Aliane Matei is a Romanian artist, costume creator and leather designer who advocates for a slow, sustainable fashion. He works with vegetable tanned leather and recovered second hand leather items to create futuristic, aetherical looking pieces.
Matei: ‘My work began in the ’90, after the fall of the communist regime, when Romania became the resting place for obsolescent clothing pieces, from Europe, but not solely. Since ’95 I’m trying to recover leather that was lost among the piles of second hand clothing, this actually being its next-to-last step before destruction. Since then my work revolved around extending the materials life, by constructing timeless pieces. I only work on unique pieces, using recovered second-hand items and vegetable tanned leather, locally produced and chemical free. I personally hand craft each piece, each of them having my thoughts, emotions and vision imprinted with each stitch, joint, seam, carving them, moulding, sculpting, cutting and painting them.’
© Alian Matei.
