Elena lives and works in Berlin. She is a winner of the International Competition for Young Fashion Designers. In the city of great opportunities and diversity she managed to draw peoples’ attention and therefore she knows that she can create her own fashion label.

You are a young fashion designer and also an illustrator – tell us something about your achievements so far.

In 1999 I came from Moscow to study fashion design in Berlin. Last summer I got my fashion designer diploma. Now I'm a so called "Meisterschüler". This is a kind of postgraduate study which is intended only for the best students of the art academy I studied at. For 3 years I have worked as a freelance designer and illustrator. At the moment I am starting to launch my own fashion label "kikina".



How did the academy you graduated  from help you with this work?
 
The postgraduate "Meisterschüler" programme of my art academy gave me a chance to develop a complete collection. Parts of this collection will be presented in the Premium trade exhibition in July. The first collection for my own label will be based on this project.

Tell us something about studying at a German academy, what do you enjoy best?
Design study in Germany is quite different from study in Russia. In Germany you enjoy much more freedom in all kinds of decisions you make. But at the same time it means more responsibility. It is up to you how you use this freedom. On the other hand this freedom enables you to evolve unconventional ideas.

Is it easy for a young designer to find their place, to feel fulfilled in a place so rich in culture as Berlin?
 
Yes, that's right, Berlin is really very rich in culture and I really enjoy it a lot. Berlin is a place which attracts a lot of creative people. On the other hand the competition is extremely hard. No other city in Europe, maybe in the world, has more fashion schools than Berlin, not even Paris or London. It's very hard to find a job as a designer here. There is hardly any industry left in Berlin. But the companies are discovering more and more the creative potential of this city. Berlin has become an important fashion hotspot in the last years. The Berlin fashion week has got a fantastic international reputation for young innovative fashion. So I believe in the future of Berlin as a creativity pool.


What do you like most in the atmosphere of the city of „creative initiatives” (this is what we call Berlin in Poland)?
 
It is amazing to live in Berlin. There are a lot of new things happening in the city all the time. Young people try out all kinds of crazy ideas.
The city is in permanent transformation, nothing keeps constant for long. This is a typical feature of Berlin.

Does Berlin inspire you? Living there, do you draw from other inspirations? What are they?

Of course. The people living here have a courage to risk experiments, to be different and innovative. There is hardly any bourgeois establishment in Berlin like in other international metropolises or like in Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf in Germany. We haven't got this culture of luxury products like the haute couture fashion in Paris. Berlin is famous for new and radical ideas. The idea behind a product counts.
Surely I look for inspirations everywhere I go. I find my inspiration not only in fashion, but in other fields of culture like product design, architecture, art, cinematography and sometimes just in everyday life...


You have received many awards – have they contributed to the promotion of your activity? Have you been noticed owing to them?

Yes, sure. These kinds of competitions help to get more public attention for my work. After I won the German studies prize recently, there were a lot of publications in the German press and on TV about it. Another award made it possible to present my outfit at a fashion show in carussel du louvre in Paris. I think, potential customers are impressed by the number of awards I have received in the last few years, too.
 
What are your plans for the future? Would you like to establish your own company or to work for a renown fashion house? Or maybe something else?

Both of them. As I already told you I have just started to establish my own fashion label called kikina, but at the same time I won't give up my freelance design activities. I'm looking for new customers and project partners all the time.

What do you think about Polish fashion? Do you know any Polish designers?

Well, to be honest I do not know so much about the Polish design scene so far. Unfortunately it is not easy to get information about Polish designers here. But I'm sure, there are a lot of interesting designers in Poland, too. I would like to know more about them.

Would you like to come to Poland? Where exactly?
 
I would really like to. Places like Warsaw or Krakow must be very exciting.

And finally, tell us if you are dreaming about an international career? (Why?)

I am Russian, I studied in Germany and I work as a designer and illustrator for clients in Germany, Switzerland and Russia. Frontiers do not exist for me. I am interested in starting some projects in Poland as well and I would like to bring my own fashion collection to the Polish market. Maybe this interview can help me to find project partners in your country.