A.P.monde - FASHIONCLASH Festival 2017

photo Christina Stohn

Meet Anja Perisic. She designs Kimonos for her brand A.P.monde, She also designs costumes for stage productions and develops patterns for the brand Ann Demeulemeester. 9 years ago she finished her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee. Anja was born in Sarajevo, but grew up in Antwerp, Belgium. She lived in Berlin for a while and now she’s back in Belgium. Anja always knew that she wanted to work in the field of design. She grew up between art galleries and theaters. Choosing to make design her profession felt very natural for her. The real surprise was starting her own business. She has worked for great minds like Ann Demeulemeester, Terry Gilliam, Christoph Waltz and Jan Fabre. But winning Fashion One’s first season of Design Genius gave her the mental and financial boost she needed to create her own brand, so far Anja’s biggest pride and joy. At the moment Anja is designing the next A.P.monde collection. She’s developing patterns for Ann Demeulemeester 2018 and she’s mentoring a master costume design program at the Antwerp Academy. The thing she loves most about her profession is how we need to go through various stages in order to develop a new design. Research, sourcing, drawing, experimenting (when there is time), development of a collection, shoots, marketing, sales, and then it all starts all over again. Each time the journey takes you somewhere new and unexpected. That to Anja is exhilarating.

Flora Miranda at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015

These are probably the most futuristic designs of the upcoming edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival.
Flora Miranda, who was born and raised in Austria, had been experiencing art since her early years - her artistic roots shared the genes of creativity Her childhood and youth was filled with many artistic achievements, what resuled in graduating at Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Discover the creative world of Flora Miranda while reading the Designer Profile below.

Flora Miranda is presenting her work in the Fashion Show Program, the Gender exhibition and SHOWPIECES expo at de Bijenkorf.

How would you describe your work ?  Have you shown your collections before, if so, where ?  What is your most name worthy achievement up to now in relation to fashion?

The clothes I create are expressive, extravagant and experimental. What technique I apply really depends on the specific project and I do not want to limit my work by describing it through words at this moment. I rather stay open minded to treat each project individually; if I feel the importance to create in a way I never did before then I won´t hesitate to take this freedom. Eventually I find myself creating explicit characters through my designs who look as much part of another world as many of us feel and wish to be born in a totally apart dimension. By instance I would dress you up in a lasershow inspired garment from a rhythmic pattern of red green and blue fake fur that mixes in movement of your body to iridescent rainbow colors. Then we would see what happens - how would you move? I find it very exciting to observe how one reacts to a certain garment - the garment itself can make you do things you would otherwise never have thought of. This power can be used in so many different ways…

Who are your artistic influences or inspirations and why? 
I am especially attentive to the human body, physical border experiences, our perception, societal observations, conversations, music and art in general. A person that inspires me since a long time on various levels is the artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. His vast spectrum of musical output throughout his life in collaboration with other artists (who then were forming bands like Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle or Thee Majesty) is absolutely fascinating in combination to his manifestly views on the world and eventually the love story of his life with Lady Jaye: They performed plastic surgery on their bodies until they looked like the same human being. To look into such ideas gives me so much energy and drive!