Russians in London: Dasha Selyanova, designer of the brand ZDDZ
Over the past week, Wonderzine talked about the key moments of London Fashion Week, which is traditionally famous for its avant-garde and young fashion designers. What is not surprising - in the development of youth culture with the city can be compared except New York. In London, always come the guys who want to get the best education in art or fashion and / or join the teams that form the taste of an entire generation, be it Dazed & Confused, Love and i-D magazines or KTZ or Palace clothing brands.
We gathered 6 girls who are currently building a career in the London fashion industry, and asked them whether it is difficult to survive in one of the most expensive cities, how to get a job in a place where almost the biggest competition in the world is, and whether return to Russia.
I was born and grew up in St. Petersburg, on Vasilyevsky Island. The first ten years of life lived in communal apartments, which was a very valuable experience. She studied at the 21st school, which was also called "point", went to art and additionally taught English. I was madly in love with translating American rap: I didn’t even understand half, and then my American friends told me that even they don’t cut in on what they are talking about. But I tried and found out so many interesting things. Every summer I spent with my grandmother in a village in the suburbs. These are probably the best memories of my life. Go for mushrooms and on the river, play princesses with friends, dressing up in clothes of the beginning of the century, styrennaya grandmothers. I understand that then everything was perfect.
studied at St. Petersburg State University at the Faculty of Graphic Design, at the Moscow Institute of Arts and Technology, at the Department of Clothing Design, at BHSAD on Fashion Design, and also studied design at Central Saint Martins Summer School. I can not say exactly why I became involved in clothes. At some point I felt that this was the right way for me, so I can express my thoughts most clearly. My journey in the fashion industry began with an internship at Danielle Scutt, who has now stopped working on a brand name and leads the second line of Alexander McQueen, McQ. It is a pity that she no longer produces her own collections, but I am glad that I managed to work with her, it was a very rewarding experience. Now I am working on the clothing brand ZDDZ, which we started with Zoya Smirnova, and do illustrations in freelance. Now I bring to mind the line of clothes for the brand Oh, my. This is a ruler of basic things with laconic black and white graphics. It was interesting to find a point of contact between ZDDZ and Oh, my and follow the entire development of the project: from its inception to its implementation.
I moved to London because of the training device in the "British" - for the last year of the undergraduate, we went to study in England in the whole course. I did not plan to stay, but four years have passed, and I am still here. Life always has its plans, and I see no reason to go against the flow. In London, one feels free to express myself: here I feel free (especially when I manage to renew my visa again). In this city, I find it interesting every day: there are amazing museums and exhibitions, and visually London is also very pleasant to me. But I would not take responsibility for advising someone to move here. My experience of living in London is generally very positive. I did not allow the thought of returning to Moscow for the first two years of life here, and today I see the advantages of life in Russia, which, by the way, can also be called minuses. For example, the fact that everything is open 24/7, that business meetings are scheduled at 23:00 without raising an eyebrow. In London, the bulk of the population is already asleep at this time, or at least already long at home. Is it good or bad? I do not know, I personally like the Moscow rhythm of life. In general, I am good here and there. I consider myself a happy person - I have the opportunity to live and work in two most interesting megalopolises. In London, fashion is professional, it has a history, criteria for evaluating work, there are state institutions that regulate its activities and support talented designers. In Russia, the infrastructure has not yet been formed. There are good factories, there are separate designers, somewhere there is a Russian fashion week (which for unknown reasons still happens 1.5 months later than all the other fashion weeks), there are 3-4 good concept stores for the capital . And somewhere completely separate and far away - some abstract state that simply refuses to recognize fashion as an industry worthy of attention, much less some kind of financial investment. I believe that the British Higher School of Design and, in particular, the curator of the Fashion Design program Claire Loupman, are doing a great job of integrating European standards of work into our industry - and that's great. On the other hand, there is also a great charm in this period of chaos and formation in Russia, when there is no one truth and everything is possible. I am a punk at heart, and I am attracted to all sorts of disorganization. Could I do in Moscow what I did in London? Yes, I could, but surely it would look very different.