Mad About Maduma

Have you ever stepped inside an old Maltese house and thought the tiles were so pretty you could wear them? Well, thanks to MADUMA, you now can. Dean Muscat talks tiles and design with Kimberly Micallef, the one-woman shop behind the new local brand specializing in sustainable products inspired by Maltese heritage.

People are always waxing lyrical about the virtues of looking up at the stars every once in a while. However, for Kimberly Micallef it was looking precisely in the opposite direction that proved a little more spellbinding.

“There’s something fascinating about Maltese tile patterns,” she explains. “They wow me and it’s almost like I enter into another dimension when I look at them.”

This fascination with Maltese tiles started at a young age. When a young Kim would visit her grandmother, she would spend what felt like hours staring at the beautiful traditional tiles laid out around the old house, tracing the variations in the patterns, observing their different colour combinations.

It appears that MADUMA – the name incidentally is Maltese for a single floor tile – was on the cards early on.

“I guess the real seeds were sown while I was studying media and design at college. For my dissertation, I focused on local artisan trades that were dying out and created a set of framed illustrations based on traditional Maltese tiles. This was the first time I set about designing my own Maltese tile patterns. A couple of years later, in 2017, I felt the urge to start a brand of my own. I also love fashion, so I thought it might be cool to combine tile patterns with clothing. That’s when MADUMA was born.”

Kim quickly busied herself putting her business plan into action and created her very first MADUMA products – a range of chic t-shirts featuring beautifully rendered Maltese tile patterns on the front. She had also decided early on to make MADUMA an eco-friendly brand through and through. The t-shirts were made using organic cotton and even the packaging was fully recyclable.

“I wanted MADUMA to be a reflection of my values, and living sustainably with the planet is deeply important to me.”

There’s something almost Zen-like about gazing at an uninterrupted sheet of Maltese tile patterns—how each swirl, curve and petal blooms out of an invisible centre, the satisfying symmetrical folds, how each quadrant joins to the next, seamlessly and endlessly. How does Kim go about designing such decorative alchemy?

“I draw the patterns digitally. It takes a lot of time and patience to get them just right, to make them pleasing to the eye. The colours need to complement one another. The motifs can’t be too gaudy or too minimalist. It’s a real balancing act.

“I’ll sometimes base the colour schemes for my products on tiles I’ve come across. But I’ve also experimented with palettes inspired by random things I see in the street, like window displays or the vibrant colours of Maltese doors. While there’s a traditionality to my patterns, I also want the products to look and feel fashionable and contemporary. That’s why I pull ideas from both the old and new.”

2020 has seen MADUMA jump from the sartorial world to stationery with a range of journals, to-do list pads, bookmarks, and weekly planners, all decorated with Kim’s pretty tile patterns. And, naturally, they are made from 100% sustainable materials.

While it may seem almost ill-advised to launch your new range during an unprecedented worldwide health crisis, the inspiration for these products actually stemmed from life under lockdown.

“When COVID-19 hit, it suddenly struck me that everyone was locked indoors working from home. There was so much doom and gloom going around, I wanted to add a little joy and brightness to the work-from-home situation,” she explains.

MADUMA’s stationery range had a superfast turnaround. Designed, produced, and launched within a few weeks, it also proved to be a big hit, with all products practically selling out in a fortnight. Kimberly enlisted the help of her family to make sure she could keep up with demand and get the orders packaged and shipped in a timely fashion.

“My family has been so supportive from the very start. There were a few times where I felt like giving up. It’s not easy running a brand on your own. I do everything: design, marketing, packaging, quality control of products. But they always encourage me to keep going and lately they’ve been true lifesavers, helping me provide customers with an efficient service, which is extremely important to me. My boyfriend Ben has also been hugely supportive. He’s even been helping me out with my marketing.”

With two successful product lines already under her belt, what’s on the horizon for Kim and MADUMA?

“I’m currently finalising the designs for a range of wedding invitations. I want to give couples the option to personalize the invites, so they’ll be able to select their preferred patterns, colours, and even customize the message inside. I really can’t wait to get this new service going. And around Christmas, I’ll also be launching corporate gift sets, where companies can add their brand logos to calendars and other products.

“Eventually, I’d love to expand MADUMA’s clothing line to include shawls and all-over print garments. The challenge there is sourcing sustainable fabrics that make for good quality clothing. It’s not been easy, but hopefully I’ll find a feasible solution,” she adds.

The sky seems to be the limit for Kim’s tile-inspired patterns. While we wait for whatever MADUMA has in store next, you might want to ginger up your wardrobe or give your stationery collection a Maltese twist by visiting www.maduma.com.mt. You can even surprise friends and loved ones with a specially wrapped gift pack thanks to the international shipping options available.

This article originally appeared in Il-Bizzilla magazine, November 2020 issue.