Sketching New Worlds: A Conversation with the Founder of Feeric Fashion Week

Tucked between medieval stone walls and rolling green hills, Sibiu doesn’t immediately scream fashion capital—but that’s exactly what makes it so magnetic. During our trip to Feeric Fashion Week in Romania, we witnessed something rare: a fashion event that feels both deeply rooted in its surroundings and remarkably ahead of its time. A runway show unfolding in an old factory. A model stepping out of a tram in full look. A collective belief that fashion is not just an industry, but a language of transformation.

At the heart of it all is Mitichi Preda Dumitru, the visionary founder of Feeric Fashion Week. What began in 2008 as a one-night community event has grown into one of Eastern Europe’s most experimental fashion platforms. In the conversation that follows, Mitichi reflects on his love for Sibiu, the deeper purpose of Feeric, and why he’d stage a show in the deserts of Dune. From pistachio metaphors to future-facing dreams, his words sketch a fashion philosophy rooted in people, place, and possibility.

While in Sibiu, we also had the opportunity to create our own editorial, photographed by the brilliant Thomas Von Aagh. Shot among the raw textures and surreal backdrops that define Feeric’s unique charm, the editorial reflects the same bold, unconventional energy that drives the festival itself.

What follows is a conversation with the mind behind it all—an organizer, a dreamer, and a firm believer in the power of fashion to shape not only identity, but community.

If Feeric Fashion Week were an ice-cream flavor, what would it be — and what’s the cherry on top?”

Pistachio! No doubt and very fast answering and if it is a well-done gelato there is no need of the cherry on top but some crunchy raw pistachio pieces inside will mark the texture

If you could teleport Feeric Fashion Week into any movie or book setting, where would you stage the runway and why?

I love Dune of Denis Villeneuve and the way he imagined sietches of Arakis, Atreides palace or Giedi Prime amazed me and I also imagined fashion shows in those locations.

Jacket @mirceaana_ @unartemoda Trousers @dualitae.official

What inspired you to transform Sibiu into a global fashion stage, and how do you envision Feeric’s future evolution?

I am in love with my city because of his heritage and my goal was/is to contribute to its visibility in the world and make it an important city for the world. And fashion, this limitless universe I discovered 20yeras ago gave me the space and the tools to make this happen. Behind is a lot of passion, motivation and an amazing team that shares the same resources and goals.

What role do you think Eastern Europe plays in the global fashion landscape, and how does Feeric reflect or challenge that narrative?

What do I think or what does it play? Reality now is that Eastern Europe delivers huge talents and labor force for the European top fashion industry. Both resources are more or less exploited. What I would like to change, and it will happen soon because we started taking action more than 5 years ago and contributed to these results, is that with more fashion entrepreneurial education, with more research and economic facilities that we slowly provide, Eastern Europe will be very strong in independent fashion 5 years from now. I leave this written here and let’s see how it’s aging.

If you could invite any historical figure, living or dead, to attend Feeric Fashion Week, who would it be and why?

That will for sure be Leonardo da Vinci. I am sure he will work with what we deliver and sketch new ideas and innovations that in this case I will make sure to go into production and materialize.

What does success look like for you—not just as an organizer, but as a curator of dreams?

A functional fashion industry in the regions we influence that means circular fashion and circular economy, local fashion development and young designers to boost soon after graduation, an educated market and a joy for the result of fashion, not only for the status and brand, that means success for me and this is what I fight for and try to do with Feeric Hub. Not

only in Romania but in all Eastern Europe, The Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and The Middle East, and this is just the first stage. To change things for good means success for me.

What was the most magical moment you’ve ever experienced during Feeric? Something that made you stop and think, “This is why I do this.”

The first edition of Feeric in 2008 was something I did just as a single small event to enjoy with the community, and it was just a fashion show, more show than fashion I would say. The purpose was to entertain an already vivid ex European Capital of Culture, that Sibiu was in 2007. However, the light in the eyes of the audience and feedback at the end of the event, the enthusiasm I could feel was for me rewarding but meant the trigger to do more and made me understood my path, being conscious I can bring some different joy even there, where it already exists, that I can boost something that started to have a shape and that I could open new opportunities for Sibiu.

What lessons has fashion taught you about leadership, community, or yourself over the years?

I found fashion a limitless universe to explore in terms of creativity, business, networking but more than everything, in individuals. People are the most important resource of this universe. It is people who created it and let themselves be shaped by their own creation. Fashion is the first model of AI that some are very afraid of now, that is getting out of control and dominates us. Fashion is unconsciously acting the same as AI now. We had realized we needed fashion at a point, and we played with it so much that it started to take control of us and forced us to consume, creating new reasons to relate to it, more than its first utility. But we are still in power to guide where fashion is going and for this, people involved in Feeric in any way are taking actions for the right path of fashion. People have the power to change, stop or boost their creations.

Photography @thomasvonaagh

Interview @fari_tafari

Editorial Director @danielface_

Styling @_matiasirala_

Styling assistant @mimito.b

MUA @johnandthecolors

Models @kate_adanna @ansel_assa

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