Like cousins who had never met

Two co-founders chat about finding connection

Last June, a dear member of the extended ELLIS FAAS family introduced us to Song for the Mute, an Australian fashion brand that, to be honest, we had never heard of. They were looking for a makeup brand to collaborate with for their first-ever fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. From the first moments of sharing ideas, we both felt like we were living from the same DNA, like cousins who had never met. So, two co-founders decided to talk.

Staff School Portrait Photo taken during SS26 26.1 Yearbook Look Book Shoot. Photographer: Jamie Heath

Thijs Faas: ELLIS FAAS is originally a family business, not only because it was founded by two siblings, but also in the way we work. Ellis and I were raised by parents who invited people to join our family. At one stage, our original family of five lived with eight extra people in the house, and everyone’s friends were always welcome to stay for dinner or sleep over. That is also how we grow our brand: we continuously try to extend the ELLIS FAAS family with customers, creatives, retailers, and collaborators who think alike. How does that work for Song for the Mute?

Melvin Tanaya: Actually our company logo is a graphic reference to a family tree. Lyna [Ty, the brand’s Co-Founder and Creative Director] and I have been best friends since we were 10 and we feel like siblings too. Like Ellis and you, we come from an entrepreneurial family. My grandmother, who grew up in the Netherlands by the way, built a successful chain of restaurants in Indonesia. And Lyna’s parents worked in fashion wholesale in France. And just like you, we built our brand by fostering genuine relationships with people that resonated with our story. Fashion is a byproduct of what we do. Most importantly to us, it’s about creating meaningful connections and building a community. Everyone on our team believes in our mission to inspire others through what we do. Our fans see us as normal people chasing a dream. If we can do it, they can too.

Portrait of Lyna Ty (Creative Director and Co-Founder) , Melvin Tanaya (Brand Director and Co-Founder) and Karim Gaaloul (Design Director). Photographer: Vladimir Mendigorin

TF: So how did Song for the Mute come about?

MT: I originally studied graphic design and worked hard to secure a role at the UNHCR office in Australia. Before that, I was working at a depression and anxiety clinic, conceptualised a project that aimed to showcase creative expressions from people that were vulnerable—music, poems, arts, photography. I got to experience firsthand the power of people telling their own stories and how much this can help others. And that realisation evolved into what became Song for the Mute.

When we first started, the name Song for the Mute really resonated with us, it was a voice for us and others who didn’t have one. Since founding SFTM, we've grown, we've explored, we've travelled, we have our families. We want to showcase that. Song for the Mute has always been a true documentation of what Lyna and I are experiencing. We express this through our collections, each one becoming a chapter in our evolving story. Within that the fabrics, silhouettes, installations, photography, the look book; everything builds upon this narrative.

Birkenstock Campaign. Photographer: Frederick Horn (left)

Process of building the four characters for the Birkenstock Campaign (center)

Hand-painted Birkenstocks created by Karim for 21.1 Naïve Look Book Styling. Photographer: James Tolich (right)

TF: You’ve had collaborations with Birkenstock and Adidas. How did it work adding those huge companies to your ecosystem?

MT: We had been using Birkenstock in our lookbooks since 2011, and we had no idea they were watching us. Then in 2022, their team approached us, wanting to see what we would do within a proper collaboration. With their partnership objectives in mind, Lyna started writing about this world, starting with the models she envisioned for the campaign. She wanted mature people with warmth, unafraid to show creativity, flair, or personality. She also wanted to explore the idea of indoor and outdoor shoes. She then created four archetypes: the artist, the pet lover, the gardener, and the collector. The idea was that as an individual, you’ll gravitate toward one of these four. In the end, the “pet lover” was changed to the “rebel”.

Through these four characters, she wanted to tell the collection through five avenues: footwear, clothing, object, person, and place. For each character, she created mood boards describing what they wore, where they lived et cetera. And the models in the final campaign were real, so an actual artist, gardener, collector, and rebel.

Then Birkenstock said, “In the 250 years of our existence, we’ve never done ready-to-wear. Let’s do a ready-to-wear collection!” I expected a jacket, pants, a T-shirt, but Lyna said, “No, I want to do four jumpsuits, because it’s an item of maximal functionality that relates to each character’s narrative. It also ties into Birkenstock’s products that are all about functionality and utility.” So, she made four jumpsuits. When we presented this, Birkenstock said, “This is exactly why we chose you. It’s about a brand moment, an amazing way to tell the story.” So that’s how our stories merged.

For our first collaboration with adidas Running, we said that we wanted to design for everyday runners. That was interesting to them, because most collaborations focus on advanced technology and speed. Then Lyna wrote this manifesto for running: “Go for a run to slow down, rediscover the quiet magic of running. Craft it for the everyday runner who runs not for accolades, not to chase times, but to capture a feeling. A reminder to pause, breathe, find beauty in everyday moments. For those who embrace the imperfect and find joy in the journey.” It takes the runner on a journey—starting from when they first began, with each season progressing. In our collaboration with Adidas Originals (lifestyle), it’s less about the sport. For us, it’s about bringing people together, the camaraderie, and the bond with teammates. So the way we design the adidas collections is all about togetherness and positive messaging.

TF: You see your collections as chapters, and each chapter is based on a certain personal memory. Can you explain the idea behind this and how it works in practice?

MT: This industry can be gruelling. They always want newness. Every six months, we need to come up with something new. It’s easy to fall into a trap where you feel like a hamster on a wheel. But Lyna designs from the inside, drawing from a formative experience or feeling and building upon that. Stories that tell something about who we are and where we come from. Every season changes depending on the narrative we want to tell. It’s never linear, never like: fabrics first, then shapes, then this. It can come from anywhere. We come up with the idea of how to present the story and then create everything from zero. Lyna builds the world first: what she wants to say, who the characters are, what music they listen to. Only then does the actual clothing design begin.

For instance, the chapter we showcased in our FHCM presentation in Paris in July is called Summer Blues and the starting concept is this: Karim, Lyna’s spouse and our design director, is Tunisian. His family lives in Lille, France. Summer Blues is an expression of longing for his family back home, part of himself remaining there whilst another part, the physical part of him belongs here. This feeling became what we described as a ‘living ghost’, the understanding that some part of you will always long for home. Summer Blues is a recollection of summers spent with family, revisiting those places and those memories. These feelings are what we built the collection upon. One of the main visuals was drawn from a memory of Karim’s mother when she wore her wedding dress to the beach, the hems getting wet from the ocean. We replicated this with dip-dye, making it look like the garment had been worn whilst wading through water. Garments were treated to look sun-bleached as if they were hung on the clothesline in the sun. We try to make the most authentic reproduction of what we have in our heads.

Process photos from past collections. Captured by Song for the Mute (left, center)

SS27 27.2 Summer Blues PFW Presentation. Photographer: Gio Staiano (right)

TF: Because you take personal memories as a starting point, it immediately becomes very personal. So just like Ellis took herself as an example when she created our packaging, textures, and shades, you design for yourselves and not for a specific customer. I like that, because I believe the best possible product will be the one created not only with expertise, but especially with a heart and soul, and a humanistic approach, instead of being driven by sales and marketing.

MT: If it comes from the designer’s inner self, customers will follow. Just like you guys, it’s like we’ve created our own audience by forging our own path, not following what’s right or wrong. And our buyers and fans follow that path. There are even people who have tattooed our brand name on themselves. It’s extreme and I don’t condone it, but I still get goosebumps... Lyna met one of them, and this girl told her, “Song for the Mute means so much more than just clothing on a rack. It’s an expression of who I am. It’s something I needed to break through the unfair expectations my family put on me.” Some people fall into jobs and never get the platform to do what we do. So, we try to give that a voice.

TF: Your clothes look like they’ve already been lived in, again adding a sense of reality and rawness. At ELLIS FAAS, we never strive for so-called “perfection”, but instead we hope people are bold enough to embrace imperfections. I come from music and was recently listening to a podcast about a violin maker who was renovating an instrument by Antonio Stradivari, a maker who, more than 300 years ago, created the most beautiful violins ever. The guy in the podcast said that if you try to make a flawless copy of a Stradivarius design, it will sound cold. Every original Stradivarius has a flaw, an imperfection, and that is exactly what gives it character.

MT: When we accepted our GQ Fashion Brand Of The Year Award in 2019, Lyna said “However, odd or unusual you may be, your imperfections are what make you who you are today. And that's the beauty we want to shine.”, I think that really beautifully sums up what we try to do.

We always want to design clothes that feel true to the story we’re telling - not an imitation but rather an expression of the world we’re building, one that showcases the imperfections and flaws. We experiment with fabrications and treatments to create collections that feel honest and true. Every mark, sign of wear, and imperfection becomes part of that narrative.

SS27 27.2 Summer Blues PFW Presentation. Photographer: Gio Staiano (left)

Behind the scenes of SS27 27.2 Summer Blues PFW Presentation. Photographer: Piotr Niepsuj (center, right)

TF: Also, what I noticed watching the show is that - even though there are specific colours, fabrics and styles of layering that you see in various form, I did have the feeling that I wasn’t watching models parading, but individuals who hand-picked their own outfit. Compared to many, many other shows I’ve seen, it feels human, honest and real. So, like us, I sense that your products are tools that each customer can use according to their own, unique, individual wishes.

MT: I love that you say that, because that’s exactly how we did it. We wanted the casting to be the design of the show. Once we knew all these different personalities, different ages, races, sizes, we put the looks on them.

TF: To me, it’s another similarity between our brands that you believe that the person wearing your clothes is more important than the clothes you designed.

MT: Absolutely. Also, in that sense ELLIS FAAS and Song for the Mute are cut from the same cloth, so to speak!

Song for the Mute was founded in Sydney in 2010 by lifelong friends Lyna Ty and Melvin Tanaya. The brand approaches seasons as chapters, each serving as a part of a continuing narrative told through fabrics and craftsmanship. The brand has opened three flagship stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Shenzhen and are carried by over 90 global stockists. Global collaborations include adidas Originals, adidas Running and Birkenstock. Among the brand's most significant achievements is its official debut on the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode calendar with its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, 27.1 Summer Blues, becoming the first Australian clothing label to present on the Paris Fashion Week menswear schedule.

For more about Song for the Mute: songforthemute.com and @songforthemute