Alena Veinik-Klyshko (Edelveinik) is a fashion designer. However, the designer clothes are unusual. Alena does not sew the so-called pr? T -? - porter (ready-made dress). What she does is close to the concept of haute couture - unique models made to order from clients. However, this is not quite the case either.

Designer Alena Veinik-Klyshko creates unique looks for every girl. That is, not just a dress, but a dress that matches a certain image. Dress-styling for a certain era. On the one hand, such a dress is unusual, on the other hand, it can be worn in everyday life.

Girls, for whom such unique outfits are sewn, then participate in an image photo session corresponding to the theme of the image. For each photo, an artistic text is written, a text-story that reveals the image. As a result, not only beautiful photographs and the dress itself remain in your memory, but also great memories, as well as vivid emotions.

Alena, tell us how you got such a unique idea to create images?

It all started in childhood. Even then, when my friend, and now the co-organizer of many of my projects, Alina Sardarova, went to school. Then we sat in boring lessons, mathematics and physics seemed especially boring to us, and we were amused by the fact that Alina wrote texts about our mutual acquaintances, and I drew pictures for them.

Much later, I had a lot of photo sessions and I thought about how to organize them. Alina offered to write lyrics for them. And today I am engaged in thinking over the design and style of clothing, working as a fashion designer, developing photo shoots (looking for a location, communicating with a person, reading books and watching films that he likes). And Alina writes literary texts for them. So the creation of images is our spontaneous brainchild with her.

Besides you and Alina Sardarova, who else is on your team?

Photographer. We work with various photographers. It all depends on how we are working. Makeup and hair stylist and assistants are people who help with transportation and during filming.

Where and from whom did you study?

I am a religious theologian by education with the right to teach. She learned to sew herself. She was sewing since childhood. The very first outfits I sewed were for teddy bears, since I didn't have any dolls. But my first dress, which I made for myself, was made of polyethylene. We then did not live very richly and my mother hid her fabrics from me.

Another dress of mine was a paper dress. My sisters were my models then, and I have four younger sisters. So there was where to turn around (smiles).

I never thought that I would be doing sewing professionally. But then it turned out that a lot of people like what I do. Many are ready to work with me as a stylist. So I thought, why not make my favorite hobby work. She also studied from materials found on the Internet. A wide variety of literature can be found on the Internet today. And on their mistakes, of course.

The girls who come to you and order images, who are they? What are their expectations?

Most often, young ladies come to me completely different. That is, not only creative or office workers, but a wide variety of professions. The girls who come to me want to get to know themselves better, to see themselves from the outside.

It may sound pretentious, but we often get such responses: “Thank you! You helped me a lot. I saw myself from the side. I realized that I am a princess. I am beautiful and kind. " After all, now we live in a world when unisex style is in fashion.

Fashion is the same type, but here you can find individuality. For example, when I work on a certain image, I can make about 10 sketches for just one dress. I read and look a lot to make the dream dress of this particular young lady.

And it happens that girls immediately say what kind of image they want to see?

This is often the case. For example, they can write: I like Audrey Hepburn and I want to be a princess like Audrey Hepburn. Then, in the process of work, this image may change, this also often happens. Plus, I don’t do reconstruction, if I sew a dress, it’s always a stylization for the era, such a dress can be worn today.

You also teach sewing courses. What audience are they intended for? In what form do they pass?

Yes, but these are not really sewing courses. We call this project "School of Fine Handicrafts". The idea is not to teach sewing, knitting, and so on.

Today, all of this can be learned on the Internet. The idea is to teach people to see beauty in everything, and also to create it. Not just sewing and knitting some things, but making works with artistic value. In the classroom, we also discuss books, films. As for the audience, we now have two groups - teenagers and adults.

Who is more interesting to work with - children or adults?

In completely different ways. I initially thought that I would be more interesting with children. But in fact, I even write different programs on the same material for children and adults.

Adults come already motivated, they pay money and want to learn something. As for the children, they initially have such an admiration "oh, how is this done." They come to a fashion designer, they really like it. And this admiration needs to be preserved and worked with, to direct it into a practical channel.

Creating images is a very individual work. Do you have more mainstream clothing?

I make small mini-collections twice a year. The last such collection was in the fall. My favorite collection is last year's collection, summer one. The collection was dedicated to Assol, the heroine of A. Green's story "Scarlet Sails". The clothes in this collection were made of linen and decorated with lace. But creating mass clothing on a larger scale is something that I'm not interested in at all.

Images related to literature are often found in your work. And besides sewing clothes and creating images, you also have literary evenings. What is this project?

We call it Waste Evenings at Edelveinik's. This is an educational project, participation in the evenings is free. Guests are encouraged to bring homemade cakes with them. In general, we try to create an atmosphere of antiquity - evenings are held by candlelight, over tea. All guests read a certain book before the literary evening, and then we discuss it.

At the beginning, we did not expect that this project would be so interesting for ourselves. Interesting in terms of people's vision of the same heroes of books from completely different sides.It happens that the heroine of the book seems to you to be kind, courageous, and another person, for example, sees this as a weakness.

We hold such meetings in cozy places. Initially, at my home, I live in a "stalinka", so it was possible to create an atmosphere of antiquity. Now we have made friends with the educational center "Octopus" and spend our evenings there. They also have a fairly comfortable room. But in fact, there are difficulties with the selection of a place, since we want to recreate the atmosphere of pre-revolutionary antiquity, intelligence.

For me, such a good example is always an example of the intelligentsia in besieged Leningrad. People had nothing to eat, they drank tea "white night", that is, simple boiling water, but at the same time they gathered and discussed some global philosophical problems, literature, painting, music. And this life of thought, striving for beauty, for art, is such a great example for me. Because this is more important than having a tasty meal or being warm, for example.

Is there any specific dress code for the participants of "Waste Evenings"?

We started with the fact that I sewed costumes from books and we held a thematic photo session for everyone. The first book we discussed was Dostoevsky's The Idiot. And I remember that then in one night I sewed two dresses and two hats. However, now we just greet people if they come in suitsmatching the style of the book. We ourselves also maintain the appropriate atmosphere.

Your ancestral home is Austria. Have you ever been to Austria?

Yes, my great-grandfather was an Austrian prisoner of war. He lived in Tashkent and in order to feed his family, he assembled a motorcycle from spare parts and began performing in the circus. I always remember the phrase of Sherlock Holmes: "if artistry is in the blood, then sometimes it takes the most unexpected forms." This is about my family and me (smiles).

I have not been to Austria, but as a child, since my parents were young and active, we traveled a lot around Belarus. We have a magnificent nature.

For example, we were kayaking, the third day of the trip, you find yourself in some old river bed, there is very black water and this is all among the pine trees. And on this black water snow-white lilies sway. Or evening, the sun is setting, the sunset is peach-orange-red and white herons are flying against its background.

All this looks just amazing. So the Belarusian nature is the source of my inspiration. Although I really like to travel, to travel around cities. But nature comes first.

Where else do you find inspiration?

Literature, cinema, painting. And the people themselves, of course. Since for me there is nothing more interesting than the inner world of a person. The inner world of those young ladies who come to me. Perhaps thanks to this, everything works out for me, since I really like to communicate with a person. For me, my work is very interesting.

What are your favorite looks?

The ones that I will create yet.