Slavna Martinovic is a costume and set designer, visual artist, and theorist of dress and subculture whose practice moves between theatre, opera, film, fashion, theory, and contemporary art. Grounded in substantial knowledge of period costume, fashion history, and subcultural dress, her work shifts between historical precision and the unexpected, from tailoring and historic costume to specialist fabrication in latex, silicone, prosthetics, and experimental materials. Her approach extends into spatial installations and multimedia-driven sets, where costume, architecture, projection, moving image, and material become part of the same visual world.

Slavna’s work spans the cities where she grew up and the new ones she has adopted. In Hong Kong, where she moved with her parents, she absorbed the visual contradictions of Cantopop and punk rock, early raves and high-fashion glossies, skyscrapers and knock-offs, all fuelling her undying love for dressing up. During her studies at the London College of Fashion, she was a devoted ’90s club kid and follower of fashion.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1998, where she continued her career as a stylist for fashion magazines and celebrities, gradually becoming a versatile costume designer under the mentorship of Theodora Van Runkle, one of the last great figures of Hollywood’s golden era of costume design. Van Runkle became not only her mentor but also a friend, profoundly influencing her artistic practice.

Her editorial and design work has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Another Magazine, Flaunt, GQ, and Die Zeit. She has created costumes and sets for stages including the Salzburg Easter Festival, Burgtheater Vienna, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Volksbühne Berlin, Göteborg Opera, Théâtre National de Chaillot Paris, Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, Spiral Hall Tokyo, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Konzert Theater Bern, Ballet Moskva, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Most recently, Martinovic completed the costume design for Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold for the Salzburg Easter Festival, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and conducted by Kirill Petrenko.

Martinovic holds an MA in Multimedia Art and is currently a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She also lectures in costume design, dress theory, and visual culture. Born in Yugoslavia, she lives between Berlin, Vienna, and Los Angeles.