A look at Ikonostas lingerie - sartorial, provocative, erotic and experimental
A model wearing Ikonostas lingerie on a Juliette’s Diary photo shoot set.
Ikonostas is one of Juliette’s Diary all-time favourite lingerie brands. Not only our stylist recommends this brand to all our clients for their boudoir photo shoot, but their sartorial creations feature extensively in Juliette’s Diary own images. See that beautiful woman on her phone?
The label Ikonostas is distinguished by an experimental approach to luxury lingerie that combines couture and intimate apparel to create sensual clothing that is provocative and erotic as well as elegant and sophisticated. We believe that Ikonostas corsets, underwear and draped kimonos are just the perfect choice of lingerie for Juliette’s Diary elegant boudoir, intimate and erotic photo shoots.
In this interview, we have asked Daniela Corcio, founder and designer of the label, some questions about her background, experimental approach and her vision behind Ikonostas.
What is your background?
I studied fashion design at Polimoda, costume design and aesthetics at the Faculty of Humanities in Florence. The city of Florence had a major effect on my design, as the magnificent architecture pushed my mind to believe in beauty. Working in theatres taught me to tell stories through costumes and travelling for art performances shaped my mind to be open and to express concepts through physicality.
My long collaboration with Vivienne Westwood helped me to develop a greater understanding on technical skills and creating collections working closely with Vivienne and Andreas represented the key of how I came to see fashion: an intricate connection of elements united by a common vision, a tool to communicate with the world. Westwood also taught me to dare and to work on my ideas without following any trends.
How was Ikonostas born?
I was invited to have a fashion show in a historical venue in Florence, with other 9 European best-emerging designers, as representative of the city’s creativity. I had never created a lingerie collection before but was known for my corsets. I embraced the challenge, and my irreverent way to mix knitwear and rubber and contrasting black and white caught the attention of American buyers and Press.
I didn’t have much experience in bras and briefs but I continued to experiment until I found my own design language, finding a balance between pret à porter and lingerie, in a waltzer and interexchange of materials and elements that are characteristics of these two different worlds.
What do you love most about being a lingerie designer?
Creating clothes that people wear in intimate moments is to create something that goes beyond the need of our society to ‘appear’. Intimacy is free from stereotypes, and I like that people can decide to play different roles through garments for their own and their partner’s pleasure. They can be whoever they want, and nobody will judge. It’s fun, emotional, electric.
Also, having clients, very often strangers, of any genre and sexual orientation telling me about their desires and intimate moments is something that touches me deeply, and inspires me to create the next level of excitement.
What type of lingerie do you create and what motivates you to make it?
I prefer to identify my design as a wardrobe for intimate moments. I never considered myself as a lingerie designer but I aspire to be more a tailor of pleasure and desires.
I want women and their partners to enjoy the pleasure of playing with their own bodies. The body speaks the language of emotions, and I want to dress them.
What makes Ikonostas designs so distinctive and unique?
I like to think that the uniqueness of my brand is given by following no rules, being influenced by subcultures and having the freedom to create regardless of the market expectations, but in particular is the mix of my background in art performance combined with a strong skill in draping and pret-à-porter, and the love for the language of the body that nourishes and makes Ikonostas different.
What process, materials and techniques do you mostly use?
During the years, I learned that an artist cannot follow any particular procedure in the process of creation. I have always been associated to the figure of an artist for the kind of design and images I create by several people involved in music, fashion, art, cinema.
My background in theatre and experimental art performance influenced me a lot and pushed me to believe in creating clothing more for the symbol it represents rather than for the design itself.
Having created an independent brand, this put me in the position of being the maker of my own rules.
Materials and techniques can vary a lot and I always like to experiment, create new textures by myself and sometimes recovering waste products. Subcultures are another factor that influences me a lot, as I have always been a part of an alternative scene since I was a teenager.
For example, in 2004 when nobody spoke about sustainability yet, I recycled inner tubes to create an eco-friendly bag for fetishists that became an object of desire for people with different lifestyle’s and age’s.
What is your inspiration behind Ikonostas designs?
Icons… of any kind, from all the past eras and the future. But the most important ingredient is music: that invisible thread that let me assemble all the ideas around a mannequin. When I moved to London two years ago, I left my stereo, amplifier and speakers in Italy alongside all my vinyls and CDs. This is the part I absolutely miss more for my inspiration.
Are there themes that return regularly in Ikonostas design?
Straps that can be tied around the body in different way, contrasts in terms of colours/materials /transparency and floating volumes.
How does Ikonostas design comment on current social, cultural and feminist issues?
I don’t like any boundaries in our society, except the limits we place on ourselves.
I respect and love diversity, so I like to create pieces that can be worn in different moods, indoors, outdoors and in private moments, so every woman can perform the woman she desires to be, and the woman that she is.
What type of woman are your clothes designed for?
My clothes are designed for a strong, independent and self-confident woman.
Visit IKONOSTAS to discover their exciting lingerie collections!
All images below ©Ikonostas
