“I test and experiment until I have that unmistakable feeling in my chest, and can say ‘it is beautiful’” explains designer Nadja Solovieva about her creative process. It is perhaps Nadja’s unique concern for beauty that drove her to name her fashion label Vassilissa, after the heroine of a Russian fairytale.
It was in 2007, while working on her graduate collection at Central St Martins that Nadja decided to develop a theme related to her Russian roots and culture and chose the story of Vassilissa The Beautiful as her inspiration. She adds “Vassilisa is a very well known fairy-tale princess beauty, who keeps in tune with her own integrity,
overcomes adversity and stands for her own love.”
Nadja’s quest for the beautiful was influenced by her childhood in the Soviet Union. “ I went to a communist school, wore a uniform every day and had little exposure to Western television. I attended a special school where we received the visits of domestic and foreign dignitaries. For these visits we had to be perfect. Identity was clearly defined, and I became very conscious of identity. Somehow I decided to stand for creativity and freedom” recalls Nadja. Her mother, who managed to unearth some exotic giraffe print fabric when she was a newborn and dressed her in it, also inspired her taste for fashion.
