Dragoș Constantine makes clothes that wound before they heal. At his first runway presentation at Romanian Fashion Week in Iași, he cried on stage. Not because it was over. Because, for the first time, it was outside of him.
His brand, CONSTANTINE, is built at the intersection of personal pain and precise craft: structured pieces that conceal what cannot be spoken aloud, cuts that carry traces of experiences shared between designer and client in the moment a garment moves from the worktable onto a body.
We met at his studio. His answers don’t rush.
I. THE BODY
– Your clothes look like armour. Or like wounds. What’s the difference?
They’re actually armour that conceals wounds. “Pour les connaisseurs,” you can observe in the details textures, materiality, design that there is a pain, a weight, an emotional disturbance translated through each garment.
– The Narcissist is divided into three chapters. When did you realise you had reached chapter three?
I reached chapter three only after presenting the collection. The presentation itself was the closure I had never had, which is why I chose for the third chapter to be represented through a metaphor: “the light at the end of the tunnel” translating into hope for emotional healing, which came later.
– Is there a piece from the collection you couldn’t wear yourself? Why?
Yes. It’s the red leather trench from look 6, which represents the open wound of the soul and body in the aftermath of narcissistic abuse. When you break free from the abuser, you’re left alone and feel the suffering physically like an open wound, raw flesh.
II. THE MATERIAL
– Chopin, Lord of the Rings, McQueen. What do those have in common for you?
Creativity, perseverance and authenticity three qualities I firmly believe define me.
– If your clothes made a sound, what would it be?
Definitely something metallic a sheet of metal in the wind, or the rattling of chains, but with a weeping violin or a piano playing a nocturne underneath.
– You’ve said you take your clients’ personalities as raw material. What do you do with what remains?
The UX design process I practise where the client becomes a participant in the creative process involves much more than a simple order placed online or at a made-to-measure atelier. There are one or more meetings with clients before placing a custom order, during which, through a set of questions, I come to know them: their fears and joys, their passions and their visions of the world. Only then can I create the best possible version of the custom piece for them. To answer directly: I learn and absorb a great deal from my clients, and what remains is stored in the subconscious a drawer that opens when needed.
III. THE SYSTEM
– Romanian fashion wants to be seen. But by whom? And on what terms?
Internationally. What does that mean? Publications, artists, buyers, stylists, creative projects in the fashion direction.
– Your upcycling project with blazers is it an ecological act, an aesthetic one, or a political one?
The correct answer is: all three. It’s a passion project I’ve been working on for five years, and it develops constantly in any social, political or economic context.
-What still can’t be done in Romania in a fashion show? And why not?
I’m not sure there’s something that concretely can’t be done. What I’ve encountered most often is a lack of professionalism. Beyond that, everything is solvable with money locally and abroad.
IV. THE FUTURE
– You mentioned a collection with international implications. When you say international, what does that actually mean to you geography, or something else?
It means involving external artists and collaborators. For the last collection, I worked on visuals with a London-based artist, Edward Heidel and his team, and for music I worked with Black Asteroid a DJ with an impressive portfolio. He was a sound engineer for Prince and Depeche Mode, and has made music for Rick Owens and Raf Simons shows.
– If the Constantine brand disappeared tomorrow, what would be missing?
An authenticity rooted in deep emotion present in every single creation.
Dragoș Constantin wears the clothes he makes. Not as a statement. As a necessity.
The red leather trench from look 6 hangs on a rack in the studio. He’s never worn it. He probably won’t. Some things are made to exist, not to be worn. CONSTANTINE understands that better than anyone.
