This collection, titled Shadows In The Fields, is inspired by the traditional clothing of Russian peasants and shaped by a deeply personal exploration of depression. Drawing from my Russian roots and my own long experience with this silent weight, I wanted to let inner and outer landscapes converge.
For a long time, I didn’t understand where my depression came from. But growing up, I often heard the phrase that “Russia is a country for sad and unhappy people.” It was said almost casually, yet it stayed with me, sinking deep into my perception of identity and belonging. That sentence — whether stereotype, truth, or poetic exaggeration — became a haunting echo. At some point, I started to wonder if the sadness I felt wasn’t just mine but inherited. If it was something running through my blood and quietly passed down through my roots. Maybe that darkness wasn’t only psychological, but generational. Maybe it was simply embedded in a collective history of resilience, hardship, and silence. That thought became the starting point for this project. If I couldn’t trace my sadness in the present, maybe I could find its shadow somewhere in the past.