Anna Degtyareva Biography

Anna Degtyareva-a hereditary engineer, a person with a mathematical mindset, worked for many years in a leading position in an IT company. We talked with Anna to better find out how she manages to develop a brand and find a balance between her beloved family and no less beloved work. Anna, tell us about yourself and your family. I was born in Moscow in an ordinary average family.

In the first grade, she went to three schools simultaneously: to the general, musical and famous art school named after Richter for musical and visual departments. In high school, I chose a humanitarian class, where much attention was paid to the Russian language and literature. We read a lot, analyzed the texts, worked with meanings, studied the laws of versification.

I managed to do everything already then. I successfully graduated from all three schools, entered the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, and after 5 years I received an engineer’s diploma in the field of automation of computer science management in technical systems. Red diploma, by the way. She began to work in an IT company in the second year, and by the age of 26 she grown to the head of the department of production of interactive software products based on gaming engines and managed a team of 30 specialists.

I also have diplomas of the British Higher School of Design and the Russian Economic University. As you can see, I like to study. I am married, I have two charming children: the eight -year -old daughter Olivia and two -year -old son Philip. Are there creative people in your family? My parents are engineers, both worked in the aviation industry. My aunt, a teacher of socio-economic sciences and the author of scientific works, still teaches at the MAI.

My grandmother, with whom I talked a lot, was a primary school teacher. The second grandmother is a nurse. The grandfathers have completely male professions. One was a firefighter, the second was a military man. None of them received the education of a designer, artist or fashion designer, but everyone always came up with and created something with their own hands.

In the years, many were creative people not at will, but out of need. Aunt aunt a lot when buying an ordinary dress was a whole quest. Mom knitted children's clothes so that during the shortage, my brother and my brother are dressed warmly and beautifully. When we grew up, she began to do a lot of needlework: embroider in different techniques, make something, do decoupage, crochet.

Now mom is retired and the number of her hobbies is only growing. And dad built a cozy house where we love to gather a family: he thought out everything and realized everything. Architecture and construction are also creativity and design, only in larger forms. I think that it was the absence of certified creative specialists in the family that caused a peremptory choice of the future profession for me.

Anna Degtyareva in the first workshop. Photo: Anna's personal archive. Tell us about your creative path. How did you come to the creation of a fashion brand? I always painted. All a conscious life I carried sketches, notebooks, albums with me. In childhood, she constantly made sketches in them, recorded ideas, including the designs of jewelry, toys, some tangible objects. In elementary school, it was very carried away by sewing soft toys, first created them on finished patterns, then already invented mine.

I turned into the creative sphere at the moment when my daughter was two years old. Having realized that the minimum program laid down by my parents was partially implemented: she got married, gave birth to a child, bought an apartment, I thought about what was missing in my career for complete self-realization. I listened to my feelings, I realized that I needed creativity, self-expression, creating something new and beautiful.

This was the exact opposite of what I did in IT, and I needed it for balance. I entered the British Higher School of Design for the British program, where I was able to decide on the direction, and finished DPO in the field of clothing design there. Around this period, the idea of ​​creating my own brand appeared in my head. In the British, I got a feedback that I can work well with 3D design, clothing design, as well as with product design, including jewelry.

Thanks to technical education, analytical thinking and spatial vision, I think not only with a plane picture and graphics, but also in volume and projections. And life experience and experience on software products allow me to create functional and ergonomic products. Convenient beautiful objects, and not just an expression of thoughts, emotions and ideas or concepts for art exhibitions.

Although I like both. In the middle of the training, I hesitated between two directions: contemporary art and clothing design. Nevertheless, I chose the second as something more pragmatic. All the products that the teams and I created in IT projects were digital, intangible. I was a shortage of physical embodiment of the result of my activity. Therefore, I more and more wanted to try myself not only in IT, but also in a sphere associated with the real physical world.For me, the creation of a brand of clothing and accessories is an interesting work on the formation of a classroom team, a successful brand, to develop and implement the marketing strategy and on the management of the project as a commercial unit.

Here I wanted to apply the experience gained in the IT company in another area. Yes, it's complicated. This is different from what I did before. But I am interested in what I do. Toundra tanks. Photo from Campin. But calling them handicrafts, handmade or the result of some needlework is not entirely correct, since the significance is not only that it is done with hands.

Our products have an exceptional design, correspond to one DNA, are made as part of a single concept of the brand and a specific collection. Therefore, we leave the craft and needlework as personalized creation, make them the basis of our brand, but we focus on the symbiosis of creativity, the most skillful performance, handmade and people, in love with color, texture and quality. Our jewelry is one of a kind: we try not to repeat what has already been done before us.

Although it is very difficult. We have created our own special embroidery method: we do not set specific schemes and ornaments. Masters get a set of beads and technical requirements for quality, and then do it on their own. Each product is absolutely unique for us, it is impossible to repeat it. At the same time, the quality of work is Haute Couture. What is the most difficult thing in creating each sample?

Before deciding on the model and starting it into production, we work out the prototype to the perfect model. Usually, there are three imperfect ones to the perfect option. First, we determine the technology, methodology and order of embroidery, as well as assembly of products. For example, hair rifles. There is no seam or tape on them that would cover it. The entire inner surface is a silky Italian velvet.

Please note that this is a rarity for a rim. The technology is built in such a way that all seams and places of connection of materials are hidden under embroidery. It seems that the rim is a single whole of beads and fabric. Yes, this lengthens the time of creation and increases the cost of the process, but makes the subject neat, exceptional and complicates its repetition.

An important stage of production is the testing of the product. The penultimate sample wear several team members in different conditions and observe what can be improved, improved or replaced. For example, as a result of hair rims, we refused the purchased foundations and found a master who creates the foundations from the material we need according to our sketches.

They are stronger, more reliable and adjusted to the required head size. After this decision, changes were required in the technology of assembling the rim and the number of consumed materials. Embroidered blanks for creating covers on Airpods. Another vivid example. For six months we are testing several samples of AirPods headphones. Already counted at least five nuances of their use.

We constantly fix the comments, change materials, structures, improve some elements to run a convenient and reliable model into the circulation. At each stage of production, it is necessary to collect the opinions of several participants in the process, process and come up with a solution. It is difficult, but interesting. The part of the embroidery of the corset.

On the purchase of faceted glass beads. Where do you buy materials today, taking into account all the difficulties of international logistics? We buy beads, beads, glass and stones in wholesale and retail stores. We do not have such huge volumes to make independent wholesale purchases from abroad. Until February, there were no problems.