source: notjustalabel

Matija Čop is a first-year graduate student of Fashion Design at the Faculty of Textile Design of the University in Zagreb. Before enrolling he studied Croatian Philology at the Faculty of Philosophy. With his mentor Jasminka Končić he is working on understanding fashion. In his work he speaks the language of fashion with a strong conceptual and multidisciplinary background. As he is still a student, his work up to now is occupied by the fashion object as the starting form of studying fashion garments. In search of his own voice, he pays great attention to the material he uses and to the conceptual background. Along with his exploratory collections, he has shown a few commercial collections during the Croatian Fashion Week, The main theme of his work, which he deals with in various ways, is the question of identity. In the City Lace collection, he deals with the identity of the city as a unique code by which cities differ completely. The collection Object 12-1 applies authentic architectural techniques of montage which he then introduces into fashion language. The last collection, in which the fashion object is slowly transformed into a fashion garment, Homeless in Heaven, strongly questions clothing as the single property of a homeless person, and in doing so, attaches importance to the garment and questions the very identity of it. A collection trilogy of sorts with its intro collections ATW.MO6 and the interpolated study of the Stratum collection were winners of many commendations: first place at the Young/Creative/Chevrolet competition, a CDS (Croatian Designers Society) award in the student category for best work in the last two years, first place at the international competition Habitus Baltija in Riga, Latvia. City Lace and Object 12-1 works have been exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Crafts and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Besides having exhibited his works at fashion shows, competitions, as well as his own exhibitions, City Lace was shown at the international conference Blaž Baromić in Senj, Croatia. He also worked as assistant costume designer for the film Lapitch the Little Shoemaker.
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source: lofficielitalia

Matija Cop was born in 1987, in Vinkovci, Croatia. He is an incredibly young fashion talent with an interdisciplinary approach: combining photography, sculpture and contemporary art, but also science, philosophy and psychology.

Cop also spends much of his time studying technology, which he uses to produce his pieces: “Because I love the kind of experience and new things it provides”.

In his youth, Matija was a Croatian national champion: he used to train as a professional athlete, setting records for 200 and 300 meters sprints. After high school he began studying Philosophy, Interior Design and Textile Technology, producing experimental videos and fashion exhibitions.

The fil rouge of his creations is fascinating: “I think a lot about everything. From very early in the morning until late evening. Those thoughts are always connected with my work, inspired by an object or a physical body…”.

His Object 13-5 is inspired by the cathedral of St. James in Sibenik: “This piece is the result of my university experiment around the multiplication of materials. In this project the quality of the fabric and its original qualities are preserved to the same degree to which the qualities of the stone used for the construction of the cathedral were preserved. I used the laser cutter and the ‘plug & feather’ mechanics. It took me three months… But am happy with the result”.

We are looking at a cathedral and a piece of garment which are both unusual in their fields, architecture and fashion respectively: they exemplify an inventive and atypical use of materials. Many of this young designer pieces explore boundaries and stretch technical limitations.

Matija is currently working on many projects, spending time at the Contemporary Art Musuem in Zagreb: “Because it feels like home”. The only thing he said he fears is “permanence”, while he is very proud of how the communication with the public is going and seem to have a great amount of new ideas.