Interview with Evgenia Medvedeva
by Funky Dory
How can you tell when something is inherent to your sense of self? How do your passions become ingrained into your identity? When do you feel that what you do is as part of you as your skin?
Here Russian-Born UK-based womenswear designer and artist Evgenia Medvedeva tells us how she peeled back the layers to explore her talents. Evgenia’s calling was hidden for 25 years of her life before it emerged as a revelation.
The journey, which has led her into the world of creativity, is a peculiar one. It has fed her fascination with other people’s twisting life journeys. Telling her stories through clothing, drawing, photography, styling, collaging, experimenting, she believes in feminine power. Designing for a determined, self-confident and feminine woman, Evegnia champions those that know what they want and are empowered to believe in themselves.
What’s your background? - place of birth, education, your fashion business, what you are studying in London?
I originally come from a Russian city called Nizhny Novgorod. This is the place where I spent the first 22 years of my life. My family are still based there whilst I’m in London studying fashion with my sister, who is fortunately a fashion photographer.
I graduated from the Linguistic University of Nizhny Novgorod and moved to Moscow right after graduation. I was lucky enough to quickly find a prestigious job and somehow settle down in the city, which never sleeps. After 3 years of work I was 100 percent ready to start my own business and do what I really wanted to do - design womenswear. I quit the job, went back to Nizhny Novgorod and created my own womenswear brand. My first ever collection was featured in Vogue Italia. it was a hugely positive sign for me. So I released one more collection and went to study womenswear at London College of Fashion. So here I am now, in London, doing what I really love to do, getting inspired by the city and people and making my dreams come true.
Why do you paint?
I started drawing two years ago - exactly when I decided to switch to womenswear. With no artistic background I learnt from YouTube tutorials and practiced a lot. I’ve never thought about taking my drawings seriously. I practiced drawing because I wanted my fashion designs to be fluidly translated from my mind. Now I perceive drawing as my personal way of escapism. It’s a kind of a meditation for me. I never set a plan or a result I want to get. It just happens organically. Through my intuition, I draw with a sense of absolute trust in myself and my hand. Somehow, I can get lines to look completely straight- some people even think I draw with a ruler yet I never do! The real secret behind my super controlled looking lines? There’s no hand control, it all just streams from my meditative state of mind.
“No artist can live without inspiration”
How do you work?
In March this year I had a fresh issue of a fashion magazine lying next to me on the table. There was a huge clean face staring at me from the cover page. I felt that face was empty and suddenly I wanted to fill it with something. This was the way I first discovered my favourite technique - doodling. I would take a fine liner and draw numerous lines, just following my feelings and a current state of mind and body. Then it naturally turned into my signature style along with random watercolour blurs on photographs. I am inspired by vibes and energy exchanges I get throughout a day. If I like it, I translate it through doodling or acrylic ink, which I put on top of a picture that better resonates with a moment. What I really like about my work is tiny details, a contrast of colours, textures, shapes and the almost tribal feeling that it gives. My works tell different stories, leave room for a viewer’s interpretation. It’s indirect, not obvious. I like it.
What’s integral to the work of an artist?
Inspiration. No artist can exist without inspiration. The rest is optional.
What part of the process of your creation is lead by digital? What part of your work do you think has to be created by your physical hand?
My artworks undergo 3 stages. First of all I select an image which inspires me and edit it in a way that resonates most with my current mood. Then I print it out and draw over it. The third step is scanning and editing its light features and sharpness. So stages 1 and 3 are digital and the second one is done by hand. Sometimes I get inspired by images from magazines. In this case I would just take a magazine page and create over it.
What’s your favourite art work?
Do you mean my artwork? I would say it is the drawing called “W I T C H”. It is one of the quickest but still one of the most energetically loaded drawings from my collection. It shows a girl surrounded by darkness. She is placed right in the centre so she captures all attention. The whiteness of her eyes illuminates her wisdom and the motifs on her skin remind of tribal rituals. It’s powerful and penetrating.
What role does the Artist have in the Society?
Artists are interpreters. They reach the audience who are sensitive to visual and indifferent to verbal statements. So in this sense I could also call them visual translators.
Do you want to be a fashion designer or an artist?
Every Fashion designer is an artist and real fashion is art, but your question compares fashion design and drawing. Fashion is something that made me completely change my life and start living my dream. Fashion is what motivates me to work hard every day, never give up and believe in myself. Fashion is something that can literally make me cry in a positive sense of the word. I started developing my drawing skills because i wanted to communicate my ideas in a better, clearer way. As I’ve developed my own unique drawing style it just reflects the stories I create with shape and texture. So fashion first.