Designer quickie: Teo Perić

For a while now I am following your work and the way you showcase it. You are not keen to show at media events and to speak publically, what is the reason behind it?

One of my friends interprets my avoidance of media as a paranormal behavior (even when I do attend a media event) and he saids that paranormal is always IN. I don't have a special reason for not showing up at media events, I do come if I am interested and invited but I am aware that I am perceived as a private and shy person.

Your pieces seem to be made with „real“ everyday women in mind, they are wearable, romantic, seductive, how would you describe your average client? Who is she?

For me, all women are divas! They walk every day over invisible red carpet to work, to pick up their kids at the kindergarten, to meet a friend for a coffee or to go out clubbing at night. My clients are working, urban women who wants to be elegant all day long, but still quite chic when it is appropriate. I nurture retro chic style of designing clothes, I want and try to create timeless pieces or to redesign historically timeless pieces.

Photos: www.moda.hr editorial

In one of your interview I have read that you would like to design shoes. Do you have any concrete plans in that department currently? Which Croatian producer did you have in mind? Would you have your own brand of shoes?

All that I wanted to do so far in life I managed to do, but on a bit different way. However designing shoes has remained my unfulfilled wish unfortunately so far.  I would definitely design my own collection, the only company technically capable to produce a proper shoe in Croatia is Borovo factory in Vukovar.

Footwear is different then clothing, in shoe making millimeters matter, if you make a minor mistake that shoe is no good anymore, it is very hard to make a good quality shoe!

Past March you have presented your 10^thcollection for local clothing brand Mak. How satisfied are you with this cooperation? Is it more profitable and safer for Croatian designer to build his own brand or to work for an established clothing brand? What are advantages and disadvantages based on your experience?

Based on positive media and client feedback on my last show, which I had on last Cro-a-porter, I am very happy with my long term cooperation with Mak clothing brand. I am very proud that I managed to build up Mak brand with my collections in Croatian market.

To have own clothing brand is an ultimate goal of every fashion designer. I design my own line under the name Teo.P, this brand is idle at the moment. Mak clothing brand collections I sign as Teo Perić.  For a number of seasons now I have in parallel design as a contributor for numerous fashion houses and my own brands (which is 4 collections a year).

To have own line means having your own design style and creative freedom and to take upon all of the responsibility for the results. Designing for other clothing brands means designing within a predetermined frame for already existing customer pool. Creating two totally different collections in style is quite exhausting and demanding, but every real love story hurts a bit, so does this mine fashion love story.

Why do you show your collections at Cro-a-porter? Do you think there are to many fashion events in Croatia?

I have tremendous respect towards the organizer Viktor Drago who started this event 10 years ago and challenged all other local events.  I think Cro-a-porter is very influential in branding of Croatian fashion designers and creating a local fashion market. Thank you Viktor!

You were offered to move and work abroad but you decided to stay in Croatia, why?

I see life as a puzzle which always misses one piece. During 90's I was interested into working abroad, and in 1996. In Seoul I got the offer from Ebenezer Company to stay and work in Korea. However, as I returned back home I got offered a job as a main designer for the local fashion brand  Nebo.

After 6 years working for Nebo I have continued my fashion journey with my own brand, store and a studio in the city center in Zagreb.

Do you think that in today’s economy it is important for a designer to be equally good business man as a talented designer?

It is quite rare that a talented designer is also a capable business man. Designers are usually artists, artists are cheap. In today’s economy, market and in fashion system, a talented fashion team without a good businessman can hardly succeed. A successful international designer brands lie on such designer- businessman collaborations.

Every season you show quite mature, complete, good quality and wearable collections, you don’t follow trends much and many of your pieces could be cold classics which can be worn season in and season out. Do you think that women in Croatia recognize and appreciate well made clothes or are we to focus on trends and name on the label?

Trend factor is a measure of quality for most, producer and a shopper but also for some designer. I don't follow trends, I don't think I make them; I focus on making timeless pieces.

Croatians are very fashion nation, especially women, who very much appreciate and buy good quality fabrics and making. I come from a family of tailors and clothes makers – my biggest role model is my late father who was a tailor. My mother is a true fashionista with an amazing style and my sisters have tought me all about trends, anti-trends, branded and unbranded clothes.

Do you think that Croatian designer made clothes can compete with price and quality with mass produced low end brands like H&M and Zara?

No, but with Croatia entering EU I see more potential of Croatian designers working with local clothing factories on mass factory producing their collections and selling them globally. Current situation in Croatian textile industry is not allowing this to happen.

How do you see the fashion bloggers, social media and street style influencing fashion industry globally? Is this influence positive or negative?

Fashion defines who we are; this is where I think fashion bloggers came from a need to express ourselves, our personality, through clothes we wear. I see this as a positive trend and influence on global fashion industry as they inspire and leave no one ambiguous, which is good for design and industry overall.