In the ELLE magazine, Milda Grikšaitė, a designer and lecturer at the Fashion Design study programme at the Academy of Arts, shares her impressions of presenting her latest collection ‘Cuoricini’ (in Lithuanian: Hearts) at one of the most famous fashion events in Eastern Europe – Feeric Fashion Week in Romania.

Feeric Fashion Week is a festival that breaks the boundaries of art and fashion in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, Romania. First held in 2008, it has grown from a one-night event to an international festival that includes conferences, exhibitions, and even gastronomy.

Today it is called the biggest fashion week in Eastern Europe where this year the brightest star was a designer from Lithuania – M. Grikšaitė’s ‘Cuoricini’ was chosen as the opening collection of the Gala evening.

‘I first learned about Feeric Fashion Week back in 2017 from the talent section of Vogue Italia, which publishes various competitions and other news for both established designers and fashion newcomers. At that time, I did not participate in the selection, because I was just preparing to defend my bachelor’s thesis.

Well, this year the event really pleased with its professionalism and scale. Only upon arrival did I find out that I would present the collection at the Fashion Week Gala event, which I also opened – my collection was shown first. The presentation took place in a very beautiful setting – Piata Albert Huet, next to the St. Mary’s Evangelical Cathedral. The atmosphere was truly magical,’ designer shares her impressions.

On the catwalk, the audience saw a collection of fifteen clothing models that combined contemporary, conceptual and classic styles and invited people to celebrate love and life every day, dominated by colors, a heart pattern created by the designer, and sporty elegance.

‘The ‘Cuoricini’ collection is a continuation of the previously developed theme of hearts. I keep experimenting with their execution techniques, so this time the hearts appeared in a new format – knitted in a lace pattern. Also, fluttering hearts on a sustainable dress sewn into rhombuses from tulle remnants, which, by the way, was probably the image that received the most applause. In general, both backstage and after the show, I received a lot of praise.

It is also not the first time that I hear that the colours of my creations are pleasing to the eye. This is a big compliment for me, because I want my creations to be pleasing in essence,’ says designer M. Grikšaitė and adds: ‘I notice that the further I go, the more attention I pay to the adaptability of the garment – the clothes in this collection of mine were created to be worn, and, I think, this was a uniqueness in the context of the entire event, because you could see mostly experimental fashion.’

Photos: CornelPetrus