Our guest today, stylist and designer, Evgeny Trefilov, will share with us his vision of fashion and tell about the unique technology of creating dresses!
Our guest is the designer and stylist, the owner of the fashion brand VOLIFERT Evgeny Trefilov, who creates unique collections of clothes and accessories made of glass. We are talking about whether modern fashion devalues manual work, why to create a masterpiece, you need a mathematical calculation, what is fashion provocation and how to feel like a queen.
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For those who prefer not to listen but to read, we have prepared a transcript of the conversation!
Marianna Makarova: Good afternoon, friends! You are listening to the Burda magazine podcast about fashion style and trends. I’m with you, the editor-in-chief, Marianna Makarova, and today our guest is Evgeny Trefilov, designer and stylist. Hello, Eugene!
Evgeny Trefilov: Hello everyone! Hello Marianna!
MM: I’ll tell you a little secret right away: Eugene is a longtime fan of Burda magazine. When did you get to know our magazine?
ET: You can’t imagine! That was already over 20 years ago. Then in Russia, even in the Soviet Union, the very first magazines of the publishing house Burda were published. They were thick, they were colored, they were on beautiful good paper, and for me as a university student, where I studied as a fashion designer, it was just a tremendous storehouse of information! You won’t believe it, I still kept all the magazines, because they are really inspiring.
MM: Eugene, I think that you have flattered our entire audience right now, because among our listeners, I am sure, there are many women who keep Burda's binder in their home and are also inspired by it. And please tell me how, how the magazine influenced your formation as a designer?
ET: The fact is that modern technologies and all designers are modern, they still design more with their impressions, sensations, drawings, and people who create with their own hands create something with their own hands, they just love Burda. Because when they pick up needles, threads, fabrics, rulers and stuff, stuff, stuff, it all suddenly turns into such amazing creativity, turns into art. And when we try to bring art through Burda to our lives, then, accordingly, everything around us becomes practical, but insanely beautiful. And I'm the same fashion designer who has been doing everything with her hands so far.
MM: Eugene, the paradox is that modern fashion devalues manual work. It is no secret that the street style is now popular, a simple, utilitarian style with a touch of sportiness. Here's how it relates to the catwalk fashion or the fashion that designers are developing? Here is your idea of modern fashion - what is it?
ET: I completely agree with you, yes, sporty style has absorbed modern fashion, and everyone dresses very simply and, I would even say, primitively. But look at current trends, the desire of young people to somehow show off in general has always been, is and will be.And even if there is any minimal reason to attract attention, people do it anyway. Therefore, no manual work is indispensable here. Not any machine, not any machine will do what can be done manually. Therefore, you will excuse me, but there are eternal things, for example, the art of self-expression, and it is just that. And therefore, such designers as I have a job, have a lot of clients, have popularity, have their own unique technologies, with which we, in fact, amaze the world. Several of my dresses were already on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival, and this showed that handmade is appreciated, the whole world draws attention to it.
MM: You, apparently, have found some kind of your chip, tell us about it.
ET: Yes, I thought that it gives me little pleasure in working with fabrics, especially with natural ones, when the pile gets on my face, on my hands, on my body, it starts to itch. This is extremely unpleasant. Everyone is looking for his own niche in work, and my childhood passion for beads and glass led me to make dresses made of glass.
MM: Glass dresses! Is it really possible, I would say, probably half an hour ago, but I’ll also tell a secret, Eugene brought a magical suitcase with him, opened it and pulled out a dress of incredible beauty from this suitcase, as if it was really woven from glass. Briefly describe the technology of its manufacture.
ET: I will not tell the technology, because, in principle, the beads are braided and always braided. I will tell the story of this idea. The fact is that I always wondered why people who go to receive the Academy Award, or the Kinotavr, or some other kind of look so spectacular. It seemed to me that there was not enough luster, not too expensive luster, it should not be cheap sparkles, it should be something serious. And in this regard, Swarovski crystals, or Czech glass, or some other glass beads with an incredible number of different textures, which you can now think of why they are not used! And I decided to use it, and the girls who go out on the spotlights make a splash. Actually, this was my goal, and all this just played in my hands overnight. And the idea, in principle, was invented by me in the 97th year. I participated in a competition of fashion designers and made a dress from such a strange material, a cross between plastic, plastic, rubber. When I cut it, it sparkled so beautifully that everyone thought from afar that it was glass. And this kind of deception, as it were, allowed me to create a mixture of glass and plastic, which prevents damage to the body when wearing this dress. Rubber, respectively, generally softens and dampens the whole heavy structure, after all, there is a dress of 5-7 kg, which is a lot. And glass gives an expensive chic shine.
MM: Is this an exclusive idea, or was it someone who you spied on it? Maybe something prompted you, one of the great designers?
ET: Bead weaving was fashionable and popular, especially during the NEP, in the twenties, the Art Deco style, if you remember. Many things were beautifully executed, and the beads sparkled, and it was just everywhere. But he wandered, firstly, on threads, it was very fragile, that is, it was worth messing up on a hard surface, then everything broke, burst. Through thin stockings, skin, blood and so on was damaged, so on, it was all terrible. But the introduction of new modern technologies into this weaving, of course, gave a huge plus, so I am completely the first and only in this regard.
MM: Eugene, well, apparently, all the same, such a dress is very expensive and probably not affordable for most of our students. But maybe you will tell a little secret that will help those who still can do something with their own hands, use this technology and do something their own, bring something similar to their image.
ET: In fact, for everyone who uses Burda regularly and sews, I think the most practical option would be to use the accessories that I make. For example, you can sew a stunningly beautiful wedding dress and take on top to wear a bolero from my brand or even a beautiful belt, you can wear very beautiful bracelets. We have such bracelets, we do everything. We plan now to start making bags already. That is, all this can be used. It is extremely difficult to technically fulfill what we are doing, for this we need calculations, these are very subtle mathematical calculations that are done long before the dress begins to be created and assembled. But buying small such things, complementing your things with them, you will look amazingly good. I recommend it to everyone, especially wedding sets.
MM: Please tell me the wedding outfit - this is generally a special outfit. Do you think wedding attire and fashion are compatible, or is wedding attire a more classic story?
ET: Of course, the wedding dress has its own clear functionality, and we always understand that this is something special. But there are certain trends in the world, and they, as a rule, are always combined with those trends that are in the main line of fashion. And, of course, if fluffy skirts, for example, are in fashion, light, tulle, gas, flowing, straight air, then the same thing happens in wedding fashion. Here the relationship necessarily exists! But we have our own taste, we have our own desires, we have the complexion, weaknesses and, conversely, the advantages of the figure, which we must emphasize, and we have the present, which allows us to use all the possibilities that we can only imagine . Therefore, I never cycle, I never pursue only those trends that exist, I want to find something special for each client, that's what they love me for.
MM: And if you talk about you as a stylist, you like to push something different in fashion, and return to modern trends, well, for example, mix some kind of sportswear with glamorous or with some unusual details. What advice would you give our listeners in this regard?
ET: Of course, I always love provocations, since childhood I was such that I dressed so that people just looked at me, someone twisted at the temple, someone said, damn, how cool, someone said, let's beat him. There are a lot of different emotions, but this is a thrill that you evoke emotions in people, that you can attract attention, and not just attention, but arouse some feelings. Therefore, in fact, I also advise everyone when you dress, let it not look like a clowning, let it not look funny, let it look provocative, but interesting. Let this raise your consciousness to a certain level and give people the opportunity to evaluate and evaluate you better, bolder, and that’s bolder. Because modern trends are all built on provocation. See how McQueen once rose on provocative clothes. The same thing Galliano and all the others who were born in the nineties as a great designer. Look what is happening now: the same way! Either we have a completely primitive fashion that is completely everyday, or we have some crazy bright bursts. This is exactly what works.
MM: And finally, the question that again excites our many listeners who care about fashion, style - how do they become designers in general? At what point did you suddenly realize that you want to not just express yourself, but to help others do it?
ET: The hardest question, of course. Once it all started very strange, from the fact that I started dancing. I needed costumes for performances, and I realized that this is a huge potential that I can lay out and realize, that it should be spectacular, beautiful, and practical, and there is mathematics in it, because calculations, patterns, designs , it’s all very complicated, it’s such a huge layer for the work of my brain. Apparently, this excitement is akin to hot sex, and here it worked. And every time when I am doing my dresses now, you have no idea what lust, what passion is present in me, when I work with my things. I imagine that this is exactly what I convey to people, this passion, this thrill.I see a brutal gleam in my eyes when a woman puts on my dress and my eyes burn brighter than these beads on the dresses, honestly, because they feel like queens. It’s impossible, in the world there is practically only one queen left, bright, which everyone knows, and the rest all want to be like a person close to the royal, and I give it to people.
MM: I confirm that during this amazing speech, Eugene's eyes really burned! That's what designers should be like, that's for sure. But Eugene and I do not say goodbye, because we still have one wonderful topic with him, which we would like to discuss in our next program. Stay with us, I was with you, the editor-in-chief of Burda magazine, Marianna Makarova, and our guest, Evgeny Trefilov. Goodbye friends!
