I came to costume through my love for theatre and live performance. As much as I love cinema, there is something different about the stage: a body standing in front of people, in real time, carrying a story that can only happen once in that exact way.

That live presence is what first pulled me in.

I first entered the stage through scenography in Bulgaria. Costume came into focus later in Antwerp, almost naturally.

Over time, studies and practice in garment construction, costume history, graphic design and image-making gave that instinct more structure and precision. They trained the way I look at space, silhouette, fabric, and the tension between what a body is doing and what the audience sees.

Costume became the place where all of that could meet.

In theatre, clothing can carry deep dramaturgical meaning. In music, dance or performance, it may need to support rhythm, identity, transformation or pure presence. I am interested in the difference between those worlds, and in the small decisions that make a garment feel right for the body, the story and the moment.

My work also stays close to daily clothing: garments we keep, repair, outgrow, return to, or stop seeing clearly. That is where my textile practice enters, through material, memory, care and the possibility of giving something another direction.

As a dancer as well as a designer, I understand clothing through movement. I pay attention to where fabric follows, where it resists, what it reveals, what it hides, and what it allows the body to become.

Across all of it, I return to the same question:

What can a garment carry, and what can it help us become?