To me a museum is like a church
Fashion designer Kati Zoób on craft, exhibitions and family inheritance
MúzeumCafé 26.
“When I was a child I swore to my mother not to become an actress or a lawyer, and I also promised to look for happiness in everyday life.” So says fashion designer Kati Zoób who has found happiness in fashion, dreaming up special collections. The exhibition TeXture in the Petőfi Museum of Literature displayed textile creations designed to match the writings of contemporary and classical authors. “Each of my collections includes a few designs I intend to create for eternity and future generations. They may involve a motif, a new technology or a new cut. In addition to dresses you can see some components of the past, as with the Zsolnay jewellery collection. My family’s way of thinking and taste is shown in the craftsmanship. That is the mother tongue I inherited from them and which I try to pass on. I inherited a large collection of craft objects from my family, which I have added to in recent decades, and I receive all sorts of beautiful objects from complete strangers for use in my designs. I’m confused when I just happen to come across a museum or an exhibition. I am unable to enter immediately. I must have time to prepare myself psychologically. Last year we discovered an extraordinary building in Zadar. I could hear music and I ventured further and further inside until I realised I was in a museum. I was unable to proceed, but I returned the following day to take a look. At one point I was selecting dresses for the paintings in Judit Virág’s gallery. I spent most of the time choosing the pictures I could design for, or add to from my previous collections. First Judit picked a number of paintings and I narrowed them down in line with what I could add from my own work and my past. It developed into an incredibly exciting exhibition. Colour and shapes define the trend in fashion.”