Julia Nikolaeva Fashion Collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia 2012-13

Julia Nikolaeva

Free fall
It would be too banal to take Julia Nikolaeva for just a master of pocket femininity, poet of mini dresses, polka dot skirts, brown glossy texture raincoats and comfy black coats that are aimed for women whose inner worlds are a lot richer that her external appearance.

Nikolaeva is also a creator who lives with us in contemporary Moscow, who sees and senses pretty much the same as we do. It is not a coincidence that in her collection, there were bags on wheels, so familiar to those who have been in the Moscow underground, or ribbons of various colours, definite references to the ones that became a style distinguishing feature for the protests in the beginning of 2012. That is why her call to throw everything out of the wardrobe, to become ‘free and homeless, doubtless and limitless, hopeless’, to leave for a free fall – all that is mostly an artist’s declaration, whose performance is based on a profoundly sensed collective unconscious. From this aspect, the question as to whether she will get into trends or not sounds just absurd.