Popular Culture - Fashion

Branka Donassy
Branka Donassy is a prominent Croatian fashion designer whose career has shaped Croatia's contemporary clothing identity. She began her professional activity in the late 1970s, showing from the very beginnings an affinity for an avant-garde and innovative approach to clothing design. She has been a member of the ULUPUH applied arts association since 1985, and in 1988, together with a group of designers, she founded Modagram (1988-1998), a fashion collective dedicated to the development and international promotion of experimental Croatian fashion design.

The designer's extensive oeuvre is characterized by exploring the boundaries between fashion and art. It is recognizable by sculptural forms in which it harmoniously builds relationships between materials and surfaces, color and structure, while playing with finishing techniques. Her outfits possess a strong performative character, transforming garments into a medium for reflecting on identity, social roles and visual perception of the body.

Donassy has continuously participated in numerous shows and exhibitions in Croatia and abroad, including Paris and New York, presenting her own brand. In addition to clothing, she has designed costumes for theatre, ballet and film and participated in projects that push the boundaries of fashion towards art installations and sculpture.

Her concepts often examine social themes or draw inspiration from literary and fine arts. For example, Eve's Face (1988), inspired by Corbett H. Thigpen's book The Three Faces of Eve, demonstrates an integration of fashion, performance and visual arts. This garment transcends the functional role of clothing and becomes a bearer of complex conceptual meanings, affirming the transformative role of fashion as a means of exploring identity and cultural narratives.

Juraj Zigman
Juraj Zigman is a representative of the younger generation of Croatian fashion designers whose work combines high fashion, stage performance and costume design, shaping garments of a visually strong and conceptually intriguing character. He was born in 1984 in Rijeka and received his fashion education at the prestigious Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan. After professional experiences in international fashion circles and working in the Italian fashion house Roberto Musso, he returned to Croatia where he launched his own brand Zigman in 2008. He is especially known for shaping costumes for performative appearances, including creations worn by global music stars on stages such as MTV, Grammy and BRIT Awards, but also for television projects and show programs. His work is characterized by exceptional tailoring precision, sophisticated structural play, a subtle sense for materials and their interpretation on the body, as well as masterful sewing skill, especially in the design of corsets – an item that often serves as a motif and starting point for his inspirations. In these creations, for example in the Golden Jellyfish model, sensuality and pronounced femininity are consistently manifested, resulting in garments that also act as visually impressive stage costumes.

Zigman also successfully works in costume design for theatrical and opera productions and television shows, thus confirming the interdisciplinary nature of his design. In his practice, an item of clothing becomes an instrument of dramatization, and the performer's body – the medium through which visual narration and intense emotional experience are realized. Such an approach allows for a design of costumes that not only attract the attention of the audience, but also create a strong iconography of identity, power and theatrics.

Ledenko shoes
Ledenko is one of the few crafts in Croatia that maintains the tradition of handmade women's shoes, with a continuous family presence in Split for more than thirty years. The craft business was founded in 1959, and is currently run by spouses Ivan and Sandra Ledenko, carrying on the trade passed down through generations and developing it as a form of applied shoemaking art.

Their production is based on hand-crafting and use of natural materials, primarily leather, in combination with decorative details according to the specific requirements of a model. This methodology includes traditional design and construction techniques, while respecting anatomical and ergonomic principles in the creation of footwear.

Their creative process also highlights what is so special about them: the design is inspired by observing nature and personal visions, which are translated into models adapted to the physical characteristics of the foot and customers' aesthetic preferences. The Rose of Croatia model illustrates such an approach, emphasizing bespoke functionality and comfort compared to standardized mass production. The craft's products are used on stage and in public performances, including a selection of Croatian music artists for shows and events such as Eurovision, whereby the stage context showcases the technical and structural solutions of the shoes, as well as their functionality, performance and aesthetic impression.

Kobali hats
The Kobali šeširi craft business stands for Zagreb's enduring tradition of handmade headgear, and its development has been based on passing the knowledge of the trade down through generations. The family tradition in hat manufacturing began immediately after World War II, when Katarina Šušteršić Kobali worked at the Tomić fur shop in Masarykova Street, adopting specific hat design methods that were typical of the civic clothing culture of that time. In the 1970s, her daughter Nada Kobali founded an independent atelier and positioned the craft as a recognizable fashion staple of the city's identity, developing models based on handmade, individual production and the aesthetics of civic elegance and classic style.

Over the following decades, the atelier has gained a wide clientele, and its distinct workmanship is reflected in custom-made hat models, shaped on wooden molds, with carefully constructed edges and discreet decorative interventions tailored to customers' needs. Such an approach emphasizes technical skill, understanding of proportions and aesthetic principles, making Kobali hats unique items that combine fashion and applied art. After the death of Nada Kobali in 2019, the business was taken over by Marina Kobali, who continues the practice of handcrafted design and traditional procedures, while adapting production to modern aesthetics and market circumstances. Today, Kobali acts as a singular example of a family manufacture that combines historical continuity, craftsmanship precision and the cultural significance of hats as a symbolic feature of Zagreb's civic fashion.

Prof. dr. sc. Katarina Nina Simončič
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology
Department of Textile and Clothing Design