If you’re looking for the face of multi-talent, look no further then the ever evolving Adriana. While she’s taken the fashion and illustration world by storm, her song “One Day” off her forthcoming EP has received critical acclaim. CelebMix was lucky enough to sit down with her before she left for Canada to attend the awards.
Tell us about your diversified work. You work with fashion, music, illustration
a: I mean it’s a bit of ….it’s still for me always a struggle to define myself, who I am. Because obviously, I never try to spread myself thin but at the same time I am just really into all these areas. And the funny thing is, I think when I recall, when I started to be pursing my artistic career. I started with visuals. So I’d say over the last few years, it’s always been like let’s say I spend two years really intense in art and two years intense in music two years in fashion. So it was bit like a journey. I’m really happy to actually see. Just really recently with the video, that my journey starts to make sense. because I knew this is who I am and I couldn’t just call myself an illustrator, or musician, or a designer. Just because, I always had a vision of like who I am. Which was kind of like combined all the things together in one thing. And it took me a long time to get there and explain who I am for videos. So now I see the effect makes sense and i feel like this is it and maybe it took me more time. cause obviously I had to get better skills and every aspect of it. But the timing just makes me feel fulfilled, I was right and yes it make sense! Obviously, there are still things and room to grow but like I would say I’m an art direction in one sense because I can just explain my vision with all these things.
What are some of your inspirations? What inspires you to write music? Illustration? Fashion?
My major inspiration was definitely, one of them was Bjork. Musicians who actually had something more to say then just their music. Prince as well was my icon. Bowie, I just saw them and they are not only the figures who are singers and brilliant songwriters. But like they know what they are saying and they know visually they explain to the audience. So I feel like they are icons as art directors, musicians. Lady Gaga, I’m not really a fan of her music but I really appreciate where she’s going for her career. For me that was like the major inspiration, they know what they are doing and they are not just puppets in the music industry. You know being told what to sing, I never wanted that, to be like following someone. I have to write me own songs and every song has a vision for me as well. So I think thats how it just started to be a natural path for me as well. And I need to kill time. You know? And so many things I want to do.
How do you differentiate between music, art, fashion? Do you keep everything cohesive or just jump from different ideas?
I’d say sometimes it’s like music. Music inspires art or art inspires music. It really depends on the project. The main theme in my art is defiantly my personal feelings and my personal experiences. And it goes as the initial inspiration for everything else. Usually it starts with music or something. Sometimes it starts with a vision, an idea. So for example “One Day” the video I did. It was..it actually started with a song first but then I always..somehow see something around the music. I was always into music videos as well. Fashion film came later on. It felt like the one thing can’t exist without the others. So I feel like it’s really depending on what’s the initial starting point. It’s the emotion and the experience I’d say.
In fashion, what are you drawn to most stylistically?
Well it started first like every fashion person. I come from a country that, that time in Poland, there was very much not about fashion. Not much was going on. I actually discovered fashion when I was in America. For like my first vogue issues and stuff like that. And I just thought how fashion could be shown from different aspects. It’s not just about the clothing and shopping but the amazing editorials, I’ve seen. Artistic and playful this a narrative there is a storyline. I think thats what drew me to fashion. And I still think it’s the thing that excites me the most is that narrative and art director. Clothes are just part of the scene. And it’s amazing how much you can use fashion as a starting point. That’s why I’m always drawn to having some amazing standing but this is just like building up the vision. And if I see a collection that just matches what I have in my mind then it’s like getting puzzles together.
Does your design work differently with every company? You’ve worked with Lulu Guinness and H&M
I still work with them. Well this is really commercial work. I’d say I really separate my original personal work which is like, music and videos and other illustration. So this is like, obviously, I have clients for it, It’s mainly illustration or design. This is where I’m purely commercial and I can immerse and breath and I really love it. I love working with the people. It also helps me evolve in a personal way. Then there’s my personal stuff, which is very private and all I learn from working with the people in a commercial way, I borrow it to my personal practice. So I think it’s all interlacing in a sense. I don’t like to be separate with my own thing. Obviously, I love the fashion industry. A lot of interesting stuff going on. it makes me proud to work in it especially being a foreigner. It’s my dream as well, coming true.
Do you have any ideas of new trends infusion right now that you would like to explore more?
Not really sure, to be honest with you. I go to fashion week. I’ve been going quite regularly for a couple of seasons. Especially in London, like you come here and you feel like everything is so diverse. Like there’s not really a trend. That’s what I learned when I came here. That everything can be trendy in a sense. Obviously, we have iconic things that are really in. But at the same time you walk down the street and there’s not just one style. Everything can go or be vintage. So for me when I go to fashion week I get the most inspiration based on a collection I’ve seen or like the catwalk or like street style really inspires me. So I think thats the thing that makes me think, oh I want to wear that. But yea I’m not really into following trends that much. I used to be much more. I’m much more chill right now.
So when you do live illustrations, how does this come about?
How did it start? It was really random. Because my friend Jess recommend me to Todd’s after she got a gig from them. And I was like, I’ve never done it in my life, and she wasn’t really confident. She’s a great illustrator but she was like ‘hey Adriana this is your thing’. I can’t deal with this. I like doing crazy drawings. So let’s try it. It was really insane. It was such an eye opener because like I did the drawings of really fancy women in a really fancy store. They were like obsessed about the 5 minute doodles I did. For me they were so natural and kind of like, when I was kid I used to draw loads of comics as well. Like very cartoon style, disney inspired. So I think that’s where it came out naturally, which I always tried to hide because I always felt like no this isn’t very fashion and this isn’t high fashion or luxury. Then it’s funny enough that it clicked. So I think that signature style was actually inspired by cartoons and Disney, merging with my fashion inspiration. That’s what made it really popular. I think it’s really interesting how sometimes, something decides how you overcome blockages. Cause I felt like ‘oh my god that would never go in fashion’. Somehow it really went well. So that’s how it started.
Tell us about “One Day”’
The story is coming from New York. It’s an amazing journey with the video and the song because I’ve been through so many struggles since I wrote that song. Even the video. I had huge major, downs and ups. But it started off when I was quite positive. That was in New York, after graduation. I wrote this song when I was really inspired just walking around super fancy buildings. And it was like I want to live here one day. And I don’t know how, cause I’m kind of nobody at the moment but I want to do it. And you always have that concept of one day in you head. You say one day I’m gonna do this, one day I’m gonna have this apartment. I’m gonna travel somewhere. I just wanted to write about this feeling and be positive about it. Then obviously I really really believe in vision. Then I want to..cause I wasn’t there yet, I wanted to actually share my feelings and inspire other people to not to give up. Then I found my friend who is a designer, Sophia Kula, we’ve been friends for a while, actually our ideas merged ideally, roots and fairytale dreams. So we decide let’s just do it. She liked the idea, she liked the song. We created a video. I really didn’t have any expectation what was going to come out of it. I just felt like I needed to share it that way. And it’s been my great success.
You’ve also directed the video. What was the concept behind that?
Originally, I just wrote the song, what you asked me in the first question as well. The song came first and then I remembered I was inspired by some documentary about musicians recording in this very famous studio in Louisiana. They were showing this lake which was really similar to one I grew up by and they were talking about how the studio inspired the to vocal. I was like, this is like the one I grew up by. And that’s actually where my dreams started about the big world. Cause I didn’t wanna live by this lake and I really wanted to go to the big city. I felt like, how about I jump back there and show my mood in the state where I was. Where it all just began so that’s how the vision came up. Obviously, I will say that was the initial concept director of it and I had an idea of what I wanted to do, where to film, what clothes to wear. But the director was my friend. So she was the person behind the camera But I was the art director of the idea.
You’ve been nominated for the The Mercedes Benz Bokeh South African International Fashion Film Festival for Best Emerging Talent and now the Canadian International Fashion Film Festival for Best Score in a Fashion Film. How does that feel?
I’m feeling blessed. Honestly, as I said I was going through a really down time soon after I finished the video and I felt like nothing makes sense and it felt like maybe I just living an allusion. Maybe, it’s just so not on trend cause people want to see urban things, grim and I’m really not into that stuff. I’m a bit old fashioned person as well. I love to listen to new music but I’m not really into being cool. I thought maybe I’m not the right fit. I’m a foreigner and then when I saw that revising such great feedback it started to feel like wow it’s starting to make sense. It gave me a boost to my confidence and my dreams. It re-motivated me to do new things. You have to trust your heart.
Are you going to the awards in Canada?
I’m really excited!
So what are your plans for the future? Besides the awards?
I defiantly am planning a new video and new EP to record. Actually this is going to be very personal as well. It was born around the time I was really feeling down and again. It’s gonna be a journey to my very private feelings about motivating about not giving up but its also going to be very tough because one day is very dreamy and this new project is going to be more brutal and more rough. The positive experience from One Day made me want to how to get out of that bad state. It goes really well. I want to have more time but I’m still working with Lulu Guinness and I love doing fashion illustration. It’s going really really well. I want to be an independent artist.
To find out more about Adriana, you can head to her website at http://adrianaofficial.com
Love Adriana? Tweet us at @CelebMix