INTERVIEW with Katarina Matijevic, Serbian fashion designer in Paris
Hey hey again!
I’m back with a new blog post and with something I have never done before! An interview!!! I have always loved reading interviews, or even being the one interviewed (although I was interviewing myself in my head, but oh well haha).
I am so so so happy and grateful to present you Katarina! Katarina comes from Serbia and she is a Paris based womenswear designer. Her brand goes by the name Tvvin. As she says, Tvvin stands for duality within design and an individual, whose focus is the intention to bring ease and comfort to the wearer.
I N T E R V I E W
Q: Describe yourself in one sentence
A: Balance of constancy and change
Q: What inspired you to do fashion design?
A: The feeling that you can give to and get from - a piece of garment.
Also, my dad.
He used to buy a lot of interior design and decor magazines that we would flip through together, day and night. At first, I developed a huge passion for architecture and interior design. Then it kind of moved on to fashion, my dad was always into it. He was the only person I loved going shopping with.
Also, my parents were the owners of the first sportswear shop in our hometown.
I listened to a lot of stories (I wasn’t born at that time) about how they did it and why. My dad was always talking to me about colours, fabrics and the relationship they had with customers, but also the relationship customers had with the products. It’s completely different point of view on fashion if you are in sales and if you go to a fashion / art school. I happen to get the best of both worlds!
Q: What would you like to achieve with your work?
A: To give comfort and security of a home onto a wearer - through the garment
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
A: Psichology, poetry, fine arts, sculpture and furniture design.
Observing all of these together, they represent a certain atmosphere and emotion to which I react during the process of working on a collection.
First rule is to observe, the second rule is to act on it.
In between - it’s like a play of the passive and active side of my personality, with a lot of empathy included.
Q: Tell me something about your last collection?
A: FW19 Collection named „The Act of Absence“ is inspired by a feeling of absence being more striking than presence. It actually came from a situation I found myself to be in, shortly after my arrival to Paris. I always felt like something or someone was missing even if I achieved everything I wanted by that point and was very happy to open a new chapter in my life and work on a new collection.
I guess we’ve all felt like that at one point of our lives, no matter what or who was missing. And it’s only human to feel this way, to be in this internal state of mind, to not feel enough by being yourself. It’s a very common trigger for depression and anxiety within people of my age that should be spoken about.
The goal of the collection was to react on this feeling of discomfort and make it „leap“ into something positive. Transforming it into a collection that will show vunerability of the wearer as a streingth and not as a negative trait.
photofraphy: Jana Anđić / model: Sara Bošković / Paris 2019
Q: Which designers you find as the most inspirational?
A: Alber, Alber, Alber! Alber Elbaz!
He is such an inspiration on so many levels for me.
Mostly because of his point of view on life, fashion and society, that is enrichened with his unique sense of humour. He is a designer with a strong intellectual point of view in fashion and applies it on his designs with such ease and beauty – which for me represents the true essence of fashion.
“I have a feeling that’s maybe the one thing that scares me the most, I always feel that ‘ugly is the new beautiful.’ I’m not into that, I feel that beautiful is beautiful… maybe ugly is a reflection of the times, so I’m not surprised there is so much ugliness.”
Alber Elbaz, Interview at Parsons School of Design, 2016
I have this feeling too, Alber.
Q: Which brand would you like to work for?
A: By previously mentioning Alber, I think it’s quite obvious it would be Lanvin.
I think the brand has entered a new era, quite unstable at the beginning – but I feel the puzzle is finally coming together with each collection. And it’s quite my cup of tea of the aesthetics and creative universe that Bruno Sialelli is serving us.
Besides Lanvin, I wish to work for Jil Sander, Loewe, The Row, Ann Demeulemeester, Lemaire, and Proenza Schouler. The list goes on, but I will stop here.
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: - Work, but don’t forget to play.
- It’s not the collection of your life, nor the last one you will make. - Please don’t overanalyse, just go after your instincts.
photography: Nemanja Taneski / models: Maja Ristić & Ivana Aničić / Belgrade 2018
Q: Where do you see women in design world in the future?
A: I feel that there is no great disbalance in fashion when it comes to gender equality. We live in times when there is a place for everyone.
Forgive me if I am mistaken, but I will blame it on my dreamy and naïve bubble that I sometimes still live in.
Q: What is the meaning of life?
A: “To improve is to change, to perfect is to change often” - Winston Churchill
I believe in change. And to be the best version of yourself in a given time is the goal. If you can do that, you will for sure leave behind a legacy that will surpass you as a human being made out of physical components.
It’s really not about the material world, it’s about the spirit that continues to live. It might sound kind of paradoxical speaking as someone who is designing products, but for me fashion is more than just things. It’s the message that’s being sent through it.
Kind of like poetry.
Speaking of poetry... LOVE!
With this we are finishing this interview and I will highly recommend to visit Katarina’s pages to see more of her work:
https://www.notjustalabel.com/tvvvin?
https://www.instagram.com/tvvvin/
Have a lovely evening everybody and see you soon!
Love, Ena
Welcome everyone!
For those who know me, this might not be a big surprise since they know how much I love talking and giving my opinion on lots of topics! :) For those who don’t know me, my name is Ena (actually Jelena is my real name, but I prefer using my nickname) and I am a Berlin based photographer and an art enthusiast. I originally come from Belgrade, Serbia (go on the map and find it since I’m pretty sure most of you have no clue what I’m talking about haha). I have recently graduated in Photography but before starting to study photography, I spent 2 years in the Architecture university, which even though I love architecture wasn’t something I felt like doing for the rest of my life. Since early childhood I have shown my artistic interest and beside painting and drawing I do remember these early cameras that in my family I was always the one to use. Acting was yet another activity that I enjoyed and practiced for a while.