"Hyatt" - The In Place

Andjelka Slijepcevic is a fashion designer and professor at the Costume department of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. She was awarded the Life Achievement award by the Association of Applied Arts Artists of Serbia this summer. After WW2 Slijepcevic organized the first fashion show in Belgrade, gathered together models and educated designers at the Applied Arts Academy...

VREME: What has happened to Yugoslavia's fashion? It used to follow world standards once?

We have always followed fashion trends, but industrial production only started after WW2. Our small, and at the time unassuming and primitive environment had difficulty in raising its standard of living. In 1948 the Academy of Applied Arts was founded in Belgrade, with a department for studying fashion and textiles. As far as "Yugoslav fashion" is concerned, it is based on tradition and the modern way of life, just like in other countries, and is an expression of needs and customs which can be interesting to others. I believe that one day many foreigners will wish to wear clothes made here according to world standards.

VREME: We don't lack in fashion shows. Does this have to do with trendiness or fashion in the real sense of the word?

Life has never been lived at this pace before, there has never been so much improvisation, spending, trend following and false values. Fashion shows have become a real mania. Only places of worship have been spared these spectacles. This need by self-styled businessmen to promote all sorts of nonsense in the "Hyatt" Hotel is ridiculous because such multi-media spectacles are not fashion shows, and they should be called otherwise and have a different content. People wish to have a good time and this need should be fulfilled, but not at the expense of a profession which has an entirely different task. I have always been interested in the fundamentals - how to develop our profession. The problem lies in the fact that no one does market research, so that clothes are created for a public we do not know. Another thing - standard measurements were taken here thirty years ago! At the same time, people who are hungry wear what they have and do not think of following fashion trends. Even when they have money they are not interested in what the experts will tell them, but in buying more and better than their neighbors. I hope that the opening of borders will force the industry to employ experts and that they will think of all this.

VREME: Kitsch and what to do about it, is another challenge faced by your profession.

Kitsch dressing is the natural consequence of a great migration from the villages to the cities. These are people who wish to become townspeople as soon as possible, they have money and are uneducated and they look for kitsch. Kitsch has invaded our environment without much resistance, and can be found in fashion, music and in our apartments. It cannot be eradicated, but it can be bridged gradually. This should be done with some kind of plan in mind.