Slavna Martinovic was born in 1977 in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. She moved to Hong Kong with her parents as a child, where she grew up and completed high school.

 

She continued her studies at the London College of Fashion in London. Following her graduation, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met Theadora Van Runkle the legendary costume designer (Bonnie and Clyde, Godfather II, York New York) who become her mentor. Their friendship has had a pivotal influence in development as an artist. She has lived in Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Vienna designing for theater, film, music videos, and styling for celebrities and fashion magazines.

 

In 2008 Slavna launched her own fashion and jewelry label that premiered at the Berlin Fashion Week and was featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Another Magazine, Elle and many more online and printed publications. The collection was also a part of the book "Backstage - Fashion Week Berlin" by teNeues publishing.

 

She continues her career in visual arts, collaborating with film and theater directors, choreographers, composers, and musicians. She has created costumes for numerous stages across the world: Burg Theater, Deutsches Theater, Volksbuehne, Schauspiel Köln, Göteborg Opera, Opera Basel, Theatre National de Chaillot Paris, Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, Spiral Hall in Tokyo, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Konzert Theater Bern, Staatstheater Mainz, Ballet Moskva,. "Get Lost", a feature film directed by Daniela Amavia starring Ella Travolta, whom she had the pleasure of designing, is premiering in the summer 2022. 

 

Slavna's works were featured in museums and gallery shows, notably the exhibition "The costume at the turn of the Century 1995 - 2015" at the Bahrushin State Theater Museum in Moscow in 2016 as well as the Women's Museum in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2021.

She completed MA in Multimedia Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2009, was a guest student at the Faculty of New Media at the Goethe University in Frankfurt from 2015 to 2017, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the Faculty for Fashion and Styles, where she is currently also a lecturer.

 

Slavna's research interests are a continuation of her decades-long absorption in dress, fashion, and subculture. She investigates the way the body is transformed, extended, and fashioned in the virtual worlds, exploring the ideas of the digital representation of subcultural styles and identities, the effects of social media on corporal identity, gender performativity, and displaying subversive thinking.

She lives between Berlin, Vienna, and Los Angeles and wherever her work may take her.