VALERJ POBEGA HAS NEVER BEEN A TYPICAL DESIGNER; SHE’S ALWAYS VIEWED HERSELF AS MORE OF AN ARTIST.
“MY COLLECTIONS ARE ENTIRELY DESIGNED, CUT, SEWN, AND THEIR FABRICS HAND -PAINTED BY ME IN NUMBERED LIMITED EDITIONS, CROSSING THAT FINE LINE OF WHAT IS USUALLY CONSIDERED

ART OR FASHION,” SAYS POBEGA.The Italian avant-garde designer’s works are edgy, in-your-face, and at times futuristic. Her designs are not meant to just be worn but show- cased. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art even obtained two of her hand-painted gowns for its permanent collection. Her pieces are often accompanied by innovative photo campaigns, videos and theatre performances.
Pobega’s designs have been featured on the cover of coveted fashion magazines such as Vogue, and most recently, CR25: Love and Fantasies, the CR Fashion Book’s 25th issue released on October 28th. In this edition, Angelina Jolie wears a silk kimono handpainted with stars and a poem by Pobega Herself.
Pobega’s unique approach to fashion can be traced back to her unusual roots in the industry. She grew up with two artist parents and first tasted the fashion industry through modelling. While pursuing this path, Pobega attended art school instead of fashion school for the level of freedom and self-expression it offered her. Pobega chose this background because she wanted to be able to create her own rules in fashion design.
She is almost fully self-taught with the help of the occasional patternmak- ing class to learn the basics of garment construction. This lack of formal training allowed Pobega to truly forge her own path and cement her own style in the fashion world.

DESIGNING FOR HER MUSES

Her unorthodox fashion background, and consequently out-of-the-box designs, have caught the attention of eccentric celebrities such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and most recently Angelina Jolie. Pobega called designing for these celebrities a “full circle magical” moment.

“Posters of Madonna are still hanging in my teenage bedroom at my parents' home in Italy,” says Pobega. “Fast forward to decades later, and I’m working on two custom dresses for a music video for Madonna, followed by another custom dress that was requested to wear during one of her live awards ceremony performances.”

The dress Pobega is referencing is the one Madonna wears in her iHeart- Radio Music Awards performance of her single “Ghosttown.” The outfit consists of a black corset and garters, a white button-down shirt and bloomers-style black lace shorts styled with Pobega’s red silk dress. The design meshes Madonna’s Western burlesque aesthetic for her Rebel Heart album with Pobega’s punk style.

Pobega’s dedication to her craft is highlighted with these intricate, special request designs for celebrities. The behind-the-scenes work involved in these projects is often chaotic and goes unseen, according to Pobega. One of these last-minute moments occurred with her design of Lady Gaga’s dress on American Horror Story–Pobega was finishing hand-painting the sleeves the day the show was scheduled to film.

“At 2:00 in the morning, I was still drying a sleeve with a hairdryer because they were coming to pick it up at 6:00 in the morning,” she recalls. “That dress ended up becoming so iconic on the show, and Lady Gaga told Rolling Stone magazine that it was one of her two favourite dresses to wear on the show.”

Pobega designs artistic pieces for her eponymous label that are paradoxi- cally timeless and avant-garde, all while drawing inspiration from music and poetry. She refers to these sources as “the two creative forces behind what has always inspired me as a person, artist and in my work.”

One genre that is particularly inspiring to Pobega is rock. The first record she ever bought was Nevermind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols. Pobega also cites Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Bauhaus as formative to her process, but her number one muse has always been David Bowie.

“Him and his music inspired me to go for it for myself, to take chances (not to mention that my hair has been coloured in different shades of red since I was 13 years old because of him),” says the designer.
Pobega often draws inspiration from music for the designs of her collec- tions and their names. For example, her collection “Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell” is named after a song by Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and her collection “Hero” pays tribute to David Bowie.

“I put it together soon after he died,” Pobega said. “I scraped away what I was currently working on, as I felt it was the least I could do to honor someone who has been such a trailblazing force in my entire life and also for generations of so many people and other artists.”

Pobega said she handpainted lyrics from “Heroes” on one gown in the collection and golden spiders from Mars on another garment in reference to the late singer’s album, and also his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The trait that Pobega most clearly draws from Bowie is his fearlessness. Bowie was a pioneer in fashion with his unapologetic, gender-fluid outfits, and Pobega channels the same energy in her innovative designs.

Another characteristic that Pobega shares with Bowie is her emphasis on storytelling. Similar to how Bowie creates different alter egos for his albums, Pobega imagines concepts for her collections. She draws from specific art and cultural references for each collection and then reflects these themes in the design of each garment.

“It has never been just about the clothes for me. I’ve always been a storyteller, so it always makes sense to create a whole world around each collection, and not just the clothes that are part of it,” Pobega said.

Pobega says she has been working on her dream project for the past three years. She mentions that she has a couple of projects in the works now and is currently deciding which world to unveil first. “It will tie even more of the disciplines of my artist self, the writing and directing parts, while creating even more worlds through storytelling, all taken to the next level.”