From Kekec to Outsider – from design to costume

Kinoatelje presents a masterclass on cinema costume design with Mateja Fajt.

Costume design in cinema is an essential visual component of narrative filmmaking. The costumes worn by actors can become iconic, leaving an imprint not only on film history but also on broader cultural memory. This lecture explores the process of creating film costumes, highlighting its key aspects. We will delve into the history of Slovenian cinema and examine sketches, photographs, and costumes by Slovenian costume designers through specific examples. Mateja Fajt will offer high school students, university students, and other film enthusiasts a comprehensive look into film costume design, drawing from both her professional practice and research.

Mateja Fajt is a costume designer and researcher who combines practical expertise with academic research. She completed her Master’s in Stage Design at AGRFT and later pursued a doctoral program. In 2021, she received the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship for doctoral research at Yale University in the USA. Fajt has won several awards for her costume work, including the Vesna Award for Stories from the Chestnut Woods (2019) and the UL AGRFT Prešeren Award for The Chairs (2013). Her costume designs span a broad range of live and audiovisual formats, from theater, performance, and dance productions to feature films, short films, international co-productions, TV series, commercials, and VR film. Her research contributions have been published in both Slovenian and international professional journals, including the anthology Performance Costume: New Perspectives and Methods (Bloomsbury, 2021). She regularly presents at international conferences and has shared her research at institutions like Aalto University (Helsinki), UCLA (Los Angeles), and Sorbonne University (Paris).