Maria's Blog: Ulyana Sergeenko - Refreshingly traditional

Ulyana herself

In light of the fashion weeks of the world being the focal point for pretty much all the fashion blogs out there, this post is about Ulyana Sergeenko. Don't you know her? I didn't up until this morning, when I read an interview of hers in The Times and was intrigued. I did a little research of my own and was intrigued even more.

So let me introduce you the second wife of the Russian oligarch Danil Khachaturov, the 32-year-old Ulyana. Ulyana was born in a small, poverty-stricken town in Kazakhstan, and showed an interest in clothing and style (which is very different to fashion by the way), since she was pretty much a child (she had to make her own clothes), and met her husband-to-be in a dentist's waiting room. Yes, you can assume that this is a classic rags-to-riches tale... with a twist.

What makes Ms Sergeenko stand out is that despite her uber rich husband, her status as his wife, and her potential of becoming the flashiest and trashiest WAG ever, she doesn't show off every bit of skin she has. No sir. Instead she dresses like her grandmother, Baba Sonja (her words!). Nevertheless, she apparently took it upon herself to teach Russian women how to dress, as she launched her own fashion label in 2011 during Paris Haute Couture Week (the horror!), despite her inexperience in design or tailoring. It goes without saying that this move did raise several eyebrows as it was deemed audacious and arrogant. She appeared to be someone who probably didn't have anything better to do rather than spend her husband's money. It could be argued that she was doomed.

She was not. Her shows drew an influential audience which included Grace Coddington, Anna Dello Russo and Carine Roitfeld, shutting the mouths of those who initially criticized her (including her present friends, she admits). At this point I should note that her clothes are not your average designer pieces - they are quite complicated (and heavy) with lots of hidden bits and pieces holding everything into place. Reportedly, the team of 40 tirelessly working for Ms Sergeenko's label need weeks for a single dress and months for a coat, resulting to an end product of the highest quality. However, they don't come cheap; her dresses cost around 17 000Euros, while the prices for her (amazing) coats climb to an eyewatering 28 000Euros a piece. Nevertheless, there is interest for her work and she did manage to break even within her first year.