Designer Silvio Vujičić, exploring and creating luciously, sublimely subversive clothing for discerning eyes – and bodies.

It’s been a couple of years now since Silvio Vujičić (b. 1978), then a young student at Zagreb’s Faculty of Textile Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts, was touted in the media as one of the most promising Croatian fashion designers. Models cut out of auxiliary, marginal tailoring materials like non-woven interlining or tailoring paper, seriously explored the national ethnic heritage; and, bizarrely enough, in a shift of perception, ended up achieving something of a Japanese-like character. He publicly scorned fashion shows and the fashion industry: in a 2002 show for the opening of the ‘Here Tomorrow’ exhibition, clothes tailored from coloured crepe paper literally fell apart after being on the models a mere 20 minutes.
The exhibition that brought him the Rector’s Prize in 2003 was held in the white void of a gallery, and its inaccessibility was painful for every honest consumer there: irresistible clothes perforated with threatening pins chained to the stands in the bleak white of a fictitious store. Later, the project “Exposed to virus and fashion”, among the laureates of last year’s Zagreb Salon, consisted of a collection cut from material that had deliberately been infected by a virus in the production process. The items – with woven barcode motifs and left to the destructive impulses of the machine – were worn by porn actors who, as objects of lust, are more or less constantly exposed to the threat of the near-fashionable AIDS virus.
In spite of the wide range of subversive and ambivalent strategies that are Silvio’s fashion activism – interwoven with a strong sense of artistic autonomy – his clothes surprise with their friendly relationship with your body. Forget terms like ‘comfortable’, ‘wearable’ or ‘practical’; but it is important that Silvio’s clothes, rich with near-anarchistic humour, are conceived and produced in a highly responsible and intelligent way. You won’t go unnoticed in these clothes, but nor will they steal any of your precious time.

JJ It seems your fashion expeditions, leading to a testing of the limits of various materials – threads, fabrics, prints, embroidery materials – are an excuse to explore the interaction between material and the human environment. What materials are you exploring at the moment?
SV At the moment researching new prints, silicones and crystals (on the market), working to invent new materials and later, the forms. I’m very much into chemistry lately, waiting for some new chemical reaction to take place.

JJ When we think of the project “Exposed to virus and fashion” you cooperated with ex-giants of the garment and footwear industry, such as TZK and Borovo. Having had that experience, will you continue cooperating with garment and footwear factories in your explorations?
SV I honestly don’t know. I’m not sure those Croatian ‘giants’ are really willing to explore. What they produce are established products that have been on the market for the last 50 years. Innovations appear interesting for most of them, but they rarely decide to produce them. Even if they do, the market remains too small because they don’t want to invest in the marketing. (I could also mention the general lack of taste – based on ignorance – which seems to prevail in this country.) Because of my experiences, I started my own production. At least I’m no longer a freak for people in industry, and I’m not setting impossible tasks for them either. I just do all the ‘impossible’ things by myself or with the help of collaborators.

JJ Even if it is hard to categorise or label you professionally, your work is unquestionably attractive and very accepted (and thus somehow slotted) by the media. But might you not become fed up with that label?
SV People tend to label others, then they think they know how to position you and it’s easier for them to use your name. It’s like computers: you open the folders and you put those documents in you find similar. Then the problem appears: how to put the same documents in more folders? Usually people chose one folder, the one which appears the most in the media.
It’s the fashion that’s highly attractive for people who don’t know better. I assume it’s because people like to examine other people, especially if those people are beautiful and half-naked – and that idea of fashion is created precisely by the media.
For those with brains, fashion is more than fun.

JJ You have a well-respected costume design opus, you’ve worked with big national theatres and independent groups. What type of collaboration feels good at the moment?
SV It’s easier to work with independent groups, you don’t have to make so many compromises. Working in national theatres can be interesting at the outset, but soon you have to fight to bring your ideas to realisation. I’ve never been satisfied with costume designs made for national theatres – they were all compromises. It probably has something to do with the directors, and the difficulty of materialising ideas. I think, however, their biggest problem is production, which is, unfortunately, lost somewhere in the Middle Ages – not unlike a lot of other things here.
Author: Jasna Jaksic, with designer Silvio Vujičić
Photos: Špela Kasal