There are a lot of interesting, talented people around us. Lots of professionals whose work we admire, whose names we don’t know. Professionals who can share their experience, who can teach us to do our work better. If it’s all about you – please, don’t hesitate to send a request to olga{at}olgabohan.com, let’s meet.

We’re glad to start our People column with a talented girl, fashion illustrator and TSUM Department Store Deputy Creative Director – Alena Lavdovskaya.

Alena, please, tell us about your educational background

I’ve started to dig into fashion at Academy of Art University in San Francisco when I was 15, then graduated from Moscow State Textile University and took fashion course at NABA Milano.

How come you become interested in the fashion industry?
I grew up in a very artistic atmosphere. Once when I was a little girl, I was sitting and watching how our family friend (Georgian artist Malhaz Zizkishvili) was drawing costumes for the play. At that moment I saw how the lines can create beautiful dresses and drapes. From that time I decided that I want to do fashion.

What are your responsibilities as a TSUM deputy creative director?
We have a very strong creative team at TSUM which we’ve been putting up together throughout years. Designers, artists, decorators, 3D designers, production – every person is essential, everyone has his own vision and is a perfectionist. My role is to generate ideas, draw illustratios, to put everything together in one complete story, together with our Creative director Daniil Berg to make the beauty&commerce work.  TSUM Creative Department is producing the windows for TSUM Petrovka &TSUM Barvikha, designing the in-store promotional spaces & graphics, atrium and as well is responsible for the advertising campaigns.

How often do you change window displays design for the store? What is the main idea that you attempt to convey through those displays, do you collaborate with famous artists and designers?
We usually change the windows 6-8 times a year, featuring launch of the new season, Christmas time, Promotional stories & Arts, Sales and Back 2 school. We focus on the key trends and advertising campaign on the ”New Season” windows,  create a classical fairy-tales for Christmas and do outrageous stories for Promo&Art windows (ex, “China Forward”,  Indian weeks).

You also work as a fashion-illustrator, is it the only one theme for your illustrations and why? How could you describe your style?
Yes, it’s my favorite hobby, which I dedicate all my free time to. At the moment  I’m collaborationg with glossy magazines such as Elle, Glamour, International Textiles, Styles, etc.  Also I’m drawing illustrations for on-line trend-forecasting services such as www.stylisight.com (NY) and www.beautystreams.com (Paris). I’ve been always interested in fashion illustration because I love to capture the beautiful  people in their stylish looks.
I started to take it more seriously after doing the illustrative TSUM advertising campaign (FW 2010/11). During the process of creating the images I realised how important it is to work in a team with stylist and to draw from the life-model.
I collect books and old images on fashion illustration, as I feel that there’s nothing better than hand-drawn illustration. My style is inspired by Rene Gruau – the master of  all times.  His feeling of line and color is iconic for me. I love to do fast emotional illustrations and use mostly pencil, ink and good «faded» paper.

You’ve been to Paris Fashion Week this year, tell us about this experience. What did you do and who did you meet there?
It’s essential for a professional in fashion industry to see the shows in-live. I agree that style.com is a great tool to review the trends ,but nothing is compared with the drive&atmosphere of the show. I’ve made lots of quick sketches on the shows and just enjoyed  every moment.

How do you see your future in the industry?
Successfull:)

Tell us about your plans for the season
To draw tonns of illustrations, to travel to new places, meet new amazing people, to love, to work with passion.

Who is your favorite designer?
Alber Elbaz for the cut, Tom Ford for his seductive style, Donna Karan for her dresses, John Galliano for his courage, Domenice Dolce&Stefano Gabbana for their italian feminity, Rick Owens for his darkness, Rei Kawakubo for her never-ending experiment…There are quite a lot, but lately I’m very much  addicted to Tomas Meier for Bottega Veneta. For the elegance, purity and beautiful colors.

We wish Alena successfull career and a lot of new interesting projects!

To see Alena’s portfolio go to http://www.lavdovskaya.com/ and follow our updates, we’ll post TSUM windows design by Alena pretty soon!

The editor-in-chief of Russia’s most respected fashion magazine, Alyona Doletskaya, is leaving her post, Condé Nast International’s president informed Tuesday. Doletskaya has headed Russian Vogue since 1998 when it was launched, and is now leaving her post of her own free will.

Alyona Doletskaya graduated from the Philology Faculty of Moscow State University and later did her doctoral thesis at Oxford. She has also published several translations of books by Ray Bradbury and William Faulkner.
In the early 1990s, Doletskaya turned her professional interests towards media and PR. After working as a reporter and producer with several European media organizations, Alyona Doletskaya was appointed PR Director at the British Council in Russia. Working there, she successfully carried out several cultural projects, including the “Living Bridges” exhibition of the Royal Academy at the Tretyakov Gallery and “Treasures of the Tower” joint exhibition in the Kremlin and the Tower of London.
In 1998, she was asked to head Vogue Russia, which was the first quality glossy magazine in the country. During the 12 long years under Doletskaya, Vogue proved to be the most authoritative fashion magazine in Russia.

Source: Russia Today

As a fashion editor of a glossy magazine I have to work in a close contact with PR managers of different fashion brands. Unfortunatelly most of them even don’t know the basics of their profession. So, I’ve decided to dedicate this article to dos and don’ts of the magazine-brand interaction.

To tell you the truth, as a PR manager you don’t need to do anything to get media attention if your clients are Chanel or Dior, in all other cases you have to work hard and smart.

Be sure that your brand is really interesting for the magazine’s audience. If you represent a cheap teen clothing brand don’t try to sell it to high fashion women magazine with readers age range of 35-55.

To introduce yourself to the particular editor or journalist you can send him a personal email (no bulk mails!) If he didn’t reply you can make a call and invite him to share a business brunch with you, where you can discuss possibilities of your future cooperation. In fact, most of editors often refuse this kind of invitation and it’s ok. They have a lot of work and they don’t have enough time to meet with everybody. But you left a good first impression – that is important.

Primary things that you must have to give to journalists upon their first request are:
1) High quality still life images of the every item from the current collection (no need to tell about hi-res?);
2) Campaign images and look books in hi-res also;
3) Price list;
4) Full info about the brand.

Good if you have a special section on your website for press, where journalists can find everything they need (including listed above). In addition you may create a photoalbum on Picasa or Flickr where they can look at the whole collection. It’s a good form to send branded CD (with all info) with printed lookbook and a small sample from the collection (like t-shirt or bracelet as a gift) for the beginning of the season.
Never send emails more that 2 Mb, if you have something to share – use file hosting services.

It’s better if you know magazine’s issues schedule. Most of the magazines make August issue in May for example, so it is useless to send in April news about May activities, hoping that your news will be in the May issue. You had to think about it in February.
If you don’t have any important news – invent them. For example, you can make an accent on your key items, making a special selection – “We present you the top 5 dresses for May” or “Spotted: Kate Moss wears tight jeans!”. It is clear that this kind of trash will never be published but it’s a chance to remind of you. Some magazines publish items with prices. If your company allows you can give to magazines your price list, if not – be extra prompt when you get a price request from the magazines.

Don’t be annoying, don’t call an editor to ask him if your news was interesting or not. Do you like to hear “no”? And nobody likes to tell “no”.  Don’t try to obtain editor’s personal cell phone’s number and never call him after 6 p.m. But it will be nice if you find out editor’s birthday and give compliments to him that day.

Photocredits: Patrick McMullan

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Dear all!

I’m so sorry I’ve been away for such a long time!  You know it’s Fashion Weeks crazy time . We’ve got them two – Volvo Fashion Week and Russian Fashion Week. I got a lot of impressions, I met interesting people like Mark Eley and Hywel Davies.

So, now I’m back and looking forward to share some useful stuff with you. Stay tuned!

Quiz: Find 10 differences!

Armani Exchange S/S 2010

Photographer: Matthew Scrivens
Models: Clint Mauro, Irina Shayk, Marlon Teixeira, Tamiris Souza Freitas, Tomas Skoloudik
Make-up artist: Virginia Young
Creative directors: Matthew Scrivens, Tom Jarrold
Art director: Benjamin Havrilak

Calvin Klein Jeans S/S 2010

Photographer: Steven Klein
Models: Jamie Dornan, Eva Mendes
Art director: Fabien Baron

The Rachel Zoe Project is one of my favourite TV shows. It seems to be more “real” than other fashion reality series, here you can see real celebrities from the fashion (and not only) world and their real designs. And of course Rachel Zoe herself is a real working stylist with the real clients including Cameron Diaz, Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, Kate Beckinsale, Eva Mendes, Anne Hathaway, Demi Moore and more.

The series premiered on September 9, 2008 on the Bravo television network. It portrays the life of Rachel Zoe being a stylist and a wife. She tries to find a balance between her personal and professional life while dealing with her assistants Taylor Jacobson and Brad Goreski. In general this series shows how exciting star stylist’s life is. But it also reveals the other side of this job – responsibility and stresses.

Team

Main roles after Rachel in this show play her two assistants – Taylor Jacobson and Brad Goreski.

Taylor was a wardrobe assistant on Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Lovers Tour and a wardrobe assistant on several motion pictures including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Havana Nights. Taylor’s extensive experience working with fashion and celebrity stylists brought her in touch with Rachel and the two have worked together since January 2005.

Brad had the opportunity to intern at Vogue and W magazines in New York during his summer breaks while studying Art History at the University of Southern California. Upon graduation, he was hired to be the West Coast assistant at Vogue – a dream come true. While at Vogue, Goreski followed Rachel Zoe’s career and developed an admiration for her styling work and aesthetic. He first met Zoe at a Chanel dinner, and spent the next year attempting to get closer to the “Zoe Camp.” Persistence paid off as Goreski has now been working for Zoe since January 2008.

The show has already sustained 2 seasons and recently Bravo announced they would be picking up a third season of the show that would cover the departure of Zoe’s longtime assistant Taylor Jacobson, while introducing her new assistant, Ashley Avignone.

In my opinion this show is very useful for those who wants to work in the fashion business. Free of artificial drama, it conveys the main rules for success – networking and relations.

Bravo TV

“Brand by an icon” this is a good title for a popular trend of fashion communication. For this time it’s Tod’s who has teamed up with a legendary photographer Elliott Erwitt to make a photo series “Icons by an Icon” commissioned to showcase the classic luxury leather brand. The 40 photographs show cosmopolitan families from Europe and the US wearing Tod’s classics. Those images will be exhibited in Tod’s shop windows between March and April 2010. Consequently, you can read this news not only in fashion resources but in all art, photo and high-life magazines.

Photo: Wallpaper

Photographer: Tim Walker
Stylist: Jacob K
Models: Stella Tennant, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Charles Guislain

Source

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