“The importance of understanding your own aesthetics and sticking to your own philosophy as an artist.”
- Idea of buying fashion as an art piece.

INSIDE THE HEAD OF the artist, designer
MATIC VELER.

Matic Veler is a young fashion designer whose approach to fashion is unique in the sense of how he perceives fashion as art, and at the same time tries to avoid massive production of clothes and the well- known fashion industry. The importance of understanding our aesthetics, especially as an artist, and to have a common thread of sticking to one’s work philosophy will always be his priority. Nowadays, art can be very superficial and with no strong background to back it up with a good story. His idea is to buy fashion as an art piece - a statue, not just to wear it and store it in the closet, fashion as piece of art.

 

He finished his studies at Royal College of Art in London, where he studied fashion womenswear. Fashion as art, making installations, dresses in space, statues has always been his priority, as well as the way of thinking about how to present his work. The most important step of the study was the beginning of a "simple" question: Why does he like certain aesthetics and why and how does he
project it in his own work? Driven to get to know and understand his work, he started to uncover and professionally research his background of growing up and developing his own aesthetics. This is how he started to understand his work and since then he has strongly believed in the idea that as an artist it is very important to be true to yourself, to understand yourself, your aesthetics and the philosophy behind your work.

He would call his work philosophy divided between worlds. The story he tells is that back home in Slovenia he grew up surrounded by the modern, socialistic architecture, made of sterile concrete structures with no art history or direction. This absence of art made him become an even bigger admirer of especially 17th, 18th century, where he discovered all the ornaments and magnificent artistic skill of the greatest masters of the time. This is how his inspiration and passion for art was born.

This extraordinary way of thinking and his wish of being able to be born back in 17th, 18th century, enjoying all the magnificent environments of baroque interiors, made him fall in love with cosy, romantic feelings, full of mystery and magic environments. He loves to project these sensations into his work, combining them with his own aesthetic philosophy.

The contrasts between the brutality of the concrete, the softness of the lines of the Baroque aesthetics and the beauty of magic, makes him think about the contrasts between them and how to translate them into his creations, using different techniques and materials. It is all about contrasting elements:  Matic uses Baroque architecture details and ornaments as a source of his inspiration. Always starting with collecting and taking different photos of details and studying different architects. He often manipulates the ornaments into collages on which he draws sketches and then continues by making an inspirational piece of work, which can be toiles on mannequin, small statues or some other artwork.

He is always thinking about how he can manipulate and use different material effectively to get the right contrasts between his two worlds. His design process is very important to him and this is where a lot of "side" art is being made before the final piece, such as small statues, paintings, miniature dresses, etc. Often he uses concrete with luxurious materials such as Swarovski crystals, to reflect the contrast in his work. Manipulating acrylic glass, which we perceive cold and hard and creating a fragile and soft visual effect with the help of laser cutting and heat gun, combining neoprene with luxurious cashmere and so on...

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The experiments and research are very important in his work. Paper installations, researching lighting, discovering different proportions and scale of designs, creating shadows, reflections of crystals - animation projections on installations to get mystic and moving environments.

In his opinion, fashion is very personal and it should evoke feelings in people. It is not just about wearing a garment. We should adore it. Treat is as a piece of art.

Matic does not see his designs running down the runway - it is more about experience of seeing them presented in a museum, gallery as a piece of art to be admired by all.

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