Ulyana Sergeenko made something almost impossible even with a decent financial support: this July the Russian designer was listed in the official fashion week schedule. Thus, only three summers after her first Parisian “defile-off”, the French Syndicate of Haute Couture included fashion house Sergeenko to its invited members. This is not yet Chanel, but enough to turn the head of a little girl born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, lost in the Kazakh steppes.
Rihanna chose Ulyana’s dress for her latest video “Bitch Better Have My Money”, while the top model and the major Russian benefactor of today Natalia Vodyanova, burlesque star Dita Von Teese, and the legend of cinema Ornella Mutti often appear in public in the creations of their friend Sergeenko.
As another Russian couturier regularly gathering fashion audience for her Parisian show – Yulia Yanina – Ulyana draws inspiration from rich sources of Russian and Soviet traditions. Sergeenko is incredibly ambitious and devilishly determined – that, perhaps, is the secret of her success.
Her strongest point is handmade items created using the traditional Russian crafts techniques: from the highest quality embroidery to the last button, manufactured and sewn by hand. In this sense Sergeenko acts as a kind of Russian Lagerfeld, who gathers traditional French artisan houses under the umbrella of Chanel, saving them in this way from extinction.
In the new fall-winter season the designer once again turns her attention to the Soviet past, and invites us to visit a St. Petersburg’s communal flat. In the huge old apartment coexist under one roof a peasant family, sailors, a KGB officer, military and … a former hostess of the house, who once owned it all. She is the true heroine of the collection.
Her wardrobe is the echoes of bygone luxury, a life of a high society lady, accustomed to royal receptions and numerous outfit changes during the day.
Whatever the topic Sergeenko chooses for her collections, boudoir chic elements can be traced in all of them, forming a unique style. Perhaps it is for this nonchalant luxury, mixed with vintage femininity, that celebrities choose dresses from Ulyana.

Photo credits: Ulyana Sergeenko / Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com