London based Nadja Solovieva established her brand Vassilisa, named after the heroine of a much-loved Russian fairytale, in 2008. She has a BA in fashion design from St Martin’s College of Art and trained with Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and a number of other leading British brands before founding her own label. Nadja draws her inspiration from her Russian roots, history, nature and femininity.
How would you describe a luxury product?
I feel a luxury product is something that has uniqueness of spirit and is created by polished craft or maybe in an unusual way. It can be incredibly long lasting or unreasonably fragile. A Luxury product takes more attention and time per unit and so it is not widely available, it appeals to a certain audience. These days I see luxury not as the hedonist thing it used to be, there is more of an ethical aspect about it.
What are the great luxuries in your life?
To do what I am doingMy puppy, in terms of time, taste for organic chicken and dog sitters – she is a diva. She also likes to start squeaking her toy around me during particularly important business calls.
