A MIX OF INTELLIGENCE, BEAUTY AND CONTROL
* Maria Doychinova: from Viktor & Rolf and prof. Raf Simons to Hussein Chalayan and Roland Mouret
Maria Doychinova was born in April 21, 1976, in Sofia. Since 1995 she lives in Austria where she has graduated from the two-year fashion college “Herbstrasse”. After that she was accepted to study in the Academy for applied arts in Vienna /in prof. Raf Simons’s class/, which she finished in 2003. At that time she is under the influence of some other teachers from the Academy– the Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf.
Maria is a scholarship student of the consulting house “Ot igla do konetz” (From needle to thread). In 2004 she was approved as an assistant of Veronique Leroy /France/. She was also a successful intern of two of the best designers in the world - Hussein Chalayan and Roland Mouret, working in their teams for creating the autumn-winter collections 2006-2007. Maria has taken part in the production of world celebrities’ outfits such as Bono (U2). She is the owner of the trade mark “Doychinoff”. 
Maria Doychinova is the new wave of Bulgarian fashion designers itself: intelligent and self-control, conceptual and ingenious, over strict and determined. We may continue with epithets like “irresistible”,”confusingly beautiful” and “inexplicable” but we are risking to interfere her personal emotional territory, which she nevertheless, is willing to remain out of the public range.
Before leaving for Austria and setting off working in the world’s fashion capitals, she had a solid preceding background, which brand was “made in Bulgaria”. Her culture and intelligence were formed as a result of her marvelous upbringing (not just anybody but her grandmother - the sister of her father’s mother, the great Bulgarian artist Mara Tzocheva, predicted that little Maria will indulge in art!) and the influence of the Slavic culture (the future fashion creator has graduated from a Russian school in Sofia).
In order to become acquainted with the philosophy and aesthetic of that promising fashion clothing designer,it is good to remind some important events of her creative realization in the course of the last few years.
Fitting, inspired by the Twenties
Vienna, June 2002. Maria presents a fitting, inspired by the 20ies of the last century. At that time she was already in the famous Belgian designer prof. Raf Simons’ class.
What happened in the traditional promotion by the
Art students from the Academy for applied arts in Vienna - “Show 2002”?
Maria shows 9 outfits (four white and five black), as well as a deliberately developed fitting. Her aesthetic idea is sharply distinguished among the works of the rest 30 fashion design students. She includes straight lines, feminine outline and many pleats.
The fabrics, which Maria selected, are satin, wool and silky bands. For the fitting she gets an inspiration from the culture and moral of the 20ies of the last century and by symbols such as the strictness of the teachers and the beauty of the outfit. A black and white film, taken with an old camera on 8 mm film, interpreting the movement on the streets in an original way, helps her for the desired impact. The music background of DJ Ponte complements the feeling of authenticity, eternity and artistic challenge.
The committee is delighted by Maria Doychinova’s work of art and gives her highest score 1 (such a score is given to only two of the presenting students). The foreign journalists and fashion editors, who attended the event, showed also a great interest in the Bulgarian student’s work and invited her as a guest on the pages of their colorful magazines.
The project “Gothic Andalou”
The project “Gothic Andalou” is a testimonial of how the young designer continues creating original and refined works, being a mix of her own designer philosophy and her perfect reflection of the world’s fashion dynamic.
The student project was shown on June, 3, 2003 in the Arsenal complex in Vienna.
It was inspired by the emblematic film Andalusian Dog (1929) of Salvator Dali and Luis Bunuel. In fact, it was a unification of Gothic and Surrealism. The fitting of the project, as well as the fashion show itself are presented in front of 1000 people during the annual promotion of the fashion design students from the Academy for applied arts in Vienna.
Maria Doichinova uses ultra-modern techniques of performance (a versatile projection of the outfits over the heads of three white dolls, a background of stained glass and multimedia).
Her works express her creative disagreement with “the dirt of the present fashion” and her desire of raising in apotheosis the refined and aesthetic design.
The fabrics are mostly satin, chiffon, silk and satin wool.
The outline combines the “Street fashion” trend and “Formal Evening Fashion” and is varied by many belts and silver clasps. It was DJ Ponte who took care of the original music (especially composed for the installation and the fashion show) again. The Commission included prominent designers, fashion journalists and publishers from all over the world. The reports on the show were more than positive, the chief editor of the French VOGUE, Diane Perne, published a very good comment on her Internet page, expressing her acclamations and proclaiming "magnificent atmosphere". Another member of the commission - Cuki de Salvatore, also expressed his favorable opinion about the accomplishments of Maria Doychinova.
The assistant of Hussein Chalayan and Roland Mouret
Two years ago she was an intern in London for several months and it was more than successful for the young Bulgarian designer Maria Doychinova.
At the beginning she was helping in the preparation of the fall-winter collection 2006-2007 of Roland Mouret –a French stylist, based in the capital of Great Britain.
When she worked for Mouret, Maria received an order to design and create two trousers for the famous singer Bono /U2/. Afterwards, Maria was accepted to be trained by one of the most famous modern British avangardists Hussein Chalayan. The final result was the inclusion of a work by Maria Doychinova in his fashion show, presented in Paris.
Except for the dress, the young Bulgarian designer made a few t-shirts, blouses and jackets for the collection. In London she immerses into unique atmosphere – on one hand, a combination of imposing traditions and conservatism and the other hand underground emotions and urban subcultures.
We understand what it’s like to work for a genius like Chalayan from her own impressions, shared with us some time ago: “Chalayan’s designer team is international and diverse – there are people from Germany, India, Poland, Italy, Holland and mostly Japan. The atmosphere in the studio is incredibly creative and entertaining and people are young and friendly. It takes a high professionalism, a great fantasy, patience, resistance and really hard work to create the design of Hussein Chalayan. He has a very interesting personality himself, high-educated, all-round developed creator with strongly expressed Balkan character that is close and familiar to me.”
Chalayan’s team has been working almost twenty-four-hours a day for an entire month – from 8 in the morning until 2 after midnight before the performance in Paris. Maria is impressed by the extraordinary thoroughness of the designer, who followed the whole process and cared about every detail. He absolutely claims extra quality in every tiny detail. One of the things that delighted her most in Chalayan’s style is his conceptional approach to each new collection – in fact it is a result of an enormous research: “He writes an entire book before originating his new collection” – shares affected Maria.
But what did she impress Hussein Chalayan with? Her knowledge, her solid preparation and inexhaustible diligence - as said by the designer.
Don’t ever stop to experiment
The leading characteristics in Maria Doychinova’s work are the search of new and irregular work materials and techniques. She has reached the maxim “don’t ever stop to experiment” a long time ago because she deeply realizes the sense of the constant searching and testing of new fabrics, means of expression, technologies and unconventional dimensional decisions.
At the very beginning of her training at the Academy for applied arts in Vienna she has the chance to become reliant to the lessons of the famous Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf who, as a rule, hold firmly to the experiment in the fashion design. Later Maria recalls about a project that she had to make with the Austrian flag. She decided to experiment a lot and to create a dress, made of plastic cloth, which was water resistant. It shouldn’t be any liquid in the fabric. What this fluid would be is a question that the fashion design student quickly finds an answer to – she chooses a detergent, which besides everything else, has the purpose to give the cloth a hint of green touch. The problem occurs with the finding of the right technology of gluing this material, and when Viktor and Rolf start examinating the creation, the detergent spills on both of them. “It was very funny and entertaining. An incredibly amusing incident! After all of course, I made a really good dress” - reminds with a smile Maria Doychinova.
Quite recently – on one of our latest meetings, it came out that the experiment in her work of art takes out an increasingly larger perimeter. Not long ago, in Vienna she experiments with the nylon fabric which is used for making the auto airbags (the air cushions that are automatically set in the car to open in case of a crash to protect the passengers from injuries). In the joint project with another Bulgarian – Hristo Penev, the designer creates uniforms from “bursted airbags”. She amazes herself not only at their technical characteristics – endurance, impermeability, and resistance to heat, but also from the very manner of choosing the materials – for her the touring around the auto junkyards and dealerships and the selection itself (the airbags were taken mainly from “Mercedes”) is an over fascinating experience.
The aesthetic philosophy
She is among the few modern designers who make a clear difference between the concepts “fashion” and “fashion design”. Here is what she had shared once in one of our conversations: “Fashion is really an extensive concept. It can be anything. It is the taste of people that is initiated when you see something very frequently. Whereas fashion design is maybe more innovatory style, mainly for those, who understand these things and deal with them.”
Her attitude towards the “haute couture” is also significant for her hundred per cent creative adjustment and piety to the high worth of that art. In order to go deeper in her relation to the so called “haute couture”, I threw in the following case to her. I was curious what she would do if one of the greatest fashion bosses and entrepreneurs Bernard Arnault gave her five million euros to create an “haute couture” collection. Maria accepted the case quite easily and immediately started to think of the fabric quality. In fact the greatest compromises are done with the fabric, but this kind of fashion can not tolerate such a thing. According to Maria Doychinova: “A person can really express himself there (in the haute couture-e.n.), he can do anything what he wants, to throw lots of money, if he can afford that, to create a real work of art”.
She has her own conception for the future of the fashion design, according to which in the first years of the new Millennium the northern part of Europe, where the new ideas will come from, will start a very fast development. These ideas will be accepted by both France and Italy, which in spite having more classic attitude to fashion, will continue to actuate in this direction.
The last word in fashion from the Northern part of Europe, according to the designer, is expressed in the mixture of too many different fabrics in one design. The garment there in interpreted in the context of particular conception and thus the design is accepted not just as something to wear but as a whole and complete idea.
Maria expresses her ideas thrifty but firm. Her wish is for people to fell comfortable and good in her clothes, to like themselves and to feel beautiful. And one more thing, which is very important – dressed in her creations, her clients will certainly feel fashionable and can go wherever they want. Precision and dreaminess, professionalism and free spirit are the keywords in regards to Maria Doychinova’s work of art. An art which will please from now on the people who appreciate and estimate the ingenious fashion.
1. Maria Doychinova and Hussein Chalayan, 2002
2. A model of Maria Doychoinova, 2002
3. A model of Maria Doychoinova, 2003
4 - 5. Maria Doychinova’s collection, made especially for the collection of Hussein Chalayan, fall-winter 2006-2007
6. A dress, made by Maria Doychinova for the collection of Hussein Chalayan, fall-winter 2006-2007 (a picture from Chalayan’s fashion show in the Louvre)
7 - 9. Maria Doychinova’s creations – collection "Vienna casual", summer 2007
Photos: Peter Bittermann;
Graphic design: Mladen Penev;
Model: Rada
VIDEO:
Maria Doychinova’s collection “not colour day”, 2002 - 2003
Maria Doychinova’s collection “Gothic Andalou”, 2003 - 2004
Translated by Iva Nedelcheva
