Montenegrin fashion designer Marina Banović will present their collection in early March in Italy as part of the MadMood Milano Fashion Week platform, which organizes fashion events as part of Milan Fashion Week.
Banović spoke in an interview with "Vijesti" about what she has prepared for the Italian and global audience that will visit Milan during this fashion event, and how the opportunity arose to present her work in that country again.
“My works will be presented on March 3rd, and I will be there from March 1st to 4th. The collaboration continued after my visit to the south of Italy last year with three fashion shows. The heart of Lubard (director of the Fashion Chamber of Montenegro and organizer of the Montenegro Fashion Week event) then received a letter of appreciation for promoting fashion designers from Southern Italy in Montenegro. And he has been really trying for years to give our Montenegrin fashion platform a slightly more serious dimension, as much as we can. They recognized it as a good form of cooperation. We spent 5-6 days in southern Italy then and they announced that I would receive an invitation for this year," Banović recalled.
In the meantime, the Montenegrin designer has presented her works in Moscow, and as she says, she is preparing ten new models for Milan that are a continuation of that story.
"They are also unconventional, they are made as a modern piece of clothing, but they contain elements of old national costumes. It just continues the story, which is just brought in a slightly different way in terms of color, now they are much warmer shades like brown and gold," she describes.
"What is characteristic and interesting is that in the last few years I have talked a lot about wool being thrown away, that it pollutes the environment, because there is no purchase in the north. And now in Moscow I dealt with this topic in a lecture, and that is why I included wool sweaters, not made of wool, but rather unprocessed sheared wool, and I have several models that are made of exactly that material," Banović points out, adding that all the finishing touches are done by hand and are in the theme of national costumes.
"The motif from the jamadan from the Montenegrin Orthodox costume is clearly defined and drawn through, there are also floral motifs on those sweaters, two or three complete sets go with the theme of the Albanian jamalet, which is very recognizable in shape. We also have trousers with the theme of the Muslim national costume and a vest. And we have a hand-woven plissé that is characteristic of the Serbian skirt, or rather from their costume, and a hand-woven cenar from Kosovo. The models cover the entire region, or rather the Balkans. I also have a Croatian costume from Slavonia, which I am considering whether to include in the collection," the interviewee of "Vijesti" lists.
She is responsible for the jewelry that accompanies the models. Olga Svedotova.
"The jewelry is very interesting and intriguing, it's handmade. It's a white 'look' that we redesigned and I had it in the display of my first collection twenty years ago. It's authentic and specially made for this occasion. All the fabrics are hand-woven, old national costumes have been restored, there are the forms of zubun, koreta, jeleka, žubeleta... it's that theme that you can't get out of, but it's completely different now," the fashion designer points out.
With the same collection, but in an expanded edition, we will also open Montenegrin Fashion Week in the spring.
"I am proud of all these models, because they are not for sale or commercial purposes, but something that is beautiful and interesting to display and brings the spirit, tradition and habits of this region that I am from - a very small Montenegro, but colorful, because we have three national costumes and identities, very pronounced and preserved," she concludes and emphasizes that the musical background will be a song dedicated to the Orthodox monastery in Albania, in Elbasan - St. John Vladimir, and the music will "cover" the entire region.
When asked how much the Italian audience differs from the Montenegrin one, Banović answers that the first difference is precisely in its approach.
"What I do is different, I don't go there with the intention of getting that market for sale, because what I wear is more like installations and exhibition models and is receptive to the eye to look at and analyze and emphasizes the preservation of old craft skills. The Italian audience finds it interesting. That's why they are delighted again. It was the same last year when I presented models made of hemp, linen and hand-woven materials that I bought in Albania. That presentation was accompanied by the song Boža Vreća 'Po ladu, po zalada' and they were delighted with both the music and the materials...", she recalled.
Banović has two decades of work in the fashion industry behind her, and as she says, she never had any nervousness before presenting her work at the beginning of her career, and therefore she doesn't expect it now either.
"I'm not one of those who has stage fright, and I have people in my team who would sew and embroider something until the last day, redo and repair it, and question themselves. I don't have that moment, I do everything early and finish it and then I'm calm. It's been that way for 20 years and nothing has changed. I don't even have stage fright before the fashion show or exhibition itself, and not even now in Moscow, which was something completely new and unexplored for me, where there were a large number of designers who were doing similar work. Where people from all over the world who are into national costumes, research, and where you can measure whether you're equal to them, and even then I didn't have stage fright, because I stand very firmly behind my works, sketches, statements... and these are stories, which are not literal, but visual," she continues.
The Montenegrin fashion designer also creates commercial collections, artistic collections for presentation abroad, often creates uniforms for companies or Montenegrin athletes or national teams, and in addition to all that, she also teaches as a professor. All of this, as she says, she achieves with the help of her team.
"I have a good team that works with me and that doesn't show off, but I like to praise them, because they are very responsible, sometimes more than me, and they are precise when it comes to dates and deadlines," says the teacher at the "Spasoje Raspopović" secondary school, and she takes the opportunity to praise her students as well.
"Every year we enroll a new generation of fashion designers and tailors, and we have a lot of activities with them. The last thing we did was cooperate with the Natural History Museum. They made a collection of 20 models inspired by protected plant and animal species. The exhibition was in Cetinje, and now on Sunday we will present it on Durmitor in cooperation with the National Parks, TO Žabljak and the National Tourism Organization. In addition, we have extracurricular activities and humanitarian work, so they also made toys and they are very active," said Banović.
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