IVANKA GEORGIEVA
Ivanka Georgieva is among the most successful Bulgarian designers of textile and fashion. She teaches at the Academy of Arts, San Francisco, and is a textile designer with 15 years of experience in Diane von Furstenberg, St. John, Zac Posen, Elisa Palomino and others.
She graduated Textile Design at the Academy in San Francisco, which can integrate into fashion, interior design, or any other industry where superficial details are observed. She chooses to specialize ot, because she already has a basic qualification and experience from Bulgaria. The other reason is that Textile actually exist as an independent industry.
After graduating from the Academy in San Francisco, she began an internship at Diane von Furstenberg, and a few months later she was offered a permanent position in the company. The DVF experience for her was a great start for development in this business. There she has learned a lot about the textile and fashion industry and now has valuable contacts. She says her work at the DVF was like a second academy because there she understood the huge difference between school and the real world of business.
She works for various fashion companies, including Zac Posen. There she developed a small capsule collection of scarves and neckties for Delta, and also she worked with a colleague from St. John-knits.
For Ivanka, textiles are the most important part of creating a collection. It is about the matter. When we are in a shop and try or touch the fabric of a cloath, we actually feel the textile. The fabric may be a print, or a knit, or a wool, and only those three words carry so much information.
The determining and important thing in the process of work, as in any art, is talent and creativity. Ivanka teaches Textile Level One, which is the only level available to learn online. It teaches students various techniques in practice and creative thinking. Its main purpose is to motivate them to think as designers and creators.
What makes her unique in the American industry is the fact that she has European base, draws very well, and at the same time she0 had the opportunity to study the technical part in America. She works with love and diligence on all collections and has achieved what she wants, namely working with companies that are one of the most successful in the fashion and textile industry. The beauty in this variety of fashion companies is in the different styles and different aesthetics, and she had the luck to have worked and created for all of them. The latest business step she’s been undertaken is her newly-opened print studio.
A Practical Creative Design Course will be held in January with the participation of Ivanka, who will share with us her personal experience of working with some of the most successful fashion houses in the world.
