Dec 17

Dec 17 Westernaffair

Day after Halloween I met up with Yana to take photos of some garments I made. We didn’t have specific places planned to visit, she just followed me with a camera as I acted like some sort of animal/character. It was first time we met in person but we quickly bonded over our Eastern European heritage. Yana’s extremely talented and good with her camera so I trusted her completely. I sat her downstairs in my house whilst I quickly ran upstairs to change. Few minutes later I came down ready her reaction was funny she didn’t know what I was going to wear before this.

We then proceeded to go outside around my very proper very uniform Dulwich Village. It’s an area where lots of families start up or older people retire. If you’re an artist, here it’s usually painting that can then go into someone’s living room and ‘is nice to look at’. So it was funny to run around outside and freak some people out. I think this is why I stick to this area, it’s like I’m an alien living on a different planet.

Now to the future plans. I would like to introduce you to my brand WESTERNAFFAIR. It started off as just a name I would use online, then it became a vintage clothing brand I would look for interesting items and resell to make a living as a teenager. It did good. I had my own space in a vintage collective store and was able to rent a flat with the money I was making. But then uni came and it kinda died. At uni I mainly did sculpting, I really wanted to make the most of the money they ripped off from me so I would go to every introduction and try every weird material in the workshops, through this I found many ways of working and utilising materials that are available to me. Simultaneously I was doing different internships in fashion and for buying at museums. Being busy fits well with being in London, I like to be on the run here.

It’s been a year since I graduated uni and I’ve done a lot of projects. Made shoes and hats for most fashion magazine, worked with other brands. And most recently I’ve started selling my shoes with my first shop. The next step is going worldwide. Follow my Instagram @westernaffair to sell what this will mean.