Some people prefer to get on the elevator straight to the top. Others choose the stairs. “To this day I am still counting stairs,” Bulgarian stylist Ivan Bonchev says. "It’s hard, but if you know what you want, you achieve it one way or another," he adds. Just days after the end of this year's men's fashion week in Milan we meet you with one of the best young stylists whose work can be seen in magazines like L'uomo Vogue, Hunter, Hero, Metal and Max Italia, Urban, L'Officiel Hommes. He is the creator of advertising campaigns and photo shoots for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Philipp Plein and Anna Dello Russo. 
 
Ivan Bonchev is 31-years-old, born in Sofia. He graduated from the National School of Culture in Gorna Banya. He has always loved drawing and as a child used to spend hours in ethnographic museums watching folk costumes.

“My grandmother, whom I do not know was a tailor. When my grandfather died she started supporting the family by copying models from the German Burda magazine. Many of her clients were women from the Italian embassy in Sofia. Today my family enjoys the fact that I managed to choose my profession and be successful in it.”

In the past years of his high-school education Ivan Bonchev’s attention was also grabbed by Japanese manga animation. He started attending drawing lessons and lessons in Japanese, as he was determined to go to the Land of the Rising Sun. He became part of an exchange program for students and spent a summer with students with artistic talent from around the globe. "Today I can definitely say that I am very grateful to my parents for the opportunities they have given me," Ivan says. After that all roads led him towards fashion.  
 
His first stop was the now defunct MM music television in Bulgaria. While working as a host there he used to choose the clothes for him and his colleagues in order to be attractive. “That was where it all started. My co-workers told me I am very good in this and urged me to continue developing,” he says. The first project Ivan worked on was the promo of the debut album of pop singer Rushi Vidinliev. After that he spent time working for the Egoist and Edno magazines. After realizing that there was nothing more to learn in Bulgaria, he moved to Italy. In 2005 he specialized in fashion design in one of the most prestigious fashion colleges in the world - "Istituto Marangoni".

“It was not easy but I consider myself lucky. It took me two years to start making money abroad from what I love doing. In the beginning I was working as an assistant in various Russian magazines. In the same period the independent magazine Slurp started. After that my first truly prestigious job for Vogue came.”  
 
In the end of 2009, Ivan Bonchev was among the 20 fashion editors and stylists chosen to work on a special project exhibition entitled Men in Italy, which on January 15, 2010 was the opening event of the men's fashion week in Milan. Reviews of Ivan Bontchev’s work are excellent but the young stylist is not considering creating a fashion line of his own.

“It is great working with fashion designers and helping them present their collection in the best possible way. I don’t think I should create clothes myself. What I want to do is take photos that are to remain printed in books and albums and would be precious in the future.” 
 
Ivan Bonchev told us more about his latest challenge:

You can find more about the stylist at www.ivanbontchev.com

English version: Alexander Markov