Where I’m From
and How I got
here
I was always a creative at heart. Growing up in Russia during the nineties, art was my refuge — I would sit for hours painting, transported somewhere else. When I was twelve, my work was featured in a local newspaper. It was the first time I felt the thrill of my talent being acknowledged, and I was hooked.
I was a small child when the Soviet Union collapsed and we finally started getting goods from the U.S. I remember the novelty of acid wash jeans felt like discovering color for the first time.
Western goods were impossibly expensive.
A pair of Levi’s would cost around 200 Rubles - over a month’s salary for an average engineer.
That’s when I decided to learn how to sew my own clothes. My grandmother was a seamstress, so she taught me. I would take my mother’s old clothes and transform them into something entirely new. People would stare because they’d never seen anything like it. I wasn’t sure if they thought I looked ridiculous or if they were admiring me, but I didn’t care. I loved having my own style and the fact that I made these clothes.
That experience lead me to discover a talent I did not know I had- the ability to create something out of nothing, because I had a vision.
When I moved to the U.S., I landed in a Midwestern high school. Fitting in as a teenage girl from Eastern Europe in Minnesota wasn’t easy. European style was about two years ahead of U.S., and I dressed the same way I had back home. This time I knew for sure people were making fun of me, but although it’s very hard to be a teen-age girl not speaking the language and dressed like she’s from another planet- I was not interested in fitting in with people who don’t share my vision. The moment I finished high school, I packed my bags and moved to New York City to pursue modeling.
NYC was everything — I met so many talented people who shaped my eye for aesthetic in ways I din’t even realize at the time.
Little by little, I absorbed everything about the fashion industry, and my taste began to crystallize. But the high cost of living in New York made it impossible to pursue a career in fashion, so I had to resort to selling real estate between modeling jobs.
It’s ironic that it wasn’t until I moved to Austin, Texas, that I finally had the opportunity to focus on following my natural talent and solidify my path in fashion, this time not just in front of the camera, but behind it as well.
At first, I was just helping a photographer friend style her clients for shoots.
Then other people started reaching out. One thing led to another, and suddenly I was being credited as a model AND stylist in fashion magazines — something I guess was destined for me, though it took a while to realize.
I believe that we should never stop learning and it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, so to continue my lifelong journey of creating beauty all around me I enrolled in a Fashion Design Management Certificate from Cornell University — exploring how creativity, business, and storytelling shape modern style.
I’ve completed a Real Estate Investment and Development Program through eCornell in the past, which was very useful, so I decided now is the time to invest in a subject that has long been my passion.
Now, I’ve come full circle. That girl who remade her mother’s clothes out of necessity is doing the same thing by choice — transforming, reimagining, creating something new from what already exists.
I learned early on that standing out isn’t something to apologize for—it’s something to cultivate, to own, to celebrate. And I want to help you discover how that feels
