Fashion DesignerMilan, ItalyNABA — BA Fashion Design
The Smell of BelongingWomenswear SS26
I am a fashion designer with a strong focus on concept-driven work and construction. My projects move between womenswear and menswear, and I work across fabric manipulation, knitwear, and tailoring.
This collection is inspired by the film Conclave (2024), not for its story, but for its strong visual style. The movie creates a quiet, powerful feeling of secrecy and control through its lighting, camera angles, and carefully composed scenes. That atmosphere shaped the direction of the collection.
The garments reflect this mood with clean, layered silhouettes, dark tones, and details that suggest hidden meanings and quiet tension.
02Prints Creation
Prints Creation
For this collection I created a set of prints for the lining and a foulard, inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The patterns represent the hidden sins that people carry inside themselves — which is why the prints are placed on the inside of the garments. All patterns were drawn by me.
This look includes a cropped jacket with a standing collar and 7 buttons, a nod to the cassock, slightly ironic. Underneath is a long-sleeve top with raw hems, adding a deconstructed feel.
The bishop-shaped trousers gather at the cuffs to retain warmth and feature both front jeans pockets and welt pockets on the back. A belt-skirt is tied to the trousers, continuing the idea of the cassock’s long skirt while reimagining it through modern layering and functionality.
Cropped Cassock
Base: men’s jacket. Tailored fit with a standing collar, double sleeves and a specific button placement. Finished with lining.
Long-sleeve
Base: men’s long-sleeve. Relaxed fit in cashmere jersey, finished with a raw hem.
Bishop’s Trousers
Regular fit in burgundy wool. Bell legs, jeans pockets, welt pockets and leg cuffs, with top stitching.
Bishop’s Skirt
Base: half-circle skirt. Regular fit in crepe wool, tied with a belt; 2 cm hem.
06The Final Look
The Final Look
Final look selection
I chose this look to produce because it stood out as one of the most visually interesting in the collection. It features a shorter reinterpretation of the cassock coat, which made it more financially accessible to realize. Additionally, the pattern cutting for this outfit was relatively straightforward, making it a practical choice in terms of time management.
02
The Landscapeof Kyrgyzstan
Knitwear SS24
01The Concept
The Concept
This project is rooted in Kyrgyz culture and the nomadic way of life. For the Kyrgyz people, the mountains are more than landscape — they are a symbol of freedom, and that has always shaped the way they make things. Even today, families regularly travel to the mountains together; it is a living tradition, not a distant memory.
That connection between people and landscape is visible in the art and craft it produces. The shapes of peaks, the texture of water foam, the density of pine forests — all of it finds its way into patterns, textiles, and ornament. This project traces that translation but in a modern way: researching the natural forms of the Kyrgyz landscape and finding how they become surface, texture, and structure in the things people make.
The final photoshoot was shot on location in the mountains, placing the piece back into the landscape it came from.
02Moodboard
Moodboard
The Kyrgyz landscape and the culture it shaped. Mountains, forest, water foam, and pine texture.
03Materials
Materials
The garment uses four different yarns of wool and mohair in different weights. Layered together they start to look like the mountain landscape of Kyrgyzstan — the thin sharpness of pine needles, patches of grass and the foamy texture of fast-moving water.
04About the Garment
About the Garment
The knitted garment translates the mountain landscape directly into fabric. Water foam, pine needles, grass — each element has a corresponding color, stitch, and shape. Soft flowing stitches for the lightness of foam, deep greens and layered textures for the density of forest, asymmetrical edges that mirror the way nature doesn’t line up neatly.
1 stitch = 1 centimeter
During the creation of this piece, size 12 needles were employed, complemented by the soft of children’s mohair yarn and 100% wool. Additionally, a wool yarn interwoven with a delicate shimmering stripe was used, adding a touch of elegance and sparkle to the garment.
Study of the pattern Study of the pattern Study of the pattern Study of the pattern Study of the pattern Study of the pattern
Study of the pattern
Piece 1
Start from 4 stitches on the bottom and increase only from the left until 24.
Add white yarns to create a natural “pattern” and continue it until the end of the piece.
Continue to knit after 34 stitches is reached to create 78 rows in total.
Make 2 pieces, front and back.
Piece 2
Start to knit with a new yarn on top of the piece 1.
Knit 12 rows and increase stitches on both sides.
Add another yarn in the middle and create a pattern.
Piece 2.1
Continue to knit piece 2 without increasing stitches for 12 more rows.
Keep creating a pattern.
Make this piece on the front and back.
Piece 1.1
Attach p1 and p2 together.
Attach front and back pieces together with the sewing needle.
Piece 1.2
Start to knit the sleeve right from the armhole (30 stitches).
Knit until the row 15 and continue to knit with the increase 15 more rows.
Piece 1.3
Start to knit the sleeve right from the armhole (30 stitches).
Knit until the row 40 and continue to knit with the increase 25 more rows.
Add the white yarn from the row 45 and make a natural pattern until white yarn replace all the stitches.
Keep knitting with the white yarn with the increase until you have 65 stitches in total.
Close the sleeves with the needle.
05Photoshoot
The Photoshoot
Photographer @mutabor.me · Model Kanybek kyzy Kyzzhibek
03
The Smell of Belonging
Womenswear SS26
01The Concept
This collection is about my feeling of not fully belonging to any place I’ve lived. I captured those memories through scent, which combine into different perfumes that structure the work.
The collection speaks in two parts. The first is Kyrgyzstan, a place of my roots and culture, but one where I never felt like I could truly live. The second is Italy, where my life feels richer and more alive, but belonging remains just out of reach, at least for now. Each outfit has a name that describes a specific memory of not fitting in, of existing slightly apart.
I translate different scents into materials, fabric manipulations, and silhouettes. Proportions shift between exaggerated and reduced, moving between discomfort and sensuality, femininity and tension. The garments hold contradiction like my experience of living between worlds.
02Moodboard
Moodboard
Textile Research
03Textile Research
One of the most important parts of this collection was creating materials that could represent a scent visually or through texture. It started with a visual research of each chosen scent, followed by a search for the right fabric. From there, I worked with destruction, dyeing, and melting to transform existing materials into something new — textiles that could carry the feeling of a scent without the scent itself being present.
04Lineup
The Smell of Belonging Lineup
Horse Running in the MountainsWinter Walk from SchoolWinter Morning on the Meat MarketBread & SpiceTraditional CookingSmell of the Person I LoveI Don’t Belong HereMorning in a Humid RoomNight OutItalian Breakfast
I Don’t Belong ThereCooking in the MountainsMy Father’s Car in the WinterFeeling of Trying to Fit InSmell of Grandparents’ HouseNight Ride in the TrainMorning in the Train StationFreedom of ExpressionSexYou Are Smoking Too Much
Drag or swipe to slide the lineup
05Selected Outfits
Selected Outfits
01
Winter Morning on the Meat Market
Smog on clothes. Raw meat. Pepper through it all. The Saturday market in the winter smells like this.
Meat organzaMelted faux leatherSmoked corduroyPepper mesh net
02
Horse Running in the Mountains
Air that smells like fur and dust. Horses across open land. Freedom here is absolute but not the belonging.
Felted laceGrey denimBlack leatherLeather feather
03
Smell of the Person I Love
Musk, latex, salt. The smell of closeness warmth absorbed into fabric, the trace left behind after contact.
Salty beadsMuskLatex skin
04
I Don’t Belong Here
Musk over cold walls. The smell of someone you love in a house that never quite warms up, iron from the metro still on your coat, coffee somewhere underneath.
I am a fashion designer with a strong focus on concept-driven work and construction. My projects move between womenswear and menswear, and I work across fabric manipulation, knitwear, and tailoring. I’m drawn to research that goes beyond visual reference: cultural identity, material memory, craft traditions and to keep that thinking visible in the work itself. Looking for a role where I can contribute both creatively and technically.
Education
Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA)BA Fashion Design · 2023–2026
Technical Innovations School of AUCAGraphic Design · 2021–2023
Languages
Russian Native
English Advanced
Italian Intermediate
Skills
Collection Development
Fashion Illustration
Technical Drawing
Patternmaking
Sewing & Construction
Textile & Print Creation
Organisation & Planning
Communication
Stress Resilience
Software & Tools
Adobe Creative Suite Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro
