the world of elena werner.

Elena Werner is both a designer and a time traveller. In every project, her goal is to create a Gesamtkunstwerk, bringing together traditions and innovation. Her designs come to life in an aura of timelessness, yet with frames of reference to the baroque and art nouveau.

Elena Werner’s aesthetical presumption mirrors in the intertwinements and embroidered connections of her costumes. They merge the traditions of opera with the present. Together with a fabric mise-en-scène, these confluxes descend upon the opera or dance characters. In combination with the métier of some old techniques which handle needle, thread and thimble, the haute couture wanders about all of this. Textile arts debouches into a cosmos of lines, circles and ribbons versus symmetry and origami. It eventually brings together Gustave Klimt, Sarah Moon and Pina Bauch and they ask one another for a dance. With an affluence of details and references, everything merges together in a homogenous and prosperous tone of fabrics.

Silk, lace and tulle are devoted companions of fabric to a transparency over land and water, reality and unreality. Costumes, fragile as crystal: a still life which comes to life, until the image fades and only memory enlightens. These staged fibers and added symbols create an identity of fantasy. A ray of light, the spot, the premiere as apotheosis. The prelude becomes a fabric Elena-universe.

It is where opera and fashion come together in the beating heart of interdisciplinary cross-pollinations. It is also where the flowy creations of Elena Werner function as the key element of a story. Ultimately, Elena Werner is the dreamed-of liaison between both the stage favourites, directors and scenic designers.

The pictorial and written testimonies which you can find in Elena Werner’s résumé, substantiate her indispensable voice in the world of film, opera and dance robes. From intimist integrity to exuberantly expressive, from Bauhaus to Mackintosh, from sock to hat, from sketch to finished fully developed costumes in which mobility flourishes.

Immerse yourself in this world of dreams and order your tickets to admire les rêves d’Elena Werner.

Hilde Van Canneyt

1977 | Born in Esperanza, Argentina.

1992 | Piano at Instituto Superior de Música, Argentina.

1995/1996 | Architecture at Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina.

1997/1998 | Theatre Design at Teatro San Martín, Argentina.

1997/2001 | Fashion and Textile Design at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2002/2003 | Fashion Design at Hogeschool Ghent, Belgium.

2003/2006 | Costume Design at Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Belgium.

2006 | Exhibition MuzeA verBeeld at Mode Museum Antwerp, Belgium.

2007/present | Wardrobe Assistant Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium.

2007 | Awarded the Museum Prize at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium.

2010 | Elected associated designer at Loch Shiel Spring Festival, Scotland.

2010 /present | Head of Costume Design & Scenic Arts, Ghent, Belgium.

2010/2014 | Costume Designer at International Opera Academy, Ghent, Belgium.

2011 | Costume Making for performance in TV, theatre and film at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design – University of the Arts London, United Kingdom.