Her style is elegant and minimalistic, and her signature colour is black. The collection she presented at the October Fashion Week in Ljubljana was, of course, black, enlivened by pink flowers.

Maja Štamol Droljc has succeeded in making a solid business out of her fashion design in Slovenia. Her creations are winning at beauty pageants, her theatre costumes are greatly appreciated by audiences, and she often does the overall styling for celebrity events. Her cooperation with the Finnish company Nokia resulted in a collection of evening dresses and apparel accessories with the L'Amour collection of phones. Maja Štamol Droljc is an artist, not just an artisan.

What is your most recent project?
This is my first signature jewellery collection. It has long been my aspiration to start designing jewellery and accessories, such as bags, belts and shoes, and I have made some individual pieces with varying success, but never a whole collection. Obviously no goal in life can be reached without effort and finally the moment has come for me to design a collection of plastic jewellery I called "Flower Destiny". It reccounts the destiny of a flower... the jewellery was first presented during the Ljubljana Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015 and received very favourable reviews. I am very happy about this, as the pieces were made in a small family firm that specializes in buttons. Making them was a challenge for them, just as it was for me, and we were very happy with the result, so I hope our cooperation will continue.

Where do you look for inspiration?
I keep up with the global trends in printed and other media. I like to visit international fashion fairs and, whenever possible, Fashion Weeks abroad. But I still get most of my ideas in the streets of big cities I visit with my husband several times a year. My style of both evening and everyday dresses is elegant minimalist. I want my creations to be in the mainstream, very well made, wearable and multifunctional, as I am profoundly aware that the times do not favour exaggerated consumerism.

Does small-series fashion design have a future in Slovenia?
There used to be a long tradition of textile manufacturing in Slovenia and I would like to see it revived. Small series production is not for everyone, most people prefer to buy off-the-peg clothes they may try on and buy on the spot, and the textile manufacturing industry is there to cater to their needs. On the other hand there are customers who want one-of-the-kind, different items and we designers are here for them; we are able to devote our attention to them, to listen to them and to design for them clothes that reflect their personality. I feel that lately, perhaps because of the publicity of the Fashion Week, Slovene designers and their creations have been more highly regarded.

The Chamber of Crafts of Slovenia has recently registered the trademark Izdelek slovenske obrti (Slovenian Craft Product). You are an ambassador of this trademark?
That is true. It is my wish for products marked with this label to be recognized among the mass of low-cost foreign brands and for people to understand that these are products made by Slovene hands that had been paid honest money for their work.

You are known for your good cooperation with Slovene businesses. For the last Fashion Week you collaborated with the shoe factory Kopitarna Sevnica.
I have been in contact with its management for several years, there has always been a mutual desire to cooperate, but the time was obviously not yet ripe. This spring I finally persuaded them to participate in the Fashion Week. We made beautiful sandals and flip flops and sold out of them the day after the show. Kopitarna embraced my proposition to make a smaller series, which was then sold with great success through their website. What is most interesting is that the model is almost entirely made with their existing pattern, I only made the design and chose the leather and accessories. We were noticed by the professionals and we were among the three nominees for this year's ELLE STYLE Awards. As a consequence, we are continuing to work together, and have already made up a trend-setting slipper that was presented at the recent Ljubljana Fashion Week. The series has been entirely reserved by fashionistas who were, obviously, happy with the previous model. We will not stop there, I already have a sketch book full of fresh ideas!

Tanja Glogovčan, SINFO