ABODI Transylvania is the artistic universe of Dora Abodi, where mysticism, fashion, mythology, history, and imagination are allowed to converse without hierarchy. It is less a place of nostalgia than a method of transforming inherited symbols into new cultural myths.
You see ABODI Transylvania not just as a fashion label but as an artistic project. When and how was it founded? What was the starting point?
It began with the desire to construct a language and a world of my own, my territory, my worlds, and protagonists. Art and fashion became the medium because they are wonderfully unstable; they can be image, sculpture, performance, identity, and narrative all at once.
What does it mean to you to retell a region often known for Dracula clichés in your own authentic voice?
Every region eventually becomes more placed in a complex perspective of itself when viewed from a distance. I am interested in returning complexity to Transylvania, not correcting the myth, but expanding it and also making it ABODI.
Queens and vampire beings recur throughout your work. What draws you to these figures on the border between the human and the mythic?
Mythological figures are psychologically braver and more honest than realistic ones. A witch or magician can embody power, loneliness, vanity, and ritual simultaneously. A vampire is really a beautiful question about immortality, desire, and memory.
I see myself in these characters; they are all alter egos and personas of mine.
Is there a material that feels especially tied to memory for you?
Perhaps linen, cotton, wool, and velvet—but not simply as materials. Even in color, they carry a darkness, and tactility feels archival to me. Some materials seem to carry history within them. I also love antique and vintage fabrics.
How does a new collection begin for you?
Usually with research, but never with certainty. I begin by following an intellectual or emotional thread—an image in an archive, a historical contradiction, a myth—and wait for connections to reveal themselves. I also love scrolling; the algorithm knows me too well, and I find myself consuming a lot of art, history, and Cabinet de Curiosités. Furthermore, novels and films are an important part of my life, which may explain why I became a storyteller on my own.
If ABODI Transylvania were a real place you could walk into, what would we see, hear, and feel there?
Whimsical and tricky. No way to understand it fully. New doors and rooms appear out of nowhere. A labyrinth. It would feel like entering a living archive designed by someone with a taste for the uncanny. Ancient symbols would coexist with futuristic gestures and a lot of pop culture. Nothing would be entirely from the past and nothing entirely from the future. It would be a trip inside my brain—good luck to the traveler; I’m not sure if they would survive it.
Aside from work, how do you like to spend your spare time?
Exploring. Reading. Talking with people. I buy vintage and antiques, and I am a collector of folk art, mid-century modern, and whimsical objects. I enjoy swimming submerged. I try to hold my breath, then simply exhale. Dancing to techno and pop. Walking through cities without a destination. Drawing a lot. Doing my illustrations. Making ceramics.
Most artistic work begins long before one enters the studio.
What are you currently working on, and what story do you want to tell next?
I’m interested in stories that exist somewhere between cultural memory and speculation. I’m fascinated by the idea that imagination can become a form of preservation. Currently, I’m working on Chronicles II, my new wearable art collection. It continues this exploration through objects, materials, and storytelling and will introduce new statement bags and a jewelry line. I’m drawn to pieces that feel like fragments of a larger history, objects that suggest a story rather than fully reveal it. I’ve recently started writing again and am developing a new story. In some ways, the writing and the collection are connected.
ABODI Transylvania – www.aboditransylvania.com
