Mateyaneira became noticed after Sarajevo Film Festival, where they brought a serious touch of glamour to the scene. After that moment, their road guided straight ahead as they have become one of the most perspective, young designers in the region. Celebrities love to wear their pieces, they work hard on their collections and they combine minimalistic elements with elegant style. They are against the real fur usage in fashion and they stand for handmade work. We present you – Mateyaneira.
Both of designers behind the MATEYANEIRA label have like-minded taste, but what are the differences between the two of you, that makes this brand so unique?
Yes, we have like-minded taste, but we have different temperament and energy, which is good for developing our ideas. Most of the time, Mateja has an initiative: “You-know-what-we-could-make” and Neira takes it to another level, saying: “This-is-how-it-needs-to-be-done” and sometimes it is the other way around. Our synergy makes the final product.
Who/what are your influences? Where do you find the inspiration?
We have a lot of men-suits influence and we are trying also to pull off that a sex appeals to our clothing, without showing and exposing too much. Our collections are the result of everyday inspirations. We could say that our inspiration comes from our wishes.
Do you design clothes following the needs of the market or following your own intuition?
We’re not following “needs of the market”, but we do have in mind needs of our environment because we like to say that people around us are very characteristic, authentic and we cherish that. We design things by following our intuition, but we also respect wishes and needs of our clients. That is when we make custom designs and corrections of our own ideas to bring it more closely to the final consumer.
Do you think that the global fashion scene is going in the right direction? If not (or – yes), why?
In our opinion – it would be the best if fashion would go in this direction, where small producers respect they workers and pay them properly. Fair-trade should be THE direction of the fashion in the future. As we are part of that world – we feel responsible and we try to think global, but act local and to start from ourselves. The fashion industry is really big and it is very cruel – sometimes to animals, sometimes to people, sometimes to our planet, but fashion is also beautiful and it deserves appreciation – but we cannot appreciate cheap, unhealthy, unethical, synthetic sh*t, right? This is why everything needs to be more respectful and fair on a global level.
Why minimalism?
That is our current mood, we cannot say that it will ever fade, but then again – who knows. In general, we think that there is much more to see and to recognise on minimalistic approach than it is in chaos. We’re both very expressive when we work, walk or talk, so basically our clothing is something that is giving us calmness.
“Cut” collection was a big regional success. Why do you think that is?
Well, first of all – it was something different. We have given 100% of ourselves to this collection and people have noticed that. We also think that it is refreshing to see handmade and well-made clothes which are based on ready to wear and look expensive.
Do you have plans on going to a mass-production or do you find hand-made products your thing?
The idea is to stay focused and to keep the hand-made production “our thing”. We are building our own market now and it will not be a mass-production since we try to connect closely with our clients and to have a personal approach to each one of them. Yes, there is a plan to make some smaller series of our best-sellers for the retails, but that is it.
We have many favourites from your collections – Cashmere Coat (Cut Collection), Long Black Coat (Cut Collection) and dresses from all of the collections combined. What are your personal favorites and is there a story behind every single piece?
There are so many stories behind our clothes. Our favourite piece is the fake-fur-coat. It was made by a great craftsman who is a total old school – but he accepts all of our “weird” requests and ideas. We were searching for a long time to find a really nice faux-fur and finally, our coat was made! After our fashion show at Ljubljana’s Fashion Week, many people were criticizing our usage of the “real” fur. Our goal was to show how good faux-fur could look like! Obviously – it was too good!
Do you think that fashion repeats and what are your predictions for the global, upcoming fashion trends?
Yes, it does. Usually, we don’t follow or predict this kind of things but let’s say 90’s – beginning of the new millennium. So, yeah – wish us luck! (laughter)
Photographers / Edvin Kalic, Franjo Matković and Mimi Antolovic
