SO WOW MAGAZINE

View Original

Timeless elegance by Sophy G

This brand represents the power of fashion and its power to go beyond any type of border with elegant dresses, cared for in detail and really beautiful.

“The Brand was derived from commercially successful boutique  Pret-a-Porter founded in 2006 in Odessa (Ukraine)  where Francesco Scognamiglio, Albino, Wunderkind, Narcisco Rodriguez and Vera Wang were introduced to Ukrainian customers.  However, the clients demanded something unique, especially when it is about special occasion dresses, created specifically for them and matching to the event they were going to attend. They want to look gorgeous wearing a beautiful yet comfortable dress for the birthday party or on their special day. So that is how the idea of making bespoke orders was born and proved to be very successful.  Gradually, there were developed few ready-to-wear  collections offered to the clients including cocktail and special occasion dresses. So in 2011 Sophy G was officially born  as a niche brand which is distinctively featured with applying many artisan technics including hand-made embroidery, hand-worked embellishment, hand and pattern pleating for creating ready-to-wear collections.

 Last year it was decided to extend our the presence on the market and offer our product to international customers. We completed rebranding, changed the positioning the product in social media and representation of our new S/S’18 Collection in press with quite brave decision to involve in our campaign famous Paris fashion blogger Lutin en Folie, making the campaign a provocative yet glamour and chic.

For me as for the owner and CEO of the brand is very important to offer our potential clients something innovative but at the same time timeless and classy. I am trying to make it recognizable, not boring, non-mainstream still I will never compromise with quality, style and uniqueness of our collections.

Sophy G is  a Dubai based brand, it is very international brand and to some extend reflects our contemporary society and business environment when borders have no limits, when culture and traditions get mixed, when people live in two, three countries at the same time preservining their traditional way of life mixing it with traditions and tastes of their new home-countries, when we all speak foreign languages and communicate freely with friends and business partners from various cultural and ethnical background.

I have a very solid business background in many well-established international corporations. Hold Ph.D degree in history, Master degree in linguistics from Lomonosov’s Moscow State University and MBA from Hult International Business School in Dubai.”

What’s the concept of your latest collection? 

Over 5 years brand’s history already brought more than 5 Spring/Summer collections, however, the one which is currently presented takes a very special place since it opens a new chapter in the Sophy G story. With Spring/Summer 2018 collection Sophy G starts its first international sales campaign revealing the brand to the broader customers.  Due to its symbolic meaning the collection was named “Unveiled” to resemble the bride who is getting ready to reveal its beauty, femininity and confidence to the world.  The monochrome collection is outlined by using transparent delicate fabrics such as organza, taffeta, jacquard silk and designer’s laces along with applying many haute –couture technics including embroidery, hand-worked embellishment with natural pearls, and hand artworks for finishing and creating decorative elements. These features are traditionally known to distinct a wedding gown making the name of the collection even more meaningful.

Accessories take a special place in the collection. Hats and belts help to complete the collection and create fresh yet classy  32 looks. All “Unveiled” accessories were born in collaboration with artisan workshops which distinctively follow similar haute-couture approaches in their work.  To create the accessories we used 100% hand-work and only natural materials such as sinamay, too paper, genuine leather, silk, natural pearls, enamel and crystals.

 The heartbeat of “Unveiled” collection is the quintessence of femininity poetized in timeless masterpieces of the world literature and art. The collection  was deeply inspired  by the style of Victorian costume and nourished with its recognizable lace elements, shapes and forms of the dress elements. With S/S 2018 “Unveiled” collection Sophy G dares to create its signature style  inspired by eternal ideals of woman’s beauty, confidence, freedom, power and ultimate tenderness.

What inspires you the most and how does the place you live in affect your design?

Creativity is a very subtle and difficult to describe process but our designers are always following the heart, often inspired by poetry, world classic literature a piece of architectural art or painting. Sometimes by a significant element of a historical costume or by the trend featured certain historical age.

We are an international team and certainly traditions and beauty of national dresses are played around as well. Being deeply rooted in European traditions of fashion and style, we are making capsule collections of abayas and kaftans but also trying to re-read and re-invent cut, style and decor elements for this traditional in the Middle East and North Africa countries garment brining freshness and new trends. Our designers bring the spirit of their cultures, music, fair tales and poetry into the collections enriching the collections with implementation of traditional elements in new innovative concepts. Our designers are always following the heart, often inspired by poetry, world classic literature a piece of architectural art or painting.

What’s the future of fashion according to you? 

To my personal observation we are living in time when fashion is booming and new generation of young designers has emerged in countries where fashion didn’t  even exist few decades ago. Now we have a bunch of young and talented designers from China, South Korea and Middle East countries. They present their collections in Paris, invest a lot in marketing campaigns and performances. I visited few fashion shows of young designers from China during recent Paris Fashion Week and would say that in some 10-15 years fashion will see a lot of transformations. This emerging generation of the designers rooted in their Asian and Arab cultures but educated in leading European designer schools will gradually transform fashion world making it different from what we are getting used to. I wound’t say that traditions of classic European fashion will be lost with course of time, I think it will be  nourished with  new trends and new approaches to the style and fashion.

 My another observation allows me to tell that fashion is slowly but steadily drifting away from simplification. Very popular black&white style with simple cut and zero decoration is obviously in the past. What we can see from the catwalks of Milan, Paris and London Fashion Weeks for two recent seasons is flourishing of bright colours, refined fabrics, massive decoration with crystals, sparkles, fur, semi-stones. As for me we are on the way to having street style more bright and complex while formal style is less formal. What I can observe is merging  different styles, materials and fabrics. I would say that we are on the way of getting Fusion  Fashion in a few seasons.

Another trend is so-called soft or semi-couture. Sophy G is following this concept and implement it in every piece of our collections. Soft -couture is about using traditional haut-couture technics in ready-to-wear collections. Working with natural delicate fabrics which are traditionally considered to be a base for haut-couture collections. I am talking about silk taffeta, organza, jacquard which require special skills and knowledge to work with these fabrics. We offer our clients exclusivity and high-end quality in ready-to wear garment. I think that people are getting bored of simplification because the market is overloaded with sport and basic -casual stuff due to its economics but consumers are ready for something unique that will help them to outline an individual style.

What is your next project?  

We will continue with creating our new collections, hopefully, will come up with something interesting for upcoming season. At the same time I would like to create a collaborative project with two or three brands and present to our clients a complete line including accessories and shoes. I can’t reveal more details at this stage since we are working on the details of the concept but I am sure it will be something sparkling, beautiful and inspiring.

Facebook @sophyg.official