The Girl from Lithuania
Interview By Aaron Tyler Francis
You are in Lithuania. You’ve just arrived, Its 3.00AM. Pushed by boredom, and beckoned by the sound, you enter a random bar unaware of what lies beyond the door. If at this point your mind has begun to conjure images of cheap vodka, and “Russian model” type chicks dancing to decade’s old Electronica music- you are forgiven. In fact, if you were to augment this Eastern European fantasy with say…Kent cigarettes and a waist deep supply of ‘party foam’ plus shirtless men dancing alongside stripper poles well, then you are twice forgiven! I can confirm for you that Vilnius, Lithuania is all of the above and yet thankfully, there are two sides to every coin. For Vilnius, that ‘other side’ is represented by a loosely knit collective of creative young designers, artists, photographers, musicians and DJs who feel they have no option but to keep it fresh.
Enter Milda Cergelyte. She rides a purple bicycle. She pays her bills spinning at clubs and she models for fun. She organizes photoshoots, costume parties and vintage couture yard sales and she is still below the legal age to buy a drink in NYC. Extra curriculars aside however, It’s going to be her fashion label MIMIC that will make her famous. There is a movement in Lithuania and Milda and her fellow collaborators are at the forefront of this new generation. The real ‘Cold War Kids’ from the former Soviet Union who are crashing the gates of Western art & fashion.Literally. Beginning with London when Milda relocates in the Fall. Don’t act so surprised son! As Milda points out, Lithuanian born Jonas Mekas was collaborating with Warhol and Lennon/Ono long before the Iron Curtain fell. Of Course, He had to leave Lithuania in order for that to manifest.
Q: Why London? You are just as close to Paris or Milan, what made you choose London as your next base?
Milda: I am choosing London, because it fits my own style. I love New York, but education is very expensive there, so i decided to finish my fashion studies in London, get some finance and creative freedom and go to NYC, maybe I could travel much more then… Paris and Milan indeed. I might not like Milan so much, everything there is very posh, [their] fashion is all about the brand and tags. All I love in fashion is arts and creativity.
Q: I understand you had some trouble with the police recently!! What was that all about?
Milda: Yes, I had some trouble with the police when i was trying to get rid of my [old] clothes and organized a yard sale next to Woo [Local club]. The guard from next door was very mad about the loud music and lots of people so he called the police , but everything is ok now.
Q: You’ve already had several successful fashion shows and a number of your shoots have been published . What more can you really hope to learn while studying in London?
Milda: Practise makes perfect! All I want is to see fashion from the other side, I want to learn everything about fashion production. And being around many many talented people, so I will be more pushed to become a stronger and stronger designer.
Q: Who is the one designer you would love to apprentice under?
Milda: I love Mcqueen, Margiela or Pugh, but I dont copy them, they have their own style and I have my own. But it would be very very interesting for me to meet Margiela personally and I am really sad that I will never meet Alexander.
Q: Lithuanians seem to have a very avant garde design aesthetic, why do you think that is?
Milda: I dont think that we have so much avant garde design aesthetic as we could , but I am really happy that we have many conceptual designers here, all of them you can see at the “Mados Infekcija” event.
Q: Are the clothes you produce more “performance-art” or “ready-to- wear”?
Milda: All of them you can whear everywhere, whatever you want! Of course many people think that these clothes ar just for performances, but all of my costumes have a piece of ready to wear and many of my designs are changing and transforming. I think that’s the main point of contemporary fashion design; to stop the meaningless load of simple clothes in our closets and to save human originality. [I'm tired of the] hundreds [of the] same basic t-shirts!!
Q: Some of your best work involves collaborations with fellow Lithuanians, do you fear that moving to London you wont be able to recreate that chemistry?
Milda: Now you can fly cheaply everywhere, so i am fearless. Also I am quite happy because our art will become more conceptual and more mature in that case, also maybe i will meet other people to work with or i will invite my crew here , to London? You can never know
Q: You have a very unique personal style, where does it come from?
Milda: I dont pay so much attention to my personal style, because I give all my time to my collections, so I spend mostly half hour in my closet. Of course, I love big boyfriend t-shirts with rockabilly pictures, leggings and my big rings, but I dont have time to be very trendy… I am happy that confidence never goes out of fashion .Of course before big events I look even shocking when i color my eyebrows and hair and put on my black lipstick.
Q: You mentioned to me that in your opinion – age is irrelevant. Why do you say that?
Milda: Because the main thing in human[s] is their minds, intelligence and fantasy. I always was the youngest girl between all my friends, but some of the time I felt like I am the oldest one, so age is just two numbers in your passport, which could mean nothing.
Q: What will you label MIMIC contribute to modern fashion?
Milda: Main goal of mimic is to make new fashion, do not copy fashion history and try to mix all my inspiration and to make something contemporary. Also my future goal is to collaborate with some people from a science sphere and to make some new inventions which could be very practical for fashion.
Q:When and where is your next show?
Milda: My next show will be in Lithuania’s Fashion Night , its a collection called “Seed”, shocking ‘anfi-fake ecologic’ collection, you will see!
