Interview with Jelena Đukanović: Fashion as a game and spiritual upgrade

"Buy little, choose well and make it yourself", is the attitude of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Fashion creator, textile designer and stylist Jelena Đukanović, the woman who was cited as Westwood number one in the world of fashion, thinks something similar.

Very early, thanks to her grandmother, mother and aunt, she started playing with cloths and tinkering with the sewing machine, and when she became a teenager, her first creations were created.

"Back then, there were no big and mass fashion brands and boutiques, and anyone who wanted to be different, to have something special to wear, had to invent and sew it themselves. I used to do that too. In that school, and then student, poverty, you could make a dress, a blouse with half a meter of material. Maybe it wasn't so perfectly stitched, but that didn't matter because it was a creation, something new, interesting and only mine. The biggest compliments at that time came from friends who came to sew for them, and I must admit that there was a demand on the market", says the creator with a smile, who graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts, Department of Textiles, in Belgrade, and earned her master's degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts, sculpture department, in Cetinje.

In her student days, she admits, sewing was a good source of income, and everyone was satisfied with her creations. Especially the customers of the "Elephant" boutique, which was located under the National Theater and for which she sewed coats. They were so good that they all caught fire so that not a single piece is saved, and she admits that she would be happy to wear them today.

At the university, they used a lot of traditional weaving techniques and transposed them into a spatial tapestry, went to museums, and Ethnographic, as he says, was a real nursery and source of information. Since then, and perhaps even earlier, her love for traditional weaving began, so that all her author's collections, and so far there are more than ten, are a combination of traditional and modern. They were inspired by the textile cultural heritage of Montenegro and were shown in Italy, Greece, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

"That inspiration in that traditional textile simply imposes itself. It is probably in our genetic code and it is close to us. These are techniques that I find fascinating because they are minimalistic in a way. It's fascinating that with so few materials, artistic entities and works were created that are still admired in museums today and can travel the world," says Đukanović, who founded the Textile Design Studio "Sof Sof" in 2005.

The collection that attracted the most attention of the public is "Bauo, the Pashtrovska chest", inspired by the Pashtrovska folk costume.

"It was one of the first, if not the first Montenegrin collection, and it was also inspired by the textile heritage of Montenegro. It caused a lot of attention, it was shown a lot. Based on that collection, I made fashion dresses, many girls from Paštrović got married in one of those dresses. That collection lives on for a long time and is always current", says the creator, who was declared the entrepreneur of the year by the Chamber of Crafts and Entrepreneurship of Montenegro in 2009, not without pride.

The collection that is very close to her is "Manine" because it is the most sculptural.

"It consists of six models that form a compact whole, and yet each one is interesting in its own right. It looks different every time, depending on whether I'm on the dolls or models are wearing models, what I want to tell with it".

And it is her collections, her work, that speak for her. That, among other things, is the point of fashion - to tell a story about us.

"Fashion is a way of life. We tell others about ourselves through it. It is a non-verbal way of communication. I've been following this path with the 'Fashion intelligence' group for the third year now, and together we work on raising awareness of fashion, building fashion integrity and personal style. For me, it's a game and a spiritual upgrade of everything," says the creator who often combines fashion and art in her works and who can't imagine her wardrobe without dresses.

Theatrical costumes are the work of her hands

Đukanović also works as a costume designer and is the author of costumes for over 20 theater plays, nine TV dramas, seven feature films, more than 20 commercials and TV spots, five scenographies, TV series.

"I find myself everywhere, because everything is my field. Walking from area to area just adds dynamism and variety to the work I do and is very inspiring. I would finish one job and immediately do something else. I have a restless spirit so that comes in handy. Maybe I would be bored if I only did one type of work," says Jelene, who, as things stand now, will be succeeded in the business by her daughter Sofija, who is a high school student. Genes and love for fashion and textiles take their toll.

I would like to go to a Japanese studio and see how they work

He makes a big difference between designer and commercial fashion shows. She enjoys the first ones more because she only "listens" to herself, while in the commercial shows she has to listen to the voice of the clients as well, although her stamp is inevitable in them as well.

"In commercial fashion shows I have to take care of the comfort and wearability of the material, while in the models for the exhibition I don't have to do any of that. I let my imagination run wild and do my own thing," says Đukanović.

She would like to work like Vivienne Westwood, she prefers British and Italian designers to French ones, and Japanese ones are "out of competition".

"The Japanese are a different world to me and their designers are beyond any competition. Probably in accordance with their culture they have that special treatment of form and material. I would like to go to a Japanese studio to see how they do it".

If, she believes, the creator divides the work into commercial and author's work, then one can make a living from fashion. It's not easy, he admits, but quality always emerges. You just need to invest in yourself and your education and love what you do.

"In recent seasons, there has been a noticeable simplification of cuts, which brings us back to traditional tailoring when there were not so many cuts and details. The trend is simplification, schematization and simplification of form," says Đukanović.

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