CLUB COUTURE — ISSUE 03:
(Jelena Milošević)
Milan [Italy]
CLUB COUTURE is a new Apparel Music feature dedicated to emerging talents working across fashion, art, beauty, image making. Designers, stylists, artists and creatives whose practice sits somewhere between craft, culture and personal expression. The project starts from Milan, telling the stories of our local community and the people shaping it, but always with an open gaze outward. Each issue introduces new artists through short portraits. No hype, just process, taste and perspective.
CLUB COUTURE — ISSUE 03:
(Jelena Milošević)
Milan [Italy]
CLUB COUTURE is a new Apparel Music feature dedicated to emerging talents working across fashion, art, beauty, image making. Designers, stylists, artists and creatives whose practice sits somewhere between craft, culture and personal expression. The project starts from Milan, telling the stories of our local community and the people shaping it, but always with an open gaze outward. Each issue introduces new artists through short portraits. No hype, just process, taste and perspective.
Jelena Milošević Q&A
Jelena Milošević, born in Serbia in 1992, studied at the Art Institute of Belgrade before moving to Milan, where she earned both her BA and MA in Visual Arts at the Brera Academy. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Wurmkos artistic collective and co-founder of MIVES ATELIER. Her research revolves around black as a perceptual space, working through subtraction, repetition, and an obsessive gesture. She favours charcoal and performative processes in which the hand remains in continuous contact with the canvas. Her works explore the boundary between presence and absence, light and the gradual fading of matter.
-Where are you from?
- I was born in Serbia, in a city I never truly lived in. My childhood unfolded in Vrnjačka Banja, a quiet spa town where I experienced a great sense of freedom. I later finished my adolescence in Belgrade, a city I feel deeply connected to and return to often, even though I haven’t lived there for many years.
-What kind of background did you grow up with?
- I grew up in an environment that was very free, yet strongly shaped by style and everyday creativity. My family, especially my brothers, played an important role in my upbringing, passing on to me a strong sense of autonomy and confidence. My mother was a central figure: working in fashion, she brought into my life an idea of aesthetics tied to care, detail, and an almost couture dimension—something made to measure. Around her I naturally absorbed a way of looking at things, of giving weight to materials, forms, and gestures.
Being born in the early nineties (1992), my imagination was also marked by Serbia’s historical context. The war and the 1999 bombings created an undercurrent of tension and instability that coexisted with daily life. In that scenario, creativity played a crucial role, particularly the Serbian dance scene of the nineties, which shaped my relationship with rhythm, energy, and repetition. All these elements contributed to forming my gaze and my way of being in the world.
-How did you end up choosing art and fashion?
- Growing up in a creative environment made the choice less theoretical and more instinctive. Rather than deciding, I recognised a language that already belonged to me. The moment I chose to attend art school felt natural—not as imitation, but as a personal need to give form to what I had absorbed over time. Watching my mother’s working processes, alongside family members active in the art world, painters, directors, teachers, and following them through projects, especially where fashion met artistic research, was fundamental. Staying close to those projects for long periods and understanding how an idea takes shape and becomes material deeply marked the way I think about work. From there came the desire to build my own path, turning that initial experience into an autonomous and conscious practice that continues today.
-How would you describe your style or your work?
- My work grows out of a process of subtraction. I chose black because, for me, it is not only a colour but a space where light becomes visible. I work on the boundary between what appears and what withdraws, between presence and loss. Through repetition, layering, and gesture, the image is gradually weakened until it becomes fragile, unstable, almost absent. My work does not seek narration, but a condition of suspension and listening.
-What are your main artistic influences?
- My main influences come from the history of contemporary art and from artists who have worked with black as a perceptual space and an experience rather than as a colour (Malevich, Reinhardt, Soulages, Burri, Fontana, Kapoor). I recognise myself in practices that question the image, vision, and the very idea of representation. I do not work from specific musical or cinematic references. I am more influenced by conditions such as silence and noise, time, light, and waiting—elements that act on perception and return within my process. An important role in my formation has also been played by the artistic group Wurmkos, of which I have been a member since 2015. Working within a collective has deeply influenced the way I look at art, teaching me to abandon an exclusively individual vision of work and to engage with shared processes, dialogue, and the dimension of the group.
-What were your expectations of Milan before moving here?
- Milan was meant to be a city I passed through. I moved here to complete my academic studies, without any intention of staying long. Over time, however, my relationship with the city changed: I remained, and today Milan is part of my path, even if it has never become a definitive or identity-based choice. It is a compact but intense city, capable of offering many possibilities within a relatively small space. From an artistic point of view, it is a place where it is possible to work, meet people, and build a continuity of practice. At the same time, it is a city that demands a lot of energy and where work is often unstable. Milan is not always easy, but it is a place that constantly puts you to the test.
Jelena Milošević Q&A
Jelena Milošević, born in Serbia in 1992, studied at the Art Institute of Belgrade before moving to Milan, where she earned both her BA and MA in Visual Arts at the Brera Academy. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Wurmkos artistic collective and co-founder of MIVES ATELIER. Her research revolves around black as a perceptual space, working through subtraction, repetition, and an obsessive gesture. She favours charcoal and performative processes in which the hand remains in continuous contact with the canvas. Her works explore the boundary between presence and absence, light and the gradual fading of matter.
-Where are you from?
- I was born in Serbia, in a city I never truly lived in. My childhood unfolded in Vrnjačka Banja, a quiet spa town where I experienced a great sense of freedom. I later finished my adolescence in Belgrade, a city I feel deeply connected to and return to often, even though I haven’t lived there for many years.
-What kind of background did you grow up with?
- I grew up in an environment that was very free, yet strongly shaped by style and everyday creativity. My family, especially my brothers, played an important role in my upbringing, passing on to me a strong sense of autonomy and confidence. My mother was a central figure: working in fashion, she brought into my life an idea of aesthetics tied to care, detail, and an almost couture dimension—something made to measure. Around her I naturally absorbed a way of looking at things, of giving weight to materials, forms, and gestures.
Being born in the early nineties (1992), my imagination was also marked by Serbia’s historical context. The war and the 1999 bombings created an undercurrent of tension and instability that coexisted with daily life. In that scenario, creativity played a crucial role, particularly the Serbian dance scene of the nineties, which shaped my relationship with rhythm, energy, and repetition. All these elements contributed to forming my gaze and my way of being in the world.
-How did you end up choosing art and fashion?
- Growing up in a creative environment made the choice less theoretical and more instinctive. Rather than deciding, I recognised a language that already belonged to me. The moment I chose to attend art school felt natural—not as imitation, but as a personal need to give form to what I had absorbed over time. Watching my mother’s working processes, alongside family members active in the art world, painters, directors, teachers, and following them through projects, especially where fashion met artistic research, was fundamental. Staying close to those projects for long periods and understanding how an idea takes shape and becomes material deeply marked the way I think about work. From there came the desire to build my own path, turning that initial experience into an autonomous and conscious practice that continues today.
-How would you describe your style or your work?
- My work grows out of a process of subtraction. I chose black because, for me, it is not only a colour but a space where light becomes visible. I work on the boundary between what appears and what withdraws, between presence and loss. Through repetition, layering, and gesture, the image is gradually weakened until it becomes fragile, unstable, almost absent. My work does not seek narration, but a condition of suspension and listening.
-What are your main artistic influences?
- My main influences come from the history of contemporary art and from artists who have worked with black as a perceptual space and an experience rather than as a colour (Malevich, Reinhardt, Soulages, Burri, Fontana, Kapoor). I recognise myself in practices that question the image, vision, and the very idea of representation. I do not work from specific musical or cinematic references. I am more influenced by conditions such as silence and noise, time, light, and waiting—elements that act on perception and return within my process. An important role in my formation has also been played by the artistic group Wurmkos, of which I have been a member since 2015. Working within a collective has deeply influenced the way I look at art, teaching me to abandon an exclusively individual vision of work and to engage with shared processes, dialogue, and the dimension of the group.
-What were your expectations of Milan before moving here?
- Milan was meant to be a city I passed through. I moved here to complete my academic studies, without any intention of staying long. Over time, however, my relationship with the city changed: I remained, and today Milan is part of my path, even if it has never become a definitive or identity-based choice. It is a compact but intense city, capable of offering many possibilities within a relatively small space. From an artistic point of view, it is a place where it is possible to work, meet people, and build a continuity of practice. At the same time, it is a city that demands a lot of energy and where work is often unstable. Milan is not always easy, but it is a place that constantly puts you to the test.
-If you were a object?
- A staple gun. I tend to fixate on things, to return to them again and again.
-If you were a city?
- Belgrade, because it is divided into two parts, an old and a new, which together create a single entity. Crossed by two rivers, it is in constant movement and able to contain contrasts and layers.
-If you were a geometric shape?
- A square. Kandinsky associates the square with the colour red in Goethe’s theory: to me it represents a continuous centrifuge of emotions.
-If you were a food?
- A soft-boiled egg, three minutes and thirty seconds—balanced on the outside, volcanic within.
-What would be your music for the Club Couture?
- Kisk - 3Titled.
-If you were a object?
- A staple gun. I tend to fixate on things, to return to them again and again.
-If you were a city?
- Belgrade, because it is divided into two parts, an old and a new, which together create a single entity. Crossed by two rivers, it is in constant movement and able to contain contrasts and layers.
-If you were a geometric shape?
- A square. Kandinsky associates the square with the colour red in Goethe’s theory: to me it represents a continuous centrifuge of emotions.
-If you were a food?
- A soft-boiled egg, three minutes and thirty seconds—balanced on the outside, volcanic within.
-What would be your music for the Club Couture?
- Kisk - 3Titled.
