{"id":39615,"date":"2014-11-03T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=39615"},"modified":"2015-01-17T18:40:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T17:40:44","slug":"ones-watch-krasimira-ivanova-stoynena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2014\/11\/03\/ones-watch-krasimira-ivanova-stoynena\/","title":{"rendered":"Ones to Watch: Krasimira Ivanova-Stoynena"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s never a bad hair day when Krasimira Ivanova-Stoyneva and her \u2018Future Queens\u2019 collection are around<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Future queens arise. Krasimira Ivanova-Stoyneva is designing for bold, brave people who aren\u2019t afraid of a little colour. Or hair. The Bulgarian designer\u2019s debut collection transformed hair into vibrant prints that swished with attitude. Taking inspiration from a wide variety of cultures, it\u2019s hard to place exactly where around the globe each shade and pattern originates from. Krasimira\u2019s textural talent hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. She recently won the MUUSE x VOGUE Talents \u2013 Young Vision Award 2014 where she will get to design a capsule collection that will be sold under her own name.<\/p>\n We spoke to Krasimira and got some insight into her graduate collection and what she\u2019s up to next.<\/p>\n Tell us about your journey into fashion design.<\/b><\/p>\n My family have deep roots in tailoring. I was surrounded by expert craftsmen and women and learnt how to sew at a young age. I remember waiting for everyone to fall asleep and then getting my mum\u2019s machine and sewing during the night, so I could make a new outfit for the next day. I was studying fine art at the time but I think the excitement of doing something I wasn\u2019t allowed to and getting away with it moved my focus to fashion. The pace of creating garments and the thrill of wearing what I made really excited me! Fine art felt too slow so I opted to pursue a degree in fashion design. I studied at the University of East London where I learnt how to research and develop ideas. It really opened my eyes to what I could achieve in the industry.<\/p>\n Describe your ‘Future Queens’ collection.<\/b><\/p>\n Bold, fun, empowering, creative, free. It\u2019s a mixture of all my experiences and emotions. The inspiration for the collection came from exploring London. All the madness and creativity that comes with it; all the boundaries it holds; all the mixture of cultures. It\u2019s so colourful and varied – you never feel like things are stagnant here. I researched a lot of different cultures for print and silhouette ideas and focused on layer development in textiles to reflect my observations.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So why hair?<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s a long story. I studied on a course called creative make up and wigs for stage design and managed to attend some haircutting lessons. I didn’t really consider it as a technique that I might use in my design process, but I researched Peter Gray \u2013 an amazing hairdresser who works on garments. The work was so expressive and inspired me to put my own take on it. There\u2019s a lot of interesting hair dressing cultures in London.\u00a0 I wanted to capture the complexity and pride that goes into the craft.<\/p>\n There must have been some challenges in working with hair? <\/b><\/p>\n Engineering the placement of the hair to correspond with the digital prints that I had developed was very difficult. The appliqu\u00e9 and cutting was a laborious task as I had to be sure I could make the pieces dynamic. Also, working with A LOT of hair is pretty messy! Some of my pieces became very heavy due to the amount of hair I needed to perfect the look. I\u2019d probably limit the amount of hair I used for production. I wouldn\u2019t want to give all my customers shoulder ache!<\/p>\n Your designs move beautifully. Was movement an important factor in your collection? <\/b><\/p>\n Yes, it was. My research included images of dancers and monuments. From my previous experience with hair, I found that my understanding of cutting techniques to work with body movement helped me achieve the look I wanted.\u00a0 People don\u2019t stand still all day so I never wanted to design with a static outcome in mind.<\/p>\n The entire collection is lively and empowering especially the name: \u2018Future Queens\u2019. Who would you like to see wearing your designs? <\/b><\/p>\n Anyone who is confident, fun and not afraid to dress as boldly and brightly as their personality tells them to.<\/p>\n