INTERVIEW - Fashion Extreme Designer, Polina Roytman
Having asked fashion designer Polina Roytman to come up with some designs for the magazine (see the previous pages), Geek Syndicate asked the designer a few questions to understand her background and influences more. GS: How did you get you into fashion design and did geekdom influence that choice in anyway? PR: My very first memory is sitting in my room surrounded by my mother’s sketch books and being amazed by this. Being in the Soviet Union my mom couldn’t just go into any store to buy whatever dress or outfit she wanted, so when she turned marrying age her mother would have things custom made for her, and my mother would design a lot of her own clothes and pick out her own fabrics. She had many sketch books of her designs that I somehow got my hands on and started looking through and thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. After that when we were moving from the Soviet Union to America we were waiting in Italy to get sponsored, and my parents bought me a barbie doll that I really wanted since we couldn’t have any other toys with us. I thought it was wrong that this doll only had one outfit, so I would design others for her. A mother and daughter seamstress team that were very close friends of ours would make these custom clothes for my barbie from the scraps of fabrics that I would choose from that they had left over. One of my favorite characters at the time that I was able to watch on tv was He-Man. I loved him and that show, and it’s quite possible that this is where it started. Later when we were in America my brother was obsessed with comic books and drawing the characters (he’s an Illustrator and also studied Sequential Art) and he introduced me to a bunch of other characters. I was always most interested in what they were wearing. GS: What drew you to the mixes of outfits that you choose? PR: I loved the colors and the details. Something about each character stood out to me and I thought I could work well from this. GS: How hard did you find it designing these outfits for everyday wear? PR: It was fairly easy. I had a lot of fun with it! You start with one idea and the rest tend to flow after that.
Geek Syndicate
GS: If you could redesign any superhero costume which would you choose and why? PR: That’s a tough one to answer. I’ve always loved She-Ra and her costume, so I don’t think I would redesign it but would probably turn it into a really cool evening wear dress that could be worn today. GS: What do you think are some of the best and worst designed costumes on film,tv and comics? PR: Some of my favorites are She-Ra, Storm, Catwoman, He-Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, Rogue, Batman, and Wolverine. There are none that I feel are the worst really. GS: If you could design costumes/ outfits for any genre show or film what would it be? PR: Sci-Fi. I love that it could be something that hasn’t been invented or done yet and could be anything you come up with. It’s all fantasy, I love this. For more information about Polina and her design work, visit her website at: http://www.polinaroytman. com/
Barry Nugent
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