Know ours! What to know about the presentation of the first issue of Voice Shopping

There are things that are made for each other: raff and lavender syrup, white sneakers and the end of May, bicycles and Gorky Park, for example. Peach Restaurant on a sunny Tuesday morning, flying poplar fluff (a bit early this year) and new numbers of Voice Shopping lying between vases of field bouquets also turned out to be a heavenly wedding.

A real sign: if the day begins with the fact that Sasha Gapanovich, Evgenia Linovich, Alisa Bokha, Lina Dembikova, Madonna Moore, Svetlana Konnova, Polina Dolgopyatova, Elena Krayushina, Anna Nesterova, Ekaterina Bespyatykh, Vladimir Snezhin and Pavel Kuznetsov meet in the table, then a round table is planned. And with a very specific topic: how to work with artistic craftsmanship, what Russian brands can do to strengthen folk art and what craftsmanship can bring to the fashion sector.

The topic, to put it mildly, is not new: how many times have they told the world and written in textbooks with newspapers how elegant Rostov enamel is, how embroideries of Torzhok craftswomen working with gold threads are spectacular. And what? All this praise has not answered the key question: “What to do with it?”. Voice Shopping Editor-in-Chief Tatyana Maksimova and the magazine team decided to get down to business and finally show what to do with folk crafts so that it becomes an integral part of the fashion industry, and not just a souvenir for the tourists.

“We have nurtured this idea for over a year. In December 2020, we held a fashion show in Ufa, in which we combined folk craftsmen with modern designers, ”recalls Tatyana Maksimova. “And we saw what kind of magic was born from this union, how interesting and original it is. And why don’t they? Three years later, we have succeeded.”

Editor Maria Kolmakova agrees: “We wanted to give meaning to this figure, leave the meaning of something important. After all, every person is now looking for some sort of landmark, some idea of ​​how to make life meaningful. Moreover, the ambitions of the brands are now quite large and they must be given space.

And that’s true ! Each designer, accompanied by the team, celebrating the pilot issue of the new magazine, came to the meeting with their story (not always simple and fluid). In order to present a collaboration with folk crafts in 2023 (this is the main idea of ​​the issue), they had to go a long way through the crises and fully experience what it means to create a fashion brand in Russia.

AT Svetlana Konnova, the founder of the Naumi brand, there is no shortage of arguments in this regard. At one time she got into the design of down jackets, just to prove that our production is not inferior to the West, and something, and Russian fashion designers will make winter clothes incredible. Now these same foreign companies “hit” Svetlana and invite her to cooperate. QED

“Now the whole world has made us “Fi”, and we have to prove to the whole world and, above all, to ourselves that we are no worse than we can be. We are talented! — the designer convinces with burning eyes. And she wants to believe it: indeed, there is not a single sector in the fashion market where a major Western player would not have a domestic brand that would not only replace imports, but even surpass them. .

And in one of the directions (those same folk crafts and national costumes) Russian designers are monopolies. Like, for example, Alexandra Gapanovich (Sasha Gapanovich brand), who is inspired by the history of the peoples of the North and does it brilliantly, blurring the line between everyday life and national costume.

“All I do is express my love for my homeland. Yelets lace, which I chose for our collaboration, became a way to rethink my vision, and even to rewrite the history of old traditions. For a young designer, I think it’s very important: to connect the past and the present, to bring it to life,” shares Alexandra.

An interesting coincidence: in the creative life Yevgeny Linovitch (Masterpeace brand) connects his family’s past and present in a special way.

“About 20 years ago, my father wrote the book “Art that cannot be lost” – it is a two-volume book devoted to folk art crafts. And within the framework of this family history, I traveled around the country, got acquainted with crafts, and then 10 years later created my own brand of jewelry, it seemed to me then that no one would need Russian in Russia – and then the truth was not needed, – admits Evgenia. “But even then we began to incorporate crafts: enamel, miniature lacquer, birch bark and lace. Times wrote an article, was a huge success . And so Russian DNA helped me, a person without a drop of Russian blood, in my work. I don’t think you have to be Russian to like Russian culture.”

And this, by the way, is a pattern that has almost controlled the development of the NHL, at least until recently. Yes, a paradox: Russian craftsmanship has always been successful abroad, and at home it was often perceived as a “museum” piece, a curiosity, and not something portable. He confirmed Anna Nesterovafounder of Palekh Watch.

“When we met the Palekh artists, they had a debt to the budget of 500,000 rubles. And that’s the state the fisheries are in right now. Palekh is from the 17th century, it is the peak of the school of lacquer miniatures, and it was always sold for export, it was popular in France and Italy, says Anna. “And only then did we pay attention to ourselves. Until we ourselves say it’s cool, not a western expert, but we art won’t “work”.

Fortunately, things are not there now, and folk crafts are gradually conquering the hearts (and locker rooms) of compatriots. Not without the help of modern designers who skillfully combine cultural heritage, manufacturing power and a visionary approach to create a unique product. It is this experimentation that is at the origin of Voice Shopping: at the center of the issue, the collaborations between fashion brands and NHP, to be discovered during an exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts: on May 22, the exhibition “Cultural Code. Heritage. Fashion”.

And this event is one more step towards the moment when the national craftsmanship will take on the role that has long been assigned to it in Western fashion, and will begin to be appreciated as real works of art, which it is. “You know what they say: from a small joy can grow a great happiness”, summarizes the editor of the magazine, Maria Kolmakova. “And from our short meeting, you can develop great cooperation.” And, as everyone at the presentation confirmed, together we can!