At the age of 30 Ivan Donev has found his vocation and the world thanks him for that – in early February he won the fashion Oscar for best international designer in Chicago; in mid-March he received the Golden Needle Award for being the Bulgarian designer of the year and on March 30^th he will close Sofia Fashion Week 2018 with a gala fashion show.

Despite growing up among the artistic chaos of his mother’s sewing workshop, the boy from the town of Rakovski dreamt of studying stage design. However, fate crossed his path with the one of a dignified French lady and Paris turned out to be his destiny.

“I was a choreographer at a Paris-held fashion show and saw that torn dress backstage prior to the event,” Ivan recalls about the day that changed his life for good. “I must say that I had always viewed discretely the dresses before the shows. I found a needle and thread and began sewing. Then that lady arrived and asked me firmly: ‘Are you a tailor?’ I replied that I was a choreographer, but just like everyone else I had studied sewing at school. She would observe me closely throughout the entire week and on the last day she handed me a card with handwritten words: 'Your hands give life to art and that art shouldn’t be somebody else’s fashion, but your own – and the world has to see it.”

The French lady also advised Ivan to join the best fashion academy in the world – L’Accademia Koefia in Rome and to become a real designer. “I didn’t need much more to convince me,” he says and adds:

“Koefia teaches you to be a good stylist, a good tailor above all. However, it builds up the culture to be a designer – you don’t just draw and think that you are creative. Furthermore one is surrounded by professors in the academy, literally soaking up history, because they were the major acting persons in it.”

Ivan faced difficult times in Rome – lack of finances and even hunger. Still, in the most critical time when he was about to give up, he won from the lottery and managed to graduate the academy. It was obviously worth it, as fame came yet with the debut project – in 2012 he debuted at Alta Moda in Rome and received the World of Fashion Award – that was extraordinary recognition. Hundreds of participations followed around the world.

“Bare back is my trademark, I find the ladies’ back as one of the sexiest and most beautiful parts of their bodies and I accentuate on it in a very delicate manner in many of my models. There was even that article in Italy years ago, titled The Designer Who Undresses Ladies Elegantly. Yes, my models are dressed, but the clothing is sexy, not vulgar,” Ivan Donev explains

The designer creates one collection per year, since he relies on precision and personalization. He is bold enough to say that he no longer follows trends, but creates such – for instance, his future collection in white.

“There is this cliché, saying that fashion serves as a mirror of the entire society,” Ivan Donev further says. “It is true that a designer needs to be something like Nostradamus, since you have to create a modern product for after-one-year and you have to comprehend the needs of the society for that purpose. That is why it is essential to be among people, to feel their needs and expectations. I myself am happy, because now I have this hunch inside me for a year ahead, despite having been a designer for barely five years.”

The recognition Ivan Donev has won gives him the confidence to stand up in front of students more and more often, in order to stimulate them and give courage to those who are yet to step into professional fashion design.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev