Talk Sneakers With Me #4 | Maha Amsterdam

‘She stole my sweater’ is something most boyfriends probably say at least once a week! This 4th ‘Talk Sneakers With Me’ is all about female streetwear and stealing the boyfriend’s clothes. For this edition I interviewed the lovely couple Dian & Saskia (and their mascot; a pug named Lord Bacon) from Maha Amsterdam. Your new favourite store in town! Brands such as Stussy, Vans, Harmony, Diadora, This is Welcome, Neige tees, Puma, Champion, Pintrill and more. These two sneakerheads opened Maha Amsterdam only two months ago and they started with a bangin’ launch party, followed by their editorial (see below) being featured on HighSnobiety! They’re on a roll and I sure can’t wait to see what other things they have in the pipeline.

To get a glimpse.. Go ahead and read the full interview below!

And make sure you visit the store (Vijzelstraat 105, Amsterdam) & follow @maha_ amsterdam on Instagram

Photos by Jordy den Burger

Meet: Saskia van Hofwegen & Dian Iskandar | Age 25, 27 | Based: Amsterdam | Size: Saskia 35.5 but I’m flexible if it’s a cool sneaker Dian: 40.5 | Amount of sneakers: too much to fit in our house!

What is your concept and how did that come to life?

Saskia: It all started when I was borrowing Dian’s clothes, mostly sweaters, without asking. This annoyed him because they looked better on me haha!
Dian: So one day we started thinking about where we could buy equally cool streetwear clothing for women.

And the conclusion was simple: nowhere in Amsterdam – yet. That’s when we decided this could be a big opportunity, so we started looking for locations and started writing our business plan.
On the first of May we both quit our jobs and on the first of July we opened our doors and that’s our short history so far.

Where does the name Maha come from?

Saskia: It’s part of my middlename “Mayahening Mahadewi”. Maha means “mighty” in Hindi and “beautiful eyes” in Arabic. It’s perfect balanced for a womens streetboutique.

Who is your dream customer?

There are a lot of girls on social media we like to identify our store with, such as Emily Oberg, India Rose and many more. We want to see girls with a fashion-forward style to help us take streetwear for ladies to the next level. On the other hand we just want to see all the girls who are stealing their boyfriends’ clothes!

What can we expect from Maha in the upcoming months? (which brands etc?)

A lot of new exciting things will be coming up! We are planning a lot of new editorials/shoots. And we are always looking for new brands, but just to give you an indication of what is about to come; Puma, Etre cecile and Daily paper are hitting our store in the nearby future. Also, we are thinking about maybe starting our own Maha clothing-line, but that’s a really big maybe at the moment!

You guys started the hashtag #shestolemysweater, How did that happen?

Saskia: We’ve been using the hashtag for quite a while now. Actually since the sweater stealing began and our friends made jokes about Dian wearing my clothes haha!! We had to set things straight..

Are you on the same level when it comes to the buying for Maha?

It actually works out pretty well! It’s nice to have a female and male eye look at our brands. Most of the time we are pretty in line about our collections, but when we have our differences we’ll always find a way.

What are your personal favorite brands/stores?

We have so many favorite stores and brands haha. I guess our favorite stores would be Opening Ceremony and Supreme internationally and in the Netherlands our favorite store is 290sqm.

Favorite brands, Saskia: Nike, Converse, Celine and APC. Dian: Nike, Vans, Supreme, Norse Projects.

What do you guys think about the female streetwear/sneakerculture nowadays and how are you planning on playing into that?

There is a lot of room for improvement, like in footwear, there is still a big difference in range and quality between wmns en mens models. That’s wrong!And in the streetwear scene there are more male oriented streetwear brands against female brands, so the availability for female streetwear is more scarse. We are trying to fill that gap in the nicest way possible.

Are you gonna be focussing more on men or womens styles?

It should be the combination, a unisex way aimed at ladies.

How and when did your love for sneakers started?

Dian: It started around 2000/2001, my cousin was a big collector and works at Nike, so I just rolled in, starting with the AF1 and now wearing a very wide range of models.

Saskia: I think it started because of my brothers, they wore Jordans and Fila. And since I had/have ridiculously small feet I couldnt find any cool sneakers in my size. But my first love was the Air Jordan 3 Firered in 2003. I convinced my dad I really needed them for danceclass!