Documenting life in the Ural Mountains through Stas Sumenkov’s style
From the magazine: ISSUE 87, August/September 2013
Stas Sumenkov is from Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.3 million in the Ural Mountains of Russia not far from the Eurasian border, where temperatures can get bitterly cold and the main industry is the production of heavy machinery like cars and tanks. In other words, it’s maybe not the most obvious fashion capital on planet earth. But that’s exactly what it is about the city that inspires Sumenkov to design for his recently launched eponymous line of simple basics, his clothes almost uniform-like in their staunch allegiance to a black and tan color palette and simple, military-inspired shapes. “I like to create things, because it helps me to express my observations of people and of what happens in everyday life,” he says. Sumenkov is as interesting a photographer as he is a designer, and he documents life in and around Yekaterinburg as faithfully as he can. “I try to represent my vision of what fashion design is today in Russia from images of ordinary people on the streets, in transport, in shops in any city of our country.” We asked him to send us a few of his favorite snaps and tell us a little bit about life in Russia’s manufacturing heartland.
To see all of the clothes inspired by these photos, take a look at Stas Sumenkov's debut collection.