BFW Design Collective at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2016

'New spirit of Heritage / Savremen život kulturnog nasleđa' exhibition at Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade open from 13th of June until 19th of June.

BFW Design Collective at FASHIONCLASH Festival - Heritage Exhibition, July 1 + 2 at SAMdecorfabriek Maastricht.

BFW Design Collective will present a unique blend of traditional Slavic elements created by Serbian designers such Tamara Radivojevic, Jelena & Svetlana Prokovic, Evica Milovanov Penezic and Ana Ljubinkovic.
BFW DESIGN COLLECTIVE as an association gathers professionals from the domain of fashion
has created a network that connects more than 80 independent Serbian designers.
The association was officially founded under the aegis of Belgrade Fashion Week 2 years ago. But generally we cooperate with Serbian designers in this way for 20 years now. The Belgrade Fashion Week puts an emphasis on linking the local fashion scene with the nearby markets and leading world fashion centers.

Describe yourself in three words. 
Designers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

What are your main achievements so far? 
We are searching for relevant partners, projects and possibilities for development and improvement of the local fashion sector.

In what projects are you involved at this moment? 
Our association is working actively on several programs at the moment: promoting Serbian designers abroad - FASHIONCLASH for starters; preparing a promotion for London Fashion Week; helping designer develop their brands in various way in the scope of numerous fashion and art projects that are scheduled for this summer; preparing various educational seminars and workshops held by various renowned fashion experts in autumn; working on the next edition of Fashion Incubator - a project intended for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students from the local fashion academies where members of our association are engaged as mentors of these talented young people; finally, involved in organising the 40th edition of Belgrade Fashion Week – a complex fashion and art project which has going on for 20 years now.

How would you define fashion? 
Fashion is an iconoclastic form of art which pushes the boundaries of human creativity, tears down various taboos and represents an everlasting source of growth, change, affluence, freedom and joy. 

What do you want to communicate with your designs in general? 
The main goal of BFW Design Collective is to support independent designers as generators of the Serbian fashion and cultural scene. Designers are facing a wide range of difficulties: inadequate business models, insufficient financial resources, the lack of institutional support, insufficient development programs...That’s why the Association tends to enable sustainability of independent fashion designers’ business and to establish the value system based on quality and originality.

images source
letelaste.blogspot.nl/2016/06/etnografski-muzej-nesto-novo-nesto.html

What can we expect from you at the festival? 
BFW Design Collective will be presenting a unique blend of traditional elements, distinctive Oriental and Occidental influences, modern lines and silhouettes. We truly believe that differences can be blended in a powerful and stimulating manner, not just produce a clash with devastating results. We also want to show that elements of our heritage are not just a never-ending source of inspiration for designers, but also a vessel for keeping heritage and traditions alive, for pondering over who we are and where we are going as individuals and a society, and for creating a new kind of legacy to be passed onto generations to come who will leave their own mark onto a magnificent ability of human being and that is: to create. We truly believe that FASHIONCLASH FESTIVAL enables designers and artists to learn from and about each other, to broaden their horizons, to take an active part in their society and to stimulate others to do the same. Therefore, we are coming with a lot of positive energy, a huge smile and an open mind to join FASHIONCLASH community and give our fair share of contribution to this festivity.

Can you tell us something about your heritage? 
In short, our heritage could be described as a pulsating confluence of contrasts: the East and the West, the urban and rural, the individual and the universal etc.

How is the theme Heritage related to your work (can be also preferred to previous work)? 
We strongly believe in the idea of heritage as a base of contemporary creativity.

Ana Ljubinković "Cloudwalker" Collection S/S 2016
Marina Krtinic {Fox Models} by Milos Nadazdin 

(How) do you reflect your personal heritage into your design(s)? 
Every individual creator has her/his own way... Our goal is to get to know these ways and to present them to the public. Eventually, by spreading the word about Serbian contemporary fashion, we will be telling a tale about our heritage, colourful customs, creative ideas and aesthetical views and many things more, because fashion is a means of cultural exchange – one of the best!

If you could trade your heritage, for what would you trade it? 
It goes without saying that heritage, among other things, unquestionably shapes an individual’s entire being in so many tangible and intangible ways. However, we feel that the focus should not be on what we would do with our heritage, but on what kind of heritage we shall be leaving to generations to come.

http://belgradefashionweek.com