Modern Russian Textiles: 7 designers and brands

Warming up to the Design Mate's monthly topic in August titled "Russian season: Russian contemporary design and architecture", we decided to look at the seven Russian designers and brands focusing on textiles, from major famous Solstudio Textile Design to the small family projects, such as Elnik and Ivanka Home. This list was prepared with the help of DM’s guest editor in this month, Tatyana Kudryavtseva.

Solstudio Textile Design studio

A design studio focused on development of textile design patterns, Solstudio Textile Design was founded in 1999, and now is the only Russian–based participant of many renown textile expositions: Premiere Vision Paris, Intertextile Shanghai, Munich Fabric Start and Indigo held in New-Work. Solstudio employs 30 professional artists and designers. Apart from designing collections for several future seasons in advance, the studio is also engaged in lecture and educational activity advocating and promoting development of modern textile design, including experimental course at the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts. Another Solstudio’s project is the own brand of fashionable silk scarves, Radical Chic  The design studio also operates its fabric print factory, Red Dot Industry.

Sveta Gerasimova

Young designer Sveta Gerasimova was born in Saint-Petersburg and mastered the textile design at the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design. Sveta creates prints purchased by the Italian textile manufacturers and the Russian fine fabric enthusiasts, collaborates with designers Ilya Chelyshev and Sanan Gasanov, and has designed prints for Tatyana Parfenova’s collections. Apart from that, Sveta has her own brand of painted raincoats for children and their parents, Heknah Degul, while another clothing brand, OLA OLA, has recently launched a line of dresses decorated with Sveta’s patterns. Besides fashionable clothing, the designer also focuses on textile room decoration and creates original textile patterns for interiors. “Any interior should have some specific feature that makes you feel good, and the textiles are exactly the trait that may cheer you up”, Sveta says.

Karina Petrosyan

Textile designer Karina Petrosyan collaborates with H&M, Other Stories, Twist&Tango and other brands, designs original patterns for fashion  industry and creates artistic tapestry. Floral motifs and bright colors inspired by Mark Rothko are the common distinctive feature of Karina’s works. Apart from textiles, she also focuses on painting, graphics and applique patterns.  

Anastasia Bukhinskaya

Although Anastasia Buchinskaya was born in Russia, she currently resides and works in Milan. The young woman already has a history of cooperation with several major companies, such as Red Valentino, Versace and Vogue Italy. She has founded her own brand of silk scarves, Teffy, and currently focuses on designing the textile prints for swimsuits, sweatshirts, pillows and blankets. In the designer’s hands, the nature photography, drawings and digital images are combined into a smooth, seamless and extremely bright collage. “I find my inspiration in the vibrant and constantly changing world we live in”, Anastasiya admits. 

Kokosha Studio

Textile accessory manufacturer, Kokosha Studio was founded by ornamental artist and designer Kseniya Kossa. Fascinated by the folk arts and crafts, she decided to create ornaments based on the folk patterns, but designed within the context of the modern fashion trends. One of her recent projects focuses on scarves, wraps and shawls inspired by the Kaytag Dagestan embroidery. Local folk craftswomen embroidered by heart and memory, so there are no similar patterns. The general picture is filled with various symbols, where, for example, the circle and the semi-circle symbolize the sun and the universe, the cross stands for four seasons or cardinal directions, while the human figures represent the Male and Female principles.

Elnik

Elnik is the project launched by designer Egor and Katya. The brand originated in 2014 from the designers’ fascination with the Russian North. Since then, Egor and Katya have launched the silk screen business and released several textile collections for children and home décor, including tablecloths and towels inspired by the acts of nature. Fine tablecloths titled “The Morning Rain” and “The Evening Rain” are made of thick unbleached linen decorated with the dark blue and pale pink patterns applied using the manual printing technique. One of their recent collections titled “The Moss” consists of the bedspreads and blinds decorated with moss, forest plant and hares styles.

Ivanka Home

Ivanka Home  is another small family studio. Its founders, Dasha and Lesha, studied architecture, engaged in motion design and then started to draw the prints in the modern Russian style. Apart from textiles, they also design upholstered furniture, such as chairs, sofas and poufs. Today, Dasha and Lesha have already released seven full-fledged collections, the last of which titled “The Twigs” is the most minimalistic, so it is perceived as the most expressive of all. 

On the cover is a scarf design by Svetlana Gerasimova.