Dainius Bendikas
Dainius Bendikas (b. 1986, Šiauliai) is a fashion and accessories designer, costume designer, and lecturer. In 2011, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design from the Vilnius Academy of Arts; in 2010, he studied at the Iceland University of the Arts under the Erasmus exchange program. In 2009, together with his classmate Benas Staškauskas, he won the international competition Injekcija and presented the original collection-performance Infiltrated at the Fashion Infection festival. Later, D. Bendikas presented his fashion collections, exhibitions, and installations in Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Iceland, and Denmark. In 2011, he received the national Young Designer Award for his collection Moon Monk.
From 2010 to 2018, he lived in Iceland, where he worked as head designer at the internationally recognized fashion house Jör, collaborating with other international menswear designers and manufacturers. He presented collections at the Reykjavík Fashion Festival and, from 2015, worked in the Icelandic film industry. Since 2016, he has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts, developing teaching methodologies and creative approaches, and leading workshops for undergraduate and graduate students based on his own method of “sculptural analysis.” Since 2019, he has been teaching at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
In 2013, he made his debut in musical theatre by designing costumes for the Vilnius City Opera project VCO Rock at the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace (director Dalia Ibelhauptaitė). For his debut work in drama theatre—the costumes for Oskaras Koršunovas’ production of Marius Ivaškevičius’ play The Sleeping (Miegantys) at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre—D. Bendikas was nominated for the Golden Stage Cross. In July 2022, he designed costumes for Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco (director Kęstutis Jakštas, Kaunas State Musical Theatre), which was presented at the Kaunas Ninth Fort as part of the programme Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022. The costumes for Bronius Kutavičius’ opera The Bear (Lokys) (director Gintaras Varnas) at the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre mark D. Bendikas’ fourth creative work in Lithuanian theatres.
