For a while now I am following your work
and the way you showcase it. You are not keen to show at media events and to
speak publically, what is the reason behind it?
One of my friends interprets my avoidance of media as a
paranormal behavior (even when I do attend a media event) and he saids that
paranormal is always IN. I don't have a special reason for not showing up at
media events, I do come if I am interested and invited but I am aware that I am perceived as a private and shy person.
Your pieces seem to be made with „real“
everyday women in mind, they are wearable, romantic, seductive, how would you
describe your average client? Who is she?
For me, all women are divas! They walk every day over
invisible red carpet to work, to pick up their kids at the kindergarten, to
meet a friend for a coffee or to go out clubbing at night. My clients are
working, urban women who wants to be elegant all day long, but still quite chic
when it is appropriate. I nurture retro chic style of designing clothes, I want
and try to create timeless pieces or to redesign historically timeless pieces.
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Photos: www.moda.hr editorial
In one of your interview I have read that
you would like to design shoes. Do you have any concrete plans in that
department currently? Which Croatian producer did you have in mind? Would you
have your own brand of shoes?
All that I wanted to do so far in life I managed to do, but on a
bit different way. However designing shoes has remained my unfulfilled wish
unfortunately so far. I would
definitely design my own collection, the only company technically capable to
produce a proper shoe in Croatia is Borovo factory in Vukovar.
Footwear is different then clothing, in shoe making millimeters matter, if you make a minor mistake that shoe is no good anymore, it is very
hard to make a good quality shoe!
Past March you have presented your 10th
collection for local clothing brand Mak. How satisfied are you with this
cooperation? Is it more profitable and safer for Croatian designer to build his
own brand or to work for an established clothing brand? What are advantages and
disadvantages based on your experience?
Based on positive media and client feedback
on my last show, which I had on last Cro-a-porter, I am very happy with my long
term cooperation with Mak clothing brand. I am very proud that I managed to
build up Mak brand with my collections in Croatian market.
To have own clothing brand is an ultimate goal of
every fashion designer. I design my own line under the name Teo.P, this brand
is idle at the moment. Mak clothing brand collections I sign as Teo Perić. For a number of seasons now I have in
parallel design as a contributor for numerous fashion houses and my own brands (which is 4 collections a
year).
To have own line means having your own design style
and creative freedom and to take upon all of the responsibility for the results.
Designing for other clothing brands means designing within a predetermined
frame for already existing customer pool. Creating two totally different
collections in style is quite exhausting and demanding, but every real love
story hurts a bit, so does this mine fashion love story.
Why do you show your collections at
Cro-a-porter? Do you think there are to many fashion events in Croatia?
I have tremendous respect towards the organizer Viktor
Drago who started this event 10 years ago and challenged all other local
events. I think Cro-a-porter is very
influential in branding of Croatian fashion designers and creating a local
fashion market. Thank you Viktor!
You were offered to move and work abroad
but you decided to stay in Croatia, why?
I see life as a puzzle which always misses one piece.
During 90's I was interested into working abroad, and in 1996. In Seoul I got
the offer from Ebenezer Company to stay and work in Korea. However, as I
returned back home I got offered a job as a main designer for the local fashion
brand Nebo.
After 6 years working for Nebo I have continued my
fashion journey with my own brand, store and a studio in the city center in
Zagreb.
Do you think that in today’s economy it is
important for a designer to be equally good business man as a talented designer?
It is quite rare that a talented designer
is also a capable business man. Designers are usually artists, artists are
cheap. In today’s economy, market and in fashion system, a talented fashion
team without a good businessman can hardly succeed. A successful international designer
brands lie on such designer- businessman collaborations.
Every season you show quite mature,
complete, good quality and wearable collections, you don’t follow trends much
and many of your pieces could be cold classics which can be worn season in and
season out. Do you think that women in Croatia recognize and appreciate well
made clothes or are we to focus on trends and name on the label?
Trend factor is a measure of quality for most, producer and a
shopper but also for some designer. I don't follow trends, I don't think I make
them; I focus on making timeless pieces.
Croatians are very fashion nation, especially women,
who very much appreciate and buy good quality fabrics and making. I come from a
family of tailors and clothes makers – my biggest role model is my late father
who was a tailor. My mother is a true fashionista with an amazing style and my
sisters have tought me all about trends, anti-trends, branded and unbranded
clothes.
Do you think that Croatian
designer made clothes can compete with price and quality with mass produced low
end brands like H&M and Zara?
No, but with Croatia entering EU I see more potential
of Croatian designers working with local clothing factories on mass factory
producing their collections and selling them globally. Current situation in
Croatian textile industry is not allowing this to happen.
How do you see the fashion bloggers, social
media and street style influencing fashion industry globally? Is this influence
positive or negative?
Fashion defines who we are; this is where I
think fashion bloggers came from a need to express ourselves, our personality,
through clothes we wear. I see this as a positive trend and influence on global
fashion industry as they inspire and leave no one ambiguous, which is good for
design and industry overall.
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