He works hard to help them form organic relationships with high-profile people who appreciate great design.
“You need someone to be your muse. You need someone to be your star for you to go up against these houses that are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for celebrity placements and campaigns,” he says.
“You look at someone like Cate Blanchett, she’s wearing Louis Vuitton and Hodakova. You look at Greta Lee, she’s wearing both Hodakova and Dior.”
He sees a similar mix at the retail level, which he is proud of. “You go to Dover Street Market in Paris, and it’s like, Commission, August Barron, Edward Cuming, Renaissance Renaissance, in one corner on one floor,” says Siwicki.
“We’re doing that. That’s something real, that’s special, and that has an impact.
These stores have a Miu Miu corner and a Bottega corner, and then they have the brands that I’m really fighting for and are really contributing something special.”