A girl from the world of fantasy and fabrication, incredible in her sincere desire to make everything around beautiful and full of philosophical content going from inside of her, talented and harmonious – that's, whom I saw in Alisa Miarkovska, the designer. The prize-winner of Mrs. Ukraine International, besides her own clothing brand KELis, she has big plans for the next ten years. And, looking at Alisa, surrounded by diamonds and emeralds, you realize that the real treasure is she, while jewelry only emphasizes her kindness and femininity.
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Alisa, when we were just preparing for the interview and for the shooting, I saw how hard your job was. How come, you decided to deal with it?
I think that it is my natural endurance that indeed helped me to turn my childhood dream into a life project, to realize my purpose, which was prescribed long before my appearance. Each of us is engaged in creativity: someone writes poetry, someone creates music, someone prepares extraordinarily delicious food, and someone professionally educates children…
When you find yourself, you combine all your inner strength, energy and quality that help you achieve your goal. You just need to invest with soul, heart, intuition, not to do, as everyone do, not to try to copy anybody or to be similar to someone. Individuality – that's what we should emphasize and feel joy about. When you are in harmony with the world, with people, you go deep in your profession, you feel like being in a right place, then success is just a matter of time and diligence.
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I like the idea of “affined job”. Grygorii Skovoroda said that it is very important for a person to find himself, because we spend almost all our live, both conscious and subconscious, in profession. I, for example, often see pictures in my dreams, which I need to paint quickly, when I’ve just woke up.
What is the most important in the designer’s work?
I think that in any case, you need to be prepared for any profession. You need to attend specialized courses, schools, universities in order to get technical knowledge, because one thing is to have an image in the head and another is to be able to realize it.
Another important aspect is to find a good team – people who can sew, construct your product. Also, it is very important to find people who can correctly present your creation, because every piece has its own life and its unique history.
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I would say that knowledge without experience is dead. You need to keep trying, and then, perhaps, not from the first, not from the fifth attempt, but everything will turn out, indeed. It is very important to treat failures as useful experience.
What difficulties do you face? May be, some model, that you created by sweat of your brow?
The hardest thing is that you have a deadline, and there is simply no cloth or accessory available. It is like in case with feathers. And you realize that you’ve already been looking for and calling around for several days, but still cannot find the necessary accessories by color or texture.
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For me, the hardest thing is to find responsible suppliers who honestly describe all the features of the product. It happens that you buy expensive cloth, and it turns out to be completely of another quality. So you have to test everything yourself.
Alisa, I listen to you and think that usually the representatives of creative professions experience difficulties with ideas, but you have problems at the stage of their realization only. I think you're just flashing ideas. Where do you draw them from?
You know, my parents tried hard and gave me the proper name – Alisa, which was a rarity that time. So, from the very beginning my purpose was to see more than others and live in a fantasy world. Since childhood, I have played such a game: when I was falling asleep, I stayed alone with myself and dreamed. And this was the advantage of children who grew up at that time, because we had a lot of time for internal dialogue and for the development of fantasies. We made our world much brighter, precisely because of our own unique pictures. Today’s children are deprived of such possibility. Colorful games on the phone, cartoons, birthdays, toys, all these things pack up the children’s life so much that there is no time for creativity for them.
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And my generation had such a need – we figured out the world. Just because I learned to fantasize in my childhood, I was able to do the design. I am very pleased with the fact that it is inherent to me, and that’s me all over. In general, I do not consider my profession as a job. This is my vocation.
The issue of self-realizations in the life of a modern woman is very important. What do you think about this??
Self-realization for a woman is motherhood, first of all. Thus, the XXI century dictates its terms: we must be socially realized, be successful in careers, engaged in sports, we must have a good physical form and follow a healthy diet, although now it is not so easy to do. But as for maternity, no any nanny, no school, no university is able to replace the love and tenderness of mom.
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Since mom's care is the child’s self-confidence, success in the future, recognition and love. Each mother should learn to find time and enjoy every step of her child's growing up. I think that masters of one’s art manage to do thousands of tasks; you just need to set right priorities. When writing lists you need to understand that besides working meetings, there must be your child, who needs mother’s care and experience most of all.
I can’t but asking you about this gorgeous dress. How did you figure it out in your fantasy world?
You know, last year I had an exhibition of my works in an international painting gallery. And part of the collection included ballerinas or girls in a light white dress, which emphasized their youth, grace and beauty greatly. Therefore, it seems to me that this dress originated in my imagination long time ago, and at first I realized this image through painting and then in design.
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One project, where you had to show yourself as a designer, inspired me for the creation of this dress. I understood that there will be eminent designers of the world-class brands on the site, and it's already a great honor for me. But with my ambitions, I wanted to be the best. Therefore, I was not interested in the texture of cloth, I wanted some lightness and flight, thus the idea with the feathers came to my mind.
And my final question is: what would you like me but I failed to ask you about?
I would like to tell about what I see myself in ten years. I think that this is always an interesting question with respect to all people and to their goals. So, I would like to wish that, in spite of any situation, I did not give up and would perceive every challenge as an experience. And 10 years later, I want to have such an experience, such knowledge that my present frames would be completely broken up and that I managed to implement what I want, still preserving the health and having clients, who would be interested and excited with my works.
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Photo: Oleksandr Serbinov
Filming & editing: Vlad Pustovit, Artem Kupchynskyi
Location: Pandora
Translation: Global Translation Services 1+1
Production: Million production
Jewelry: Fabergé Boutique Kiev