Kozak Talks Podcast
Ми знайомимо вас з українцями, які побудували тут неймовірне життя - підприємцями, професіоналами, громадськими лідерами та відомими українцями.
Їхні подорожі та інсайдерські поради покажуть вам, як боротися з викликами, відкривати можливості та реалізовувати свій потенціал - і все це з повагою до свого українського коріння.
Kozak Talks Podcast
Пошук ідентичності через стиль та моду в Лондоні
Сьогодні ми розмовляємо з Аллою Шуткою - силою природи, яка пройшла шлях від України до самого серця лондонського світу моди. Уявіть собі її історію як класичну українську вишивку - повну поворотів і моментів, коли здається, що весь візерунок може розпастися. Але, як і ці прекрасні візерунки, історія Алли - це історія дивовижної стійкості та пошуку нового виду краси.
Ми говоримо про те, як залишити все звичне позаду - хаотичні радянські часи, переїзд до Британії, крихітні квартири та абсолютно новий спосіб бачення світу. Алла - жінка, яка переосмислила себе, і ми зануримося в те, що це означає для наших ідентичностей, як ми бачимо себе, а також виклики, пов'язані з балансуванням між сім'єю та амбіціями на цій новій землі.
Алла має унікальне відчуття стилю, і вона розповість про те, що одяг - це більше, ніж просто тканина, це те, як ми виражаємо себе. Тож, якщо ви готові до порції натхнення, свята стійкості та уроків, отриманих нелегким шляхом - цей епізод для вас!
Зв'яжіться з Алла Шуцька
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Good day, alla. Thank you for being on Kozak Talks podcast on the Kozak Studio radio. Thank you for agreeing to be on my podcast and when I first saw you, thank you for your time. I don't know. I remember I posted my photo on Facebook how I look in a suit and you replied to me. But I know you've been following me for a long time and it was a moment for you to write to me and say yes, sasha, you look great. Maybe I can give you a style. But I want to ask you about you. Tell me a little about your life in Ukraine.
Speaker 2:First of all, thank you for the introduction and for inviting me here. It's a very interesting experience in my life and I want to say that for me it's the first time I'm present on a podcast.
Speaker 1:But the last time. There will be many more moments like this, maybe.
Speaker 2:What can I say about myself? We were all born in Ukraine. I was born in Eastern Ukraine, in a small town of Trostyanets in the Sumy region. I also finished school there. Now I speak Ukrainian as a Russian school. But since my parents and people in the Soviet Union who were in higher positions than the factory workers, they all spoke Russian and had to know Russian. Then I graduated from school, studied in Kyiv, everything in Russian.
Speaker 2:After Kyiv I went on a trip to the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in the production of technological production of shoes. It was a factory, a big factory, a lot of people, and it surprised me because immediately after the training I got a very high position and Institute of the Arts and I was studying there. I also studied modeling at an Italian school. I learned what I was. After all these trainings I am a certified specialist in the technological production of leather, in the making of bags, and also I am a designer-modeller in the making of bags and bags. I can understand both fashion and design and even when you buy something leather fault, it is the factory's fault. You have to take it to the store and tell them, because quality control is also done and I understand this because I worked as an engineer, so I was in charge of all the manufacturing at the factory and the quality control was under my responsibility and the technological processes in the workshops too.
Speaker 2:Very interesting work, but very hard and takes a lot of time. But somehow, soon, everything started and by chance, I saw that the owl fell apart About me, and I already started to notice that I need probably to look for something different for myself in life, because my life didn't work out. When you work all day, you earn pennies which almost nothing to buy, and the owl fell apart. When you work all day, you earn pennies that you could barely afford. And the stock has collapsed. The products have disappeared from the stores, the production has stopped, everything has started to be stolen.
Speaker 2:I remember those times well and at those times I decided that for me it was not enough. I had to find something else for my children and myself. And so some time passed and I stopped in England. Why I stopped in England? Why England? Why did you stop in England? Why England? It happened so, and probably because it's the closest country that I had to return and see my family, because America scared me a little bit by the fact that the distance is very big. I also didn't think much about Canada and I don't know probably the climate. And even more books I read in my youth, in my childhood, when I read all the classics about the fairy-tale, and it fascinated me, all these stories as they were presented in our Soviet cinema. It means only gentlemen, madame, and everything at such a good level and everything is so beautiful. It all developed in one day when I landed in Gatwick.
Speaker 1:Tell me please, how was it for you when you first moved to the UK on a plane? How were you feeling when you got off the plane? How was London England for you? London England, was it the same as you read in the book, or was it different?
Speaker 2:It happened that I was the first to meet and greet my friends who lived in London Before I went to London Center and I was shocked by the house, the size of the house, the size of the rooms, and when they told me it was a garden I couldn't believe it, that it was a garden, the size of a garden and the balcony in the garden, which was made of wood and it was a little bent there. There was a hole there. It bent there and when I saw it I thought't know, I was like crushed, until I got to the center and started living in the center. Then it got a little better. There I already understood that, yes, this center it differs from the outskirts, but still I always laugh. As they say, for an Englishman, a square meter of a garden is a garden.
Speaker 1:Yes, a small garden.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they want to plant everything there and make an oasis. Well, you can see it from the balcony and the windows. They also do all this, but I think it's not bad. It's normal, very pleasant and very beautiful. It's what a person wants to do. Then she likes to do it. And what was impressed? How? I was impressed in the first days. Then it got better over time and I already began to understand that not everything shines as it should.
Speaker 1:What was your language like?
Speaker 2:What was your culture, mentality arrived and started living. I still had those moments when, in the Soviet Union, no matter where you were, the city and at the same time I was wearing it at the beginning in London, and I couldn't understand why, when I was walking on heels and in such a as it looks now already for me evening dress, but it seems to be a jacket, seems to be normal classic cover, nothing so challenging as if it's all closed Well, but a skirt, the dress, the clothes. You walk and people look at you and I didn't understand why. I always thought maybe my clothes were torn, maybe the dress was torn, and it bothered me so much. It was very unpleasant for me and such a complex. Not only that, you don't know the language, they also look at you for some reason. And how do they understand that?
Speaker 2:I'm not from here? And when I talked to one of my friends, she said she always wore sneakers, sports pants, t-shirts. I was all thinking, well, how can you walk around the city in this look in the morning? And she just said to me of course, why look at you? There are only two options here who walked like you in the morning? I say who? She says either Povia or the one who walked all night and goes home and I was a little bit shocked by all of this and I started to look at all of this to change myself. But it was very hard to change from the style that he had already put on, to change here in the Soviet Union. It was very hard to come here so that I had to wear sneakers every day. I saw a lot of women who came from Ukraine. They look very much for themselves, very feminine side, but very much I have to say.
Speaker 1:I know that there are women here. Well, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know Ukrainian. They are very well. First of all, they look very much after themselves, very feminine side, but very much, I must say, I know that there are women here. Well, there are different women here, different nationalities, but there are a lot of women here. As you say, they are mostly. Sometimes they have such that they stand, they don't care that they are dressed.
Speaker 1:I know that a lot of women dress up here. I'm not talking about the center, I'm not talking about the middle class. I see that people dress up because they feel comfortable walking, not just to show that you're beautiful or that you're better than someone else, just to look comfortable. But ours is the opposite. I see that all these events that I go to, ukrainian events, they must look like top, Top, top, top. And for me, for myself, I sometimes look at it and think, yes, it's great, you look good, but sometimes I want to be authentic, so that you are just authentic. It doesn't look like you look better, that you looked like a komos. You know, don't do it for someone, do it for yourself. I see that the style that Ukrainians have who came from Ukraine, which the British have, is very similar to your home.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, the fact that Ukrainians come and differ. This is all based on us, our parents, Because, as we were taught I don't know, I think so and it remained in them as well, because probably their parents of my age as they taught that you have to look good in the morning, regardless of your illness, regardless of whether you're happy or not. It has to be, it has to please your husband. You have to come to work in high heels and with a high school diploma, and it also affects women and girls. It also affects women and girls that you have, but no one asks you if you want.
Speaker 2:And even in the Soviet Union, if I didn't paint, didn't do my makeup, I would go to work. The director would tell me because you look like that. And what happened? You have to give an example, not be here as a walker. I was 19 years old, I was painting, I was wearing heels, I was dressing up and in my appearance, no one could understand that I was 19, was 19,. Everyone thought I was much older and clothes also push you to continue this image. You know You've already put on an image. You've added clothes and you're already a big person and you're already a grown-up person and many people, when they recognized me on the weekend in this work dormitory, where I had a room and we lived there and the workers lived with their families and I had a room there when they recognized me there, they were shocked. They understood that I was not alone on the weekend and at work I was completely different. But it all says something about the fact that we make this look, this style, the way we want it, but it doesn't show your essence, the essence, who you really are.
Speaker 2:And I'll say that now, probably a little more young women and girls have already let go of all that, because they are already born when the owl has fallen apart and maybe the parents didn't raise them so much on the account that you have to always look good and please someone. They are very slow and they don't want to. For them, makeup is already something, and for some it a very big, too much. I don't paint my eyes, but who will notice me? And how can I not like him?
Speaker 2:And I need a boy to be with me and I need a future husband to be with me. And they are on their feet and they are on their faces and they are looking at me. These are all thoughts that provoke women and girls, young people, I will say all, not only women and girls, young people, I will say all, not only women and girls, all, and men and boys. They provoke all of this and in the head it turns out completely differently. It's all about what a person wants to achieve. It all compares with thoughts, with the way to achieve all of this, and from here comes this image that goes down the street and when you see it.
Speaker 2:Maybe I see it like that, but I see that there are a lot of insecurities in myself and in a lot of spheres. Otherwise, a person who is confident in herself, who likes herself, that it's also the youth is not used to it. But teach us to look for the flaws in ourselves instead of understanding what is important and unique in it. Because if you sit down and look for the person you should be and that your priority goes to this or that but not to that, and that in the future or in some relationships, somewhere, even to be friends, you have to be friends with someone who accepts you the way you are. You like me. Come on, do it lips, I don't know, go to Koli something. Then I can say it's an influence on you. But if you respect yourself, then I'll tell myself well, listen, I won't do it for you, I don't't like it. You know what? Then go, look for what you like, because it's so built, regardless of who and what relations there are, as they say in England, and bullying On the one hand, bullying On the other hand, and friends are not those and parents it all affects a lot the psyche of the child who, as they say, forgot or forgave, but did not forget. And it sits in your brain and you go to B and to B and it's in your ears, where, when it rings. What about those words? What did they tell you? And they are completely those words you should pay attention to. They were thrown away by a person, maybe from anger, maybe to wish you something good, to make you pay attention to something, but you accepted them so very sharply. You can live your whole life.
Speaker 2:I can't say for everyone at once that I can't do it, because it's all the same, everyone chooses what he does with himself. I also like the fact that English women, if you notice, if they go to parties or clubs, they also paint, dress up and make themselves very attractive. They want to be attractive, they want like they go to the club. It's cold outside, the snow is washing, the rain is smoking. On the contrary, yes, yes, yes, I understand that in our country, if you went out in the winter, you wouldn't reach two meters. It depends on the climate, education and society. You always have to be, as they say, in such a framework and you yourself have to understand where to add, what not to add and maybe not do anything at all, and I can just say just be yourself, love yourself.
Speaker 2:It's not only for women, it's for men, Thank you. But I mean love yourself. It's not selfish, it's to respect yourself.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I agree, Because I can't say for Ukrainians, but I see that maybe Ukrainians don't really respect themselves that much Because a lot of women here put on makeup or a lot of beauty on themselves. It's not bad, but I don't know. From the British side I just, as you, said too much. But you come to the UK, you are a little bit adopted. You learn the language. How does your life start here? What year did you come here?
Speaker 2:It was the beginning of the 90s you don't know the 1992s right.
Speaker 2:Yes, in 1992 I had a baby and we were in Ukraine and I ended up here with a little girl. I immediately sent her to school English school. I decided that I needed to learn English because my knowledge of English was probably at the level of the beginning, because we learned English. Then I went to the educational institutions but I never understood why I needed to learn English, because I would never go abroad. Then the Soviet Union who would I work with? I wouldn't be a translator. I thought I didn't need it, so I did. But I had to pass exams, write the exam papers and so on. I did write and pass some exams, but I didn't go far. I didn't study much. I understood that I didn't understand anything at all.
Speaker 2:I also went to college to learn English while I had some free time, while the child was at school. There was such a good progress in learning English. Then I started looking for myself that I need to go do some work. And when I realized that I could go do some work work on something, start a career it turned out that I had another child and then it turned out that I couldn't go to college to study because it's already hard when you don't sleep at night and one goes to school early in the morning and the other goes to school early at the college, because it's hard when you don't sleep at night. One day you go to school, then in the morning, and the other day you go to school, and with time I started to attend evening courses. My dreams were already serious and I went to study at a accountant. I studied for one year, half of it. I passed the exams, exams and realized that this is not mine. I will not sit here for days with a piece of paper, numbers and something in my computer. I threw it all away.
Speaker 2:I also attended London Fashion University. I finished some courses there. I tried to do something while I still had time. I tried to do something so that my language and work didn't go out because of the children. And once I decided that I I should go to school, it was at the reception, I think she went to a slightly's progress. The level of progress? Child, what level? Who? Interesting job. I liked it. Then looking for myself again while the children are growing. I also signed up for the Council, disabled at least to help them do shopping. And it was so that once I had a client, a blind woman who had to choose good clothes and take her to the store, but she was still her assistant who understood her well.
Speaker 2:But I will tell you that even a blind person has her own view on colors, on what she wears. She knows herself A person. I mean not a woman, I mean mostly people who are blind. They understand themselves better than we do Because even by touch she already says what color I say to her brown. She says no, green, no, black, no, no, no, I don't want black. And she knows what she wants. She knows what color she wants to be in her childhood. She knows what print she wants to have?
Speaker 1:How does she know what color? How has she never seen anyone? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know. When I was working at the council, I realized that they have their own world, they have their own understanding and very important, very, very quality, not like in our country. Even when you say I want a skirt, I give her a skirt, she says I want this one, this one, so that it has a cut like this. How does she understand that it fits her well? And when everything is all done, it's applied, it's measured, yes, it looks very good. And it also gave me learning, understanding and experience, great experience. But if now I don't know what conditions when you start working, but at the time when you started working, either with children or disabled, you had to go through DBS yes, the same.
Speaker 2:The same. Yes, I always received these from the home office, certifications that I have the right to work, to go to them at home and work with them and meet them too. What else did I do to make sure I was looking for myself everywhere and couldn't find what I liked? Even when the kids grew up, I could go to Gerald R Rell's company and work as a fashion consultant there To at least get a hold of something specific.
Speaker 1:Fashion consultant. What does a fashion consultant do?
Speaker 2:It's a bit connected with the fact that you're a seller at the same time, because they want to save money. If you're in a boutique, there are something. Talk to them, talk to them. And then, even when I left Gerald R L, they still came to me on Bond Street and talked to me there. And they came to me to dress up Because they remembered. Well, they liked it. I was very pleased that they remembered me. I know a lot of my clients. I know a lot of people in my face when I walk down Bond Street, they are there too.
Speaker 1:But when you started working as a fashion consultant, did you redo your qualifications again, your training here? No, because I didn't change anything, I didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:I also wanted to work as a modeler, but I understood that paying to be a modeler-constructor is a very hard, big job. It's not that you drew on paper and gave it to the model designer, the designer or the designer. You have to do it yourself. And the combination of how to say the modeling of the construction already developed to the detail. And when you develop the detail you have to know the technological process of production, because to make it easy to paint it it doesn't mean that it will go into production, because it will not be collected by technology. Do from paper to production. And here they somehow divide a little. And you come to work. You get a very small salary. I could not even go to work at that salary at once although there were proposals.
Speaker 2:I even came to one company as a modeler for a couple of days because the child was still very small. I realized that I can't they don't want it either, because the baby is sick, the temperature is 39, I can't leave the baby at home and go to work. Well, it happened once, it happened twice and, of course, they said that such workers are not needed. I no longer worked with them. On the second job in the second company, I also had a very low salary, that is, if you hire a nanny for a child. I did not have enough money.
Speaker 2:So there was such a case when, if you remember, in 2011, there was a terrorist act was committed, the metro and buses were blown up, and I found out that my child was in one of the schools where the buses were blown up and and it was very accidental and for me it was a lot of stress because I understood okay, I'm taking the smaller one, it's not far, but how do I get to the older one? And I don't know where she is. They were evacuated somewhere. I don't know what happened and what is being done in the center. They announced it and then I turned it on, I went home, I sat down, I was all shaking. I turned on the TV and thought what am I supposed to do? And on the TV they say that the whole road is blocked, the whole center.
Speaker 2:And that the mobile connection is blocked. And I decided to take my child, find her and call the school. And then, before I could run out the door, my mobile phone rang. I didn't know the number and my child is crying, crying mom, and she says we all are somewhere in the teacher who has earned some money from the Internet, his phone is working and he lets everyone call him.
Speaker 2:Children are in such a terrible stress. I ran to one school. I thought I'll take it and run to the center in my arms, take it and look for another child. But then I thought it's not normal, sit in the car, drive as far as you can drive near the police and go look for them. So I did that, took the car and drove to the Regents Park. The police stopped me and said because they already knew that the parents were coming to pick up the children I drove near the police, ran to look for them and went health. And when I brought them home I took a short breath and went to close the because I heard that my heart was beating.
Speaker 2:I was sitting there all night. I couldn't sleep. I was sitting there thinking that I need to calm down because the girls were very quiet that no, no nannies, no such jobs. I have to bring them to some level where I can be free and worked with them. There was a housewife, a mother, for whom they are grateful to me. I am grateful to them that they are like that and this taught me. That's why, for the first time, I've had such a case that there is nothing more expensive than them. I don't have anything more expensive than a. So you reached the level you wanted to reach. Yes, I started working there. I was also hiring clients myself.
Speaker 1:How did you find these clients On social media, or did you just work as a word of mouth?
Speaker 2:It was always through friends. I went out for a walk, went to the store and there was someone else talking. I can't say that there were a lot of them. No, yes, it's interesting for me. But then when I started out that there are limits that you can't cross, there are limitations, I don't like it because I'm not in line with these limitations in fashion and in style, and that's why I decided to work on myself and I left all the companies I worked for.
Speaker 1:And how are your relations with the Ukrainian diaspora here? Well, at the beginning you were, I don't know you found Ukrainians here. How was your moral support?
Speaker 2:Practically nothing. We had very few Ukrainians, I think, at that time, and Ukrainians were very much against it. They didn't want such communication. Moreover, they sometimes understood that I was from Eastern Ukraine, russian-speaking, but at that time I was trying to speak, I was more or less speaking Ukrainian. Well, I can't say it's completely negative. No, it all depends on people, and people are all different. There are good, there are bad. My relationships remained not bad with those I know. How can I say I didn't have such close relationships with anyone. I always have some kind of framework in communication because, well, how is? Because I came, brought children to Ukrainian school, talked to those I met there. We had to meet, had to communicate. It's all at the level of communication. You have to come, you have to say hello, you have to say goodbye, ask how are things, get interested or say hello to someone To have some close relations and relations so that I can tell everything about myself or someone else.
Speaker 1:And now, how do you support the Ukrainian?
Speaker 2:community. I'm a member of Ukrainian Culture in the UK. I try to go to all events I can when I have time. I support the fact that I myself support Ukrainians in Ukraine, without any communities. I can't say that I'm doing this kind of activity.
Speaker 2:I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I'm not doing it, but wherever possible I'm doing it. I don't do it, but wherever possible I'm always there and help, because I have a lot of years of acquaintances with someone and we have good relations. I mean, nobody did anything bad to anyone and I'm glad to see a lot of people, because when a person is smart and educated, it's nice to communicate with them, because you know when you want to say something you have to think first, and when people don't think but say it right away, I make my own conclusions, because to communicate with many people I probably can't do. I can do it.
Speaker 1:Who else is doing it? I'm not talking about Ukrainians who recently left Ukraine.
Speaker 2:No, people are doing it Women agencies. For a stylist to become a stylist, you don't need to graduate from university, but you also have an understanding of fashion. Well, as I am connected with fashion completely and from the beginning to the end, as some people end because I understand a lot of expectations here and my decision was this, because it just led me. My experience led me to this Experience Because in the UK there is no such big production.
Speaker 2:All factories are exported abroad. There are a lot of polluted atmospheres from all of this. That's why there are no big manufacturing companies here. It's not interesting anymore. You know, everyone has their own work and their own vision of all this and I can't say that someone is right and someone is wrong. The only thing is that everyone is professional. If you have a lot of clients in Harrods in the company Fennik, then these are also people with experience, with professional skills. They studied, they took courses, they had a very good experience in something. It's a difficult job and if many of our Ukrainians want to come here right away, then they can.
Speaker 1:I want to be a top of information profession. Where do you get information? Which magazine do you read? Which website do you visit? Where do you get your information? Because Ukrainians will also ask me here on this podcast. I came from Ukraine as a stylist or model, but I want to do it in the British state. Where do you send me such information? To be on top of my information? Where can I get your information? Because, first of all, fashion shows are fashion every year.
Speaker 2:Right, they are being renewed and designers are making a new collection, preparing for summer, autumn, winter, spring. These are two collections that should be prepared in a year. If you are a designer, regardless of the high level, the level you have to show something, and when big institutions work every year on the color of, also from the shows of high-level designers. From there the direction of style or color is produced. This is all a lot of work of all these institutions that are united to set up a year of fashion, and it's all published in the press, on the Internet. You read it all, look, look at it, you make some conclusions, and so every year, every year, every year, it is renewed and it's such a fashion, it's such a circle. It always comes back. It doesn't stay in place, it comes back every year. If it was even five years, something different, it would still return in a year.
Speaker 2:What do you like about your work? I want to be a fashion stylist. Help people understand it. I'm tired of it. I'm bored. I'm working on a project with Ukrainian women. I want to gather them all together. I had two meetings with one group. Now there should be another group. I want to work more.
Speaker 2:I'm now uniting psychology with fashion and I call it identity in fashion. That is, find yourself in fashion in your own style. It's very interesting for me. It's already done from my research with my clients and I'm very interested in it because I feel like I'm helping people. I'm helping them regardless of who it is, what gender, whether it's a man or a woman or young people, and, as we've already talked about why they paint, why they don't paint, why one is like this and the other is like that. It's all a result of some negative relationships in life and the person loses himself, can't find himself, loses himself as… what does he lose? He has no certainty of where, in what. There are very big aspects of what. You need to understand this. When you already have a meeting with a person, when I have already talked, then I understand something and immediately you can see and the understanding comes. I understand what it is and at once I understand, at least for the beginning, and I know how to do it.
Speaker 2:I don't give advice as a psychologist. These are purely my working skills, that I want to give my experience with women and men so that they understand that it is possible to change themselves. But not because someone said it should be like this or like that. It's not true, because there are many people whom you meet in clothes, but you see that this is not the person who does not connect the style with the person.
Speaker 2:I want to combine and balance your inner self with your outer self. That is, this must be, a balance. When you do not find this balance, you will not be able to understand why you do not like that color, why you do not want to wear it or why you react to it in a wrong way. Or maybe you want it, but why are you afraid of this color? There are many aspects that need to be worked out. I personally know I have seen these clients, I have worked with them and now I understand that I have to continue to work with groups, because a personal meeting is a private meeting and when it's a group meeting, I don who responds. I can think of something.
Speaker 1:And everyone who wants to have a conversation with me in person. Please to choose a good style for yourself. What clothes should you wear? What practical things can they watch or know to wear something like that for themselves?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, this person should analyze their life, routine, everyday life. She has to think about work, what work is done. To get somewhere far, it has to be one seat and pick up her clothes and something upstairs. It's also just necessary to think, To understand what color you want, what color you don't want. If you're a mother for the whole day, you have a completely different style Because you have to run after the baby with a stroller, with bags in the store, pack something lean on. Naturally, the tops are closed here. You have to understand that you are bending. It's also what kind of what you want to wear.
Speaker 2:You have to think about what you're doing all day long and what you want to wear, Because you're a mother for a year or two and you don't take off your pants. When you're wearing jeans, you change them and that's it. If you go to work with a dog, that's also a second thing. If you go to work as a accountant, that's the third thing, because you sit all day. It's all united and my recommendations are purely for everyone individually. I can say one thing Understand yourself, feel yourself, feel what you have. I always tell my clients, before you leave the house, look at yourself in the mirror and understand Do you like what you see there or not? You have to change something and you have to think about what to change so that you feel comfortable looking at yourself in the mirror, Because you will be insecure about yourself and pay attention to it all day and you will think about it.
Speaker 1:Does what you wear affect your confidence?
Speaker 2:And when you understand what is inside you, why you are not sure about something or why you are afraid of something, then only when you are convinced and you understand that I am nothing and I am here, everything is fine with me. Because when a person remembers about these minuses, he makes himself the minuses himself and he is still drowning in his negative thoughts. But you need to understand the minus, you will understand how to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Do you work with women or men?
Speaker 2:I work with men and teenagers.
Speaker 1:Why teenagers Do they not know how to dress up, how to look and feel great?
Speaker 2:No, it's not about dressing up. It's not just about the jacket, the chanel, the field. You have to come to the conclusion why you have such a style and why you want it, and it's both hoodies and jeans and wide pants. It's also your style. It's also your desire. Why is your desire to walk like this and why is your desire to hide? For example, from guys, they can see very well that they are not self-confident, because it's also something wrong at home, something is wrong with friends, some behavior at school. They hide it all inside themselves and when they hide it inside themselves, they can't sort it out. It's hard for them and accordingly, from this behavior comes the wearing of children's clothes. They can hide themselves, cover themselves, be sad, not show anything else. It all affects. It all depends on how you feel inside.
Speaker 2:I sometimes give advice to my parents. I went through this process with my children. I brought them up in such a way that I remembered myself when I was their age. It is also very important when parents with children. I raise them like this and remember when you were at that age. How did you perceive these relationships with your parents, how did you perceive them, what was it? And make conclusions, then think about your child. I tell my child Does it suit me or not? And this was also my approach to my children, to my children, and I think it's very correct, because I probably allowed them to do something my parents didn't allow me to do. Secondly, it was already England, not Ukraine, and the views on some things are changing. My daughter got a tattoo. For me, it was a shock. What will I do? Will I hang you? I did a tattoo, but how can I come to Ukraine, to my grandparents and show this tattoo? They all shouted at me. We only have one-time prisoners. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And all that. So there were all sorts of steps, but nothing.
Speaker 1:Ukrainians are the model that has arrived. There are more Ukrainians now than there were then. Can the Ukrainian market go to the British market or is it still being cut off from the British market. Do you mean?
Speaker 2:the models and girls, or a modeling agency A modeling agency that can enter the British market.
Speaker 1:It can happen that it doesn't get cut off from the Ukrainian and British markets For models. Well, models and fashion, and that's it we know. But now a lot of people have come, different models, fashion designers. I know that they are doing all these shows to raise some money for Ukraine. This is one thing. And when the war ends can Ukrainians enter the British market?
Speaker 2:I would say that young models are possible Models themselves. But I'm not sure about the organizers, because I've worked with modeling agencies before. My child was a model for 7 months. What can I say? The modeling business in England is developed and it's a big structure. I don't think that it's very easy for someone to get to their agency and there it's both pros and cons. Well, maybe something incredible will happen and someone will succeed, but I will say very hard. A very big union in England of fashion institutions, it's Fashion Council. It's big relationships that were built years ago. It's already, as I can say, most of the positions are taken, and not in one year and not with a small reputation. So I even know models that worked in France, that worked in France, who worked in Italy and were a little famous. But it's all how to say such a you know a lacquer, but maybe well, I haven't seen much.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen much. What advice would you give to Ukrainians who come to the UK, or those who live here and who want to enter your sphere?
Speaker 2:To become a stylist? Yes, First of all, all Ukrainians can only wish one thing that you come here. Don't forget that we are all people and that you have to stay with yourself and respect every person here, Regardless of position, regardless of work, regardless of relationships. I always say treat people the way you want them to treat you.
Speaker 1:The golden rule.
Speaker 2:Yes, Because the working conditions and the fact that we still have the disdain from the Soviet Union, the disdain or the respect it was left there you come here. It has to be completely different. Here. Respect is for everyone, Regardless of the job and who you are, what level, and I think that it's a very important thing to be a designer, a modeler, even a model. It takes a lot of time, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2:I always pity models Because I pity them. I know how they live, I know how they want to achieve this, what methods they use. This life, this food or not food. It's very hard. I wouldn't stand it and I wouldn't want it for my children, so I stopped it very soon when I realized that, well, I don't know, I don't think it's for me, but if someone wants, then please take steps, and you need to understand that in order to reach some level, you need to be different, To be different, and everyone should always think why are you different from someone? Why are you better than someone else? This is my advice, and the main thing is to be yourself. Alla, what questions would you like me?
Speaker 1:to ask you. What questions haven't I asked you yet? What would you like to tell us? Tell us or share something with yourself. Share with us Our listeners, our listeners our listeners, our podcasts. People are more interested in our podcasts or share something with us, our listeners and viewers, because most of our listeners are from the US, canada, ukraine and I think most of the viewers are from Britain and Ukraine. But what would you like to say? Something interesting.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that, since I work on myself, I have the opportunity, as they say, to make my dream come true. I also do some art work as an artist and when COVID started just before COVID I quit my last company and I was very happy that I finally had time to spend it on myself. I was like a vacation. I read, I painted pictures, I made my own pictures. I was so happy at that time. I am satisfied that I made a lot of paintings. I look at them and I am happy that I was able to do it.
Speaker 2:I don't sell them yet, but I started showing them at some exhibitions and I want to say that I am very happy that I was able to do it. I don't sell them yet, but I started showing them at some exhibitions and I want to say that my dream came true, because I wanted to do it for a long time but I didn't have time. I had a thought on how to make money and what time I had to spend on children. So now I feel a little bit, but again, now my time is taken away by my grandchildren, children and then grandchildren.
Speaker 2:Yes, so now I have to dedicate some days to my grandchildren.
Speaker 1:I remember when I posted what I posted on Facebook and you replied to me Facebook. I wrote Steve Harvey there. Steve Harvey said in one of his videos he said buy five suits for a man, five suits and different colors and you can make a combination of 75 different suits. I remember I took I don't know a thousand or something pounds, went and bought a suit for myself. I did what he said. I made a video and it really not only improved because I like to go in suits now Well, now I'm not in a suit because it's my style for the podcast, but I see when you walk in a suit as a man, it gives you confidence, people will tell you for saving money. And the fourth combination of different costumes you can make. Thank you for making such a video. I took it and it works. But I want to ask you four questions, the very last ones which I ask here on Kozatox. Number one what has Ukraine taught you? What has Britain not taught you?
Speaker 2:Ukraine probably gave me an understanding of the fact that if it's not me, then who? Even for myself, it's a war for life. It's a war for life, for self-esteem, for yourself and to understand that life is not as easy as it seems in childhood. And if you don't stand up for yourself, then who? So this is the goal of my life, thank you.
Speaker 1:Second question what did Britain teach you that Ukraine hasn't taught you yet?
Speaker 2:I often say thank you and sorry, because back then, when I lived in Ukraine, they often said thank you to me and they didn't say I love you so often. I love you for my children, I love you for my parents A very important word I can say, that even makes you happy. Britain taught me that I shouldn't hide my feelings, not to the child, not to the parents. We were taught there that you can't tell the child that she is so pretty, that she is so sweet, that she is so beautiful. You can't, because you praise her and you shouldn't praise her. Someone else should praise her and you should say oh, no, no, no. What are you talking about? And I understood. No, I should praise my children. I should tell them first that they are the only ones, that they are very nice, that I love them.
Speaker 2:For me, it was the same uniting with Ukraine that in Ukraine I had to hide all my advantages, that I'm a specialist, that I'm like this. That is, if you praise yourself, it's bad. Why are you showing off? What is it like? Is it better than you? No one has it and you hide it. You can't say if you can do it, you can. And what can you do. Let someone else do it. He has a more difficult situation than you. Let her say it, although she is dumber or he. And here, no, here. You have to come and tell everything about yourself so that you are taken to a good job, and not sit and say you can, no, I don't know. How will you get to job then? No way, that's what Britain taught me. Don't hide your professional skills.
Speaker 1:And don't hide your feelings.
Speaker 2:What advice would you give to Ukrainians who are now?
Speaker 1:in the UK? Again, I'll say that In general, not in terms of profession. What advice would you give to Ukrainians who are now in the UK? Again, I'll say that In general, not in terms of profession.
Speaker 2:No, to be yourself, be open-minded, just respect people no matter what, as you all who came here understood that, britain is a very large multinational country, and I think that we should respect each other no matter what.
Speaker 1:What advice would you give to Ukrainians who plan to come to the UK?
Speaker 2:To be ready for difficulties, Because earning a penny now is not as hard as it was hard for us, Because I think there are more Ukrainian people now and restaurants are opening and shops and there's still a lot of news. You just have to be ready for everything. But in Britain there's no life like in Ukraine in the sense that you have to get to work in half an hour and after half an hour you're home. No, yes, I don't want to live in Britain. I said why. He said because you spend half of your life either in the subway or in traffic jams, in the car, cafe and museum all together.
Speaker 1:Alla, I want to thank you for being on my podcast again telling your story, also telling about your trip to Great Britain. You were a professional from Ukraine, but here you improved yourself for the fact that you are just the second market in Britain. You have spent most of your life in Great Britain. You also live here for a long time. You have for most of your life. You've been living here for a long time. You have a lot of advice. You also have a small group. How does clothes influence your psyche?
Speaker 2:Identity and style, identity and still Identity. Yes identity, how to combine yourself with fashion.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I want to say, dear Ukrainians, alla can find us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to her channel, dear Ukrainians. We do this in the Radio Kachok studio. You can find the radio. You can Thank you. If you like this video or you are listening to these podcasts or you are watching these podcasts on YouTube, please subscribe to this channel, like, share this information, leave your comments and the very last words that say hold on, don't give up, move forward. Glory to Ukraine.
Speaker 2:Glory to heroes.
