Born Free in CCCP

The inspiration for this menswear collection "Born Free in CCC P" started with something that an English friend told me. He said that we would never fully understand each other, because he was born free and I was not. Indeed, I was born in the Soviet Union where everyone lived in the same houses, drove the same cars, and wore the same dull-coloured clothes. There was no freedom of choice in this environment. This collection is inspired by those who were not born free but gained freedom through the collapse of the Soviet Union and by how Soviet people adapted in any way possible in order to stand out from their monoto­nous lives and free themselves. Their fear of the changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union and their resourcefulness when designing and wearing garments is a key theme of this collection.