"They speak the same language here": I made a market promoting sustainable fashion
Steady fashion, that is, the one that is concerned with issues of ethics and ecology, is gaining momentum - including in Russia. One of the projects focused on a responsible approach to the sale of clothing is PLACE (ddmm): the market for local brands, a lecture center and a charitable undertaking united under this name. On March 17, the third PLACE will be held in Moscow: we asked Ksenia Shabalin, who invented him, about her path in the fashion world and how to make a large-scale project almost alone.
Text: Svetlana Paderina
First stores
I was born and raised in Pskov. There we had a small second-hand with a friend, we were selling things through VKontakte. And although I did not experience the same euphoria from the finds as he did, the store helped me understand the principles of work in this area. For example, what content decides: we shot ironed and harmoniously stylized things against a white wall - while competitors exposed their wrinkled clothes in the yellow light against the background of the closet. And we all went many times faster.
I graduated from a university in St. Petersburg and worked in the legal department for three years. I can not say that I was especially fascinated by fashion - I met people who had a much higher degree of love. I rather were interested in art, psychology and communication. After leaving the law, I joined the project of Denis Shevchenko Russian Room - this was the first online store of Russian designers. We downloaded a whole car of clothes and went to a photo studio on the outskirts, where I had to be both a model, a stylist, and a makeup artist at the same time - all as it should be in a startup in 2011. Two years later, we opened a small offline store, where, willy-nilly, you had to talk to real customers - this is how I learned to communicate and ask questions.
I realized one thing: most people buy when they are unhappy with something. They want to look better, they are looking for something new in life, they dream to feel confident at an event - clothes solve a psychological problem. I learned that girls with adorable knees can hate their knees, and girls with luxurious hips can never wear a skirt-year. It turned out that clothes are not about clothes at all.
Then Denis suggested making GATE31. It was a very beautiful project: an exact concept, a careful selection of brands, a cool interior, a great team. We spent in the store all the time, I watched people, listened to reviews. I remember that in the morning I open the rollt in front of the entrance, but on the contrary there is a woman with a daughter and says: “We came to you at the first Sapsan shopping, and after lunch we returned to Moscow.” We grew up, took new areas, came up with different themes for shops: here is classic femininity, here is minimalism, here is something else. A year later, we had thirty people in the team and four stores, and in two - ten stores and sixty people. We didn’t sleep much, we worked a lot: it was considered normal to assign a shoot for eleven nights and work until four in the morning, everyone was on fire and were happy. We are still friends with many colleagues.
I occupied the posts of buyer and creative director: the entire visual part of GATE31 was on me. We were initiative, we could fly to Paris at our own expense in order to shoot. But at some point I began to wonder: why am I doing this? I realized that the concept store is closer to me, and not the mass market. So I became the brand manager of the MY812 brand: the designer Albina Zueva did everything very beautifully and very quietly. We organized a shooting in Paris, which then spread out in the press, began to receive feedback and new customers, opened a showroom in Moscow. I also wanted to go to Moscow myself - so, a year ago I moved and created my own agency LOVE, which deals with the strategic development of brands.
Market PLACE
Once at dinner, I told a friend: just to collect all the cool brands and tell the world about them. This is how the idea of the PLACE store appeared, which is open temporarily, in this case one day. I wanted to make this day a holiday, so that people know that they can come for a long time, that it will be interesting to them that the place will have to meet and socialize. I specifically ask the designers participating in the project to come in person: no one can tell about the brand better or answer tricky questions than they do. I did all the selection for the pop-up, which was first held in September last year, on my own - I specifically put stamps so that guests could purchase not one thing, but a whole image. I drew myself an environment in which both buyers and designers would like to be: interiors, music, a place, everything should be both friendly and aesthetic at the same time.
The platform for the first PLACE was the Richter: a historic mansion, on the ground floor of which a restaurant, a bar, a library, a gallery of modern art and a meeting place were located. I met the founder Anastasia Efimova by chance - she just wanted to make a fashion zone in Richter, and I already had an idea. I selected the participating designers according to the criteria: they had to have a formed concept, a decent visual range and quality of products, as well as a willingness to work together. The latter is especially important because interesting brands may not respond to the instagram for weeks or respond in monosyllables. And it is important for me to recommend only fully tested brands to people.
Last June, I wrote a concept, prepared a presentation, and found a graphic designer. Almost everyone was engaged in one - but I will not do it anymore. Three weeks before the event, Alice and Violetta from 18/38 Agency began to help me, and thanks to them, artists and authors of interior objects joined fashion brands. We divided the site into rooms, each corresponding to a social trend: gender universality, a new look at femininity, sustainable development, vintage and so on. I made a list of interesting brands - there were about sixty of them from Russia, Georgia and Ukraine - and went to meet. I did not get to Georgia, but I got to Ukraine. One local brand said that “the Russian market is Mongolian for us,” the other says that they will not work with Russia for political reasons. I understood that I had nothing to cover, because their window to Europe is opening up ever wider.
But in Russia, I held about forty-five meetings in a month, at the same time making the site, resolving issues of public relations and equipment - it was interesting, but very difficult. For example, I flew into the studio to Vatnique, apologized for being an hour late and immediately got down to business: "you are cool, I am cool, let's cooperate?". My friends MY812, M_U_R and More is More, Corporelle just said: do it, we will support you. There were guys with whom you dine for two hours, you are on the same wavelength, and in the end they ask: "And how much will you pay us for it?". There was a brand that said: “We don’t want to be in the same room with someone, give us a separate space, champagne and all the celebrities there”. It was also such that, due to my stupidity, I inscribed in the presentation of designers that I would like to see at PLACE, but did not put a footnote that the list was coordinated. After that, a nice but not confirmed participant sent me an outraged message, and several marks refused to participate with the words "you have a bad reputation."
The day before I didn’t sleep for two days. Two days before the start, I realized that I needed helpers, and invited volunteers - six golden girls came, who took upon themselves everything they could. On the day of the event they did not bring an order with mirrors - and the graphic designer went to Ikea. At 8 in the morning designers began to stop off, but at the site of "Richter" they were still finishing cosmetic work. The cleaning service lingered, I exchanged glances with the volunteers, and they all took a bucket of cold water and went to wash until the cleaners appeared. But when the designers hung out the clothes, brought pictures and art objects, everything came to life. There were a lot of visitors, more than two thousand people. In general, PLACE is about people, about communication and acquaintances. The next morning I received more than forty messages that this is definitely not a market, this is something special. On the budget, I went into a minus, albeit a minor one - there were a number of unforeseen expenses, and I had to act on the situation.
Second PLACE and favorite brands
The second PLACE was a small pre-Christmas meeting of friends. I met Lisa and Nastya from the brand VAK - it turned out that their studio is very close to my house. Then my friends from St. Petersburg wrote to me, if I do not plan to arrange something before the New Year - this is how PLACE turned out (2212). We made it "secret" because the studio is located in a private house, it was necessary to pass through security there; I sent the registration and address to everyone personally. I did not make big bets for this day, I just wanted a warm communication in half with tangerines, sweets and champagne. So it happened, but there were a lot of people. I processed a hundred requests in the first two hours after the publication of the announcement.
I have favorites among brands. I love La La Laguna very much: Zhenya swimsuits using textiles from recycled plastic bottles, and she has very beautiful shots. I love More is More because Anya taught us to appreciate vintage things - she talks a lot and very interestingly about the context of jewelry. I love M_U_R, there is an amazing concept - one collection from one fabric, and all locally made. The biggest discovery is Vatnique, they play well with a mono product, and with their collaboration with the AIDS center they show how the brand can work with the healthcare industry. These are brands that have their own ideology.
Sustainable fashion and charity
The theme of the new PLACE is an ethical and aesthetic choice. I wanted to show that everything that is beautiful can be deep, and that it is eco-friendly - aesthetic. At the same time, we did not seek ideological battles, but dialogue: for example, we organized a lecture hall, where people can learn how things are created and how pricing occurs. All the brands presented are as close as possible to the idea of sustainable fashion: manual labor, small circulation, local or stock materials, a conscious approach. I did not want division, as it was at the first event, on the contrary, I wanted to merge. Designer clothes, vintage, shoes, accessories, interior objects, art - we gather people who do different things, but speak the same language.
There were a lot of requests for participation, but, unfortunately, few original names. There will be a new brand ITS Ceramics: Ira Tsoy went to Japan to study pottery and brought back a collection of ceramics from there. Brand Naked Letters - something between a linen and an art object. Anya lives in Bali and interestingly talks about the production: the finest silk is cut with a sharp knife, and the elastic band is dyed by hand to match the product. Participation of the SUITE beauty studio is important for me, because they also have a careful selection, only in the world of beauty products. Or the new brand Nearly Naked - shoes, which combine the convenience of ballet shoes and the elegance of boats. We met Liza Buinova in Antwerp, she worked as an accessory designer for the brands line Ann Demeulemeester and Proenza Schouler, she has a lot of experience.
I have a job and money projects, but PLACE is a personal, completely different experience. Now we are cooperating with the charity project “I Live with Culture”, which deals with children from social institutions - we want to tell them about how the fashion industry functions. Children are very curious about this area: someone wants to be a designer, someone is interested in production. The PLACE team, together with individual project participants, will conduct master classes for orphanages wards.
I needed time to formulate a PLACE message and figure out how to develop it. I want to work with the brands I have chosen, but to expand the geography: connections are easily established when there is something to show. We have already been offered to open such one-day spaces in London and Paris. There is also an idea to work with young artists, to put them on curators of the sites. In general, I have a lot of ideas.
PHOTO:placeddmm
