I have a friend from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her name is Anna. I met her while I was completing a self-imposed fashion purgatory over at Fordham Business School. She is one of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. She is brilliant, beautiful, generous and sweet, but she is also one tough cookie. She is a no nonsense kind of woman with a heart of gold- a combination of qualities that I find enormously endearing.
Anna was my first adult, Russian, female friend. And over the years, I have been fortunate to meet other Russian women who share the same qualities that define her.
Vika Gazinskaya is one of them.
Vika is an emerging Russian fashion designer of impeccable style. She is often photographed in pieces from her eponymous line or in incredibly researched vintage pieces. She has a serious penchant for Roger Vivier pumps. And as seen here in a traditional Russian foulard and trench style coat during New York Fashion Week, her look is sleek, sophisticated and flavored with the right hint of stylistic spice.
A woman with a passion for the theater, Vika opts out of the traditional runway show format and stages theatrical presentations back home in Moscow. Pictured below, she adds a little drama to Paris Fashion Week in a dress from her Spring/Summer 2009 collection.
The pieces from her collections are superbly cut and often cast architectural shadows. Here she towers in a look from her Spring/Summer 2010 collection.
Detail oriented, her make-up is always perfect down to the last eyelash.
Seen here with best friend Miroslava, another painfully stylish creature, she wears a hat, top and skirt from her Fall/Winter 2011 collection.
