site.btaDesigner Ivan Donev: Our Mission for This Year Is to Present New, Modern Face of Bulgaria

Fashion education in Bulgaria is really starting to take on a global look, world-known Bulgarian designer Ivan Donev said in an interview for BTA. The designer, who works in Italy, was in Ankara to prepare a fashion show. He visited the BTA press club in the Turkish capital. 

"We have to show that we know how to modernize culture, to show it in a new way. Our mission for this year is precisely the presentation of a new face of Bulgaria," Donev told BTA's correspondent in Ankara Nora Cholakova.

Following is the full text of the interview.

Mr. Donev, how long have you been doing fashion design? 

I have been doing fashion design since I graduated from the International Academy of Haute Couture and Art of Costume (Koefia) in Rome, that is since 2013, when I debuted for the first time in front of the fashion world in Italy, at Rome Fashion Week.

What exactly drew you to this activity, more specifically to this art? You are also a musician.

That is what I studied in Bulgaria. I graduated in folk singing, tambura and folk dancing, however God chose another path for me. All sorts of things happened in my life for me not to sing, not to dance. I went to Italy with the idea of studying stage design, but fashion found me there. And I found a love for this art that I never suspected. But my mother has always been a seamstress, so I have secretly watched her work. And maybe that's where my direction was and it found me. 

What inspires you the most and, more specifically, what inspires your collections?

The truth is that I don't have one particular inspiration, because sometimes I am inspired even by emotions - by sadness, by love, by happiness. I am also very impressed by architecture - both ancient and modern architecture. So when an artist is in a phase of exploration, of searching for inspiration, there even the most unexpected can inspire him and he can surprise himself. 

And does nature inspire you?

Yes. One of the new models, actually, of the ones I will show here in Ankara and in Tokyo, is dedicated to clean oceans. So I have also found a place of ecology, there I will recycle materials so that the model will be dedicated specifically to clean oceans and seas. 

Is it difficult to make it into fashion design? We know that you have also won many prestigious international awards. What does it take most for a success besides talent, of course?

Both I and the people who have observed my work can call it a real breakthrough, and not because I judge it so, not because I have talent, but because I can represent myself well. Because to make it into the fashion world in Italy, which is the cradle of fashion, and to be called by the Italian media "the adopted designer of Made in Italy", that is more than recognition. A few months ago in Italy, I received the recognition of the craftsmen and artists, which is another huge recognition for me: to be accepted by their guild and to be appreciated, given that you are a foreigner. To be successful is to be international. To be international is not to travel the world, but to know the world, to be able to "adopt" other peoples' cultures, to make them your own, or at the very least, to exhaust everything positive from all those cultures and not be able to recognize yourself even in your own, but to feel international precisely by knowing and respecting other people's cultures.

In your opinion, is it difficult to be a fashion designer in our homeland Bulgaria?

Yes. We struggle to be modern, to be European, but at the same time we still have some relatively outdated notions of what is modern. We have another nice transition to make to accept fashion as it is today, because unfortunately what people see is that Haute Couture is only shown in its "exaggerated experimental form". 

Firstly, Haute Couture is not a style, it is a way of making a garment. It can be made on a machine and not be called Haute Couture, but just because it is eccentric people define it as Haute Couture. However, it is not. It is Haute when it has been sewn by hand, when hundreds of hours have been worked on that dress, when over 85% of the garment has been made by hand. It is the technique of making that is superior, not the look of the garment. 

We have a lot to learn about the technique of making clothes, but I am extremely proud because Bulgaria is making great strides towards this. I'm proud of the fact that I'm working with Bulgarian design universities and many of my colleagues in Bulgaria are young people who travel the world, see what other universities around the world have to offer in terms of techniques and methods and are starting to apply them in Bulgaria. So, education in Bulgaria in relation to fashion is really starting to take on a global look, which makes me proud because I myself have a competition for young designers in Bulgaria - Tailor Your Mind, which is part of the Bulgarian fashion show that is held every year in Bulgaria. We always award a Bulgarian talent with a scholarship to upgrade, to educate themselves in fashion, in Rome, in the oldest Italian academy for Haute Couture. 

Can you tell us more about the competition?

The competition is coming up now in September - from September 26 to 28, at International Fair Plovdiv. Four Italian professors from the Koefia Academy are coming. These are actually my professors who made me the designer I am today. So for three days we will be teaching Haute Couture, fashion technique, and from the finalists we will select the best and accordingly the jury will have their hard word on who the one-year scholarship to study in Rome will go to. 

The theme this year is architecture and textiles. So we challenged the young Bulgarian talents to look for inspiration from architecture. We are proud that the Bulgarian fashion show is the biggest charity event in the field of fashion and design education, because the participation of all Bulgarian universities, academies, schools and institutes is free of charge. I am happy that there is such a private event in Bulgaria, open to the state culture without reservation and with great love for education. 

Are there currently many young Bulgarian talents in your field?

There are, I can't say whether there are many or few, but there are quality ones. There is a saying in Italy, "Few but good", which is the most important thing. So we - fashion and design teachers - are the ones who have to weed out and encourage the best, because the best always wins. It is our mission to turn fashion into culture in Bulgaria, to make people understand that we are not crazy creative designers. And to understand that what is seen on the world's fashion shows is not the work of a crazy person, but it is "the ultimate genius of the artist in fashion to transform something that is not typical of its natural form, to turn it into a soft good-looking and, at the same time, breathtaking sight". 

I am obliged to defend this art, because unfortunately for many people fashion is just an industry, a means of making money. I even agree to accept it as a business, but when Bulgaria stands behind these businesses, then we will agree to be called a business and not art. Until then we will promote it as art so that we can be appreciated as artists.  

For whom would you most like to design a beautiful garment?

I am a huge fan of Lili Ivanova. And this is probably the Bulgarian woman for whom I would create a garment with a lot of love and a very strong feeling. Of world individuals, I probably have a great weakness for Julia Roberts. I would love to dress her, but the world is full of beautiful women, so every woman deserves to be dressed beautifully. 

What can you tell us about your upcoming fashion show initiative in Ankara?

This is a wonderful project that is being implemented thanks to the projects of the Foreign Ministry, of the State Cultural Institute with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I would like to thank Mr. Cholakov, Mrs. Arabadzhieva, our ambassadors in Ankara and Tokyo, because these are the first two embassies that accepted the debut of this project to be with them, to host it. I would also like to thank the Director of the State Cultural Institute for her support and for her spontaneous love to create something beautiful, to show Bulgaria in a modern way.

Yes, we are used to present Bulgaria through the traditional folk costume, through the Bulgarian rose, the yogurt and the folklore, but with all the love I have for folklore, I think that the time has come for us to show Bulgaria in a modern way, to show what Bulgaria is giving birth to today, to show its new face. 

It will have our traditional aspect, but it will not be the folk costume, it will be a work that I have named "From the golden hands of our grandmothers and mothers". The dress, which will be dedicated to Bulgaria, will be created by many Bulgarian women from all over Bulgaria. I posted this goal of mine a few days ago on Facebook.  I told myself that we won't be able to find and organize quickly, because of the deadlines, the craftsmen who will knit it out of Karlovo lace, but we all keep in our racks and closets a plaid knitted by our grandmothers or mothers. So now people from all over Bulgaria are donating plaids to make this dream come true of making a giant white dress out of braided white plaids. We will show Bulgaria through the work of the Bulgarian woman. I will have the task of making this beautiful giant white dress with the donated plaids knitted by Bulgarian women. This way we will tell a true story.

In the second stage there will be a project that will be mapping. We will tell the whole journey of the ethnographic areas of Bulgaria through lasers, light and music on the white lace knitted by these women. 

I hope to impress the Turkish audience, the Japanese audience. I hope this will not be the first and the last event, that we have even more opportunities, to really show Bulgaria with a new face, with a modern face, with trends and that they start to see it as a modern and renewing country. 

We need to show that we know how to modernise culture, to preserve it above all, but to show it in a new way. This must be done so that today's generations can 'adopt' it, make it part of their own culture. Since generations are now living through TikTok, through Instagram and Facebook, we need to be part of that generation for it to be as mature and us, as modern and young as them in order to pass on our traditions in a modern way.
 
Our mission for this year is to present a new face of Bulgaria.