Mythical muses
Fashion designer Ianis Chamalidy on his sources of inspiration and humanities-based home schooling.
Published: July 18, 2012 (Issue # 1718)
DMITRY PAVLOV
Ianis Chamalidy’s sources of ideas include the myth of Arachne.
Fashion designer Ianis Chamalidy thrives on challenges. He admires the Greek mythological hero Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods to give to mankind, and creates jewelry collections celebrating the courage of ancient Greek mortal weaver Arachne, who took part in a doomed contest with the goddess Athena, only to be forever turned into a spider. He creates some of the most sensual drapings on the Russian fashion scene, and credits his inspiration to the life stories of Orthodox female saints.
“The themes of knighthood, self-sacrifice and monasticism are present in virtually all of my collections,” the 36-year-old designer told The St. Petersburg Times this week. “It may sound shocking if I tell you that my muse is essentially a vestal, a nun, a chaste woman, a saint, but it’s true. One of my recent collections, Facing the Wind (Navstrechu Vetru) is a reverence to Mary of Egypt [the patron saint of penitents], who lived the life of a dissolute in a bustling megalopolis, yet she was able to discover a different part of herself — a serene and virtuous part. I admire people who have the courage to undertake these types of journeys — to be able to face the wind, so to say.”
There is always a strong spiritual backing behind the designer’s haute couture collections, which embody his reflections on the world around him. To be accepted and understood, the designer needs a strong perception of what is in the air and to be able to anticipate change.
In his latest collection, entitled Bird in a Cage, which was shown in June at Tsarskoye Selo as part of the annual Association project that sees leading local designers creating collections inspired by a specific artistic style, Chamalidy builds a bridge between the worlds of pagan antiquity and monotheistic Christianity. The collection was inspired by St. Thekla, who completely changed her life path after hearing St. Paul’s speech about chastity.
Bird in a Cage leads audiences on a journey into their souls, exploring conflicting thoughts, searching for peace and darting between courage and escapism.
“In this collection, I sought to explore the issue of freedom that the human soul is constantly seeking and the physical limitations that the body creates for it,” he said. “Millions of people seek to overcome themselves, to set their own records, and they want these records not only to make an impression, but to make sense.”
Chamalidy produced his first collection at the age of 17, and has run the Ianis Chamalidy fashion house since 1997.
DMITRY PAVLOV
The designer thrives on challenge.
Costume design has been a natural environment for the designer since birth: His grandmother was a busy seamstress in the town of Novy Afon in the south Caucasian republic of Abkhazia. In a sense, his choice of profession was preordained, yet it was not until Chamalidy spent some time at a shipbuilding college that he realized that it was women’s dresses, not marine vessels that he want to create.
“The girl who sat next to me was getting married, and I entertained myself by drawing sketches of possible wedding dresses for her,” Chamalidy remembers. “And then, very suddenly, the realization flashed through my mind that this is what I should be doing with my life.”
There followed a prompt retreat from the shipbuilding college, and Chamalidy entered the Mukhina State Art and Industry Academy (now the Stieglitz Academy). His first collection explored the connection between color and shape, associating cold colors with sharp lines and a warm palette with soft silhouettes.
“It was indeed brazen for a first-year student to come up with a whole collection, but I was not thinking like that. I got to know people from a design studio on Ulitsa Tukhachevskogo, and simply arranged for my collection to be made and shown there,” he said.
Born to a family of Greek origin, Chamalidy was brought up in an environment of warmth and cordiality.
“It was important for my parents to give me a sense of being humane, compassionate, understanding — and I am convinced that this needs to be a core aspect for every parent,” he said.
He was exposed to the Orthodox religion early on, as his grandmother took Chamalidy to church whenever she was going.
DMITRY PAVLOV
St. Thekla is another inspiration.
His home education included a strong humanities angle, from singing in a choir to Chinese gymnastics lessons.
“We never missed an opera or ballet premiere, and, of course, Giselles, Scheherazades, Fountains of Bakhchisarai and Sleeping Beauties were coming out of my ears,” the designer smiles. A couple of decades on, Chamalidy has created costumes for ballet productions ranging from “Romeo and Juliet” to “Scheherazade.”
What possibilities does the theater give that are limited on the runway? Chamalidy does not look at it that way.
“I am interested in creating a world,” he said. “A theater production throws you additional challenges because there are certain conditions that you cannot change and have to start from — the plot and the music, for example.”
The next collection that will hit the runway this coming fall has been tentatively entitled Labyrinth.
“It is naturally rooted in the previous collection, Bird in a Cage, as it develops the ideas that I touched on there,” Chamalidy said.
“What I sense is that more and more people are striving to find out what they themselves really want to be doing in their lives — not what is expected of them or what, say, their parents would like them to do or their partners may manipulate them into doing. And they seek to break free from cages and enter the labyrinth in the hope of finding the truth.”
DMITRY PAVLOV
The designer’s new collection, Bird in a Cage, was shown at Tsarskoye Selo in June as part of Association.
“This is not an easy journey: There are betrayals, mistakes, dead ends, loss of energy … what you regard as your support and a stepping stone may collapse the next second, and you need to be prepared for that. The very attempt to go along that path is admirable,” he said.
The image of a labyrinth alludes to the Internet, an ocean of delusions, fake promises and countless temptations.
“A cynical giant-sized man who does not leave his apartment can easily pretend to be a charming outgoing petite blonde and flirt with dozens of admirers in an online chartroom — only to publish all that embarrassing content a few weeks later to ridicule the naivety of his correspondents,” the designer continues. “Trust is one of the most sensitive issues today, and for Russian people, after decades of living in a linear Soviet society where good and bad were very clearly demarcated, stepping into the abyss of the Internet with its multiple traps is naturally difficult. Making a choice is a challenge and trusting is a challenge, too.”
Chamalidy makes every client a co-author of their new image. The designer encourages them to think and see how they can express themselves — and discover themselves — through a particular look.
“If you do not think, you are unable to create, and therefore unable to live,” he explains. “It is like waking up and becoming more alive.”
Investing in one’s image is seen as a lost cause by many Russian women, who regard it as the privilege of the wealthy. Decades of the authoritarian Soviet rule resulted in a childish habit of adhering to standards. Personality is often sacrificed for a pattern that is believed to be attractive.
Chamalidy spent eight years as a representative for Yves Saint Laurent in Russia. He traveled the country extensively, and was astounded by the vast numbers of frustrated women — regardless of the region — who were despondent because they did not meet the standards of a so-called “model figure.” A model figure — rather than talent, natural charm and personality — is seen by many in the country as a pass to success and prosperity. And the cries for help were as heartbreaking as they were many.
“It never occurred to me that perhaps some of my collections were born out of compassion for these women — they became my response to their plea,” the designer said. “The more I think about it, the more true it seems.”
Chamalidy sees his task in shifting his clients’ mindset from “whether this shape is right for my waist [legs, height, etc.]” into “what sort of emotion do I want to convey?” and “what sort of vibe do I want to give off?”
“In some cases I see a woman who has lost so much faith in herself that she requires what I would describe as en emotional resuscitation — and we all do our best to deliver it, when necessary,” he said. “To see their eyes sparkling is the best reward really. When they say that a dress has become a friend, a second skin, it means the world to me.”