Model Tatiana Nikolaevna Sorokko

Tatiana Sorokko appeared in Paris during the years when perestroika was in full swing in our country - the time was difficult for everyone and in many respects incomprehensible - and what will happen next. But then the way to the Western countries was already clear - no one delayed - you can go to all four directions. Tatiana became the first Russian girl to come to Paris with the support of the Western modeling agency Marilyn.

It all began in Moscow, where Tanya was seen by the director of the agency Marilyn Gaultier - she invited her to go to Paris and try her hand there. Agency "Marilyn" was interested in our huge country, in which there is so much choice of images and types, different from those that have somehow become familiar on the catwalks, and those who want to try themselves as a model are also great. The first Russian agency “Red Stars” appeared in Russia in 1989, although it was actually also founded by a European company. This agency not only brought our Russian models to the catwalks of Europe, but most importantly, changed the level of impressions and filming. Our Russian models could now rely not on the demonstration of clothes, organized with the support of the Russian Embassy, ​​they could apply for participation in the weeks of prey-a-porte and haute couture. And the salaries of the models were no longer the same as in Soviet times - 76 rubles a month (this is the salary of workers of the fifth category). Successful models began to receive hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. For Western fashion models it was a modest payment, but for our girls it was a fortune. The excitement began around the model's career. Most of the girls saw in her chic fashion shows, high incomes, communication with celebrities, trips to southern resorts and simple work. But this is only at first glance.

When Tatiana Sorokko ended up in Paris, despite her young age, she already had a job in the fashion center "Lux" with Vyacheslav Zaitsev, but by Western standards she was an inexperienced fashion model. Tanya has never seen such a podium of several tens of meters, as in Paris. In Russia, everything was incommensurable, less than in Paris. Yes, and it was necessary to learn languages ​​- English and French, without knowledge of them, the work of a fashion model is impossible. Great support at this moment was provided to her Hubert de Givenchy, a designer who for many years headed a fashion house under his own name, and who for many was an example of nobility and aristocracy. Another meeting that brought Tanya both support and success in her modeling career - she met the photographer Bourdin. It was he who invited her to appear for Harper's Bazaar magazine. Tatyana had to change a lot, not only in herself, but also in her relationship to the fashion business and to the status of a model. In Russia, the model was viewed as something like a beautiful, spoiled and capricious person, and in many cases it was so. And here in Paris, Tanya saw that life in the status of a European model is intense everyday work. Here, no one was capricious and, most importantly, did not pretend to be a star. Tanya was one of those Russian models who would later be called “first wave” models. But the time of classical female beauty was gradually disappearing in the fashion business, there was interest in adolescent-type fashion models - excessive thinness, the look of a confused teenager. It is these qualities of the model that become priority. The career of a fashion model was leaving, but over the years Tatyana has learned a lot. She studied the history of costume, the history of art, and collected antique dresses.

These hobbies for art led her to meet a Russian emigrant. They merried. He is an art dealer and owner of several art galleries.And Tatyana Sorokko also replaced the Marilyn agency, which opened her as a model, for IMG, which is one of the world's largest modeling agencies with offices in Paris, Milan, London and New York.

Gradually, the modeling business for Tatiana faded into the background, but she found herself in a new quality in the fashion world - organizing exhibitions and competitions, clothing collections ...