Misha Hollenbach of P.A.M. Discusses the Importance of Physical Experience in the Creative Process

Melbourne-based lifestyle brand P.A.M. (Perks and Mini) represents the blurring of fashion and performance as its productivity branches into various creative realms. Founders Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey, both multi-disciplinary artists who started their brand 15 years ago, have understood this convergence since the beginning. The two continue to maintain a consistently uncompromising stance, establishing P.A.M. as a respected creative platform with various paths of expression. Misha Hollenbach recenrtly sat down with Slam Jam Socialism to discuss how he envisions performance and fashion, what role the physical experience plays in the design process and to hear about his upcoming works. Check out an excerpt below and head over to Slam Jam Socialism to read the full interview.

How do physical experiences factor into how you’re inspired rather than being stuck behind a computer?

I’m never stuck behind a computer anymore. One year ago we left Australia, which is where our office was, and now we don’t have an office. Sometimes I have to work on the computer and other times on my phone. But mostly I’m thinking outside of that. Actually my computer time now has become minimal because I think about everything I’m doing in my work outside of the office environment or the computer. Even when I’m making artwork now it has to be very physical. So if I am in the studio and I paint or if I make graphics, I want to go to the shop to find postcards, magazines or whatever it is. I want to find the actual image, I don’t want to look on the Internet and look for images with Tumblr or Google. This is also a big part of the process for making P.A.M. graphics, and for the new magazines that we’re making and all these art projects, it’s the physical experience that is very important in the design experience

What are your current thoughts on where fashion is at currently?

I think fashion is actually quite exciting at the moment. We’ve had P.A.M. for 15 years but it’s a very small label and what we do is pretty small. It feels like what we’ve been doing for a long time is actually becoming more relevant. P.A.M. has never been very specific in one sort of look or in one kind of genre or anything, it’s a different thing all at once. And I like that this is happening with fashion, like with streetwear and everything. So everything is happening together and we have been shooting in Milan for our women’s collection, and we’ve been shooting it on Cali (Dewitt) and on old ladies, like my friend’s mother. So it’s nice that fashion feels more open now and  it’s not super specific. You can wear high fashion and street together, I like this concept of being unusual, being super trashy, super punky but also have a very posh bag. I like how’s becoming a jumble of several things. That works for me.

What does growth and success look like for PAM? Is it about greater financial independence? Greater artistic opportunity?

To be honest, we are not ambitious with what we do. It’s very important for us to stay as natural as possible and organic as possible, so in the same way that natural food and organic eating has become kind of normal focus for people, I want our perception to be the same way. We’re not hungry for success, for money or for any of these things. Of course we want take care of our necessities and be able to do what we want to do, but we’re not ambitious in this sense of building a brand. It is very much just a platform for our creativity. It’s growing, which means that we can do more things and involve more people and new opportunities. This magazine that we’re doing is great because we are actually working with some of my favorite people and we can now engage them to work together and do many things. We’re happy with how it’s going, but we also appreciate people like you who are helping spread this message. I think P.A.M. has a message more than just being a fashion brand, because it is about creativity and opening your mind and being free, music and fun and energy, all these things. At the same time, the company is four people, it’s Shauna and I and we have two other people. So if we somehow could afford a few more people, maybe P.A.M. could become a bit louder.