“It Will Be So With Everyone” was the name designer Alena Akhmadullina gave to her Autumn/Winter 01/02 collection with which she debuted at Russian Fashion Week. Throughout the collections that followed this graduate of Saint Petersburg’s Technology and Design Academy explored different references and influences, drawing garments inspired by the courts of the Tsars and by the codes of constructivism. Three years ago Akhmadullina showed her first seasonal prêt-à-porter collection at Paris Fashion Week, that featured garments that perfectly mixed Russian styles with Parisian chic and elegance.
I have always admired the clean silhouettes and proportions of Akhmadullina’s designs, but also her ability to endow her otherwise absolutely wearable designs with the right touch of conceptualism. I remember being mesmerised by her white trouser suits and voluminous white dresses complete with bow details and headdresses from her Spring/Summer 07 collection. These designs looked extremely modern, but they also had some elements taken from the Russian folk traditions.
As the years passed and Akhmadullina’s style evolved I finally realised what I truly admire about this designer: the fact that she always manages to make me fall in love with something – a material, a print or a colour, for example – that I previously never liked or that I particularly hated. I never loved furs, but I must admit that the way she researched this material and came up with a unique technology to make decorative patchwork furs that show a careful attention for details and colours, is remarkable.
I have a deep aversion to romantic prints in pastel colours, but the way she employs them in the dresses from her recent Spring/Summer 09 collection is beautiful. Akhmadullina injected into her ethereal dresses and tops a strong element by applying over them heavy armour-like braided structures (braids also characterise the designer’s elegant and refined footwear for the S/S season) that create interesting contrasts. These structures are used to decorate the front of a dress, the shoulders of a top or entirely cover cropped jackets reproducing a skeleton-like cage.
In other cases the designer integrated in her dresses the triangular 3D shapes that also featured in some garments from her S/S 07 collection, creating optical illusions on her printed mini-dresses, while traditional Pavlovsky Posad’s shawls inspired her long skirts in luxurious materials.
These daring combinations of light chiffon and armoured structures or three-dimensional elements give the garments new proportions and symbolise Akhmadullina’s self-assured muse and heroine, a sexy, yet strong, determined and independent woman.
I hope Akhmadullina will keep on experimenting with her redefinition of volumes and three-dimensional elements. I find these features really fascinating and worthy of being explored further.
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