After having worked 4 years in the Far East, I decided to venture into Eastern Europe in September of 1990 and, thus, boarded the Trans-Siberian Railway in Beijing. For the next 10 days, I found myself in a sleeper with 2 German tourists, peering through a steamed up window at the vast landscape of the Siberian steppe.With each passing day, the thick forests of birch trees deepened their hues as winter set in. Every so many hours, the train would come to a screeching halt, at which time women from the local villages charged the train to sell their jars of pickled vegetables to the passengers who were hanging out the windows. Eventually we arrived at an important junction—Krasnoyarsk—the 3rd major city of Siberia.
Krasnoyarsk was founded as a border fort in 1628 by the Cossacks, who named it after the Turkic words for ‘Red Ore’. During the Russian Empire, the village was the destination of deported exiles, later becoming a major city of the Gulag system under Stalin. By the time I passed through, Krasnoyarsk had grown into an industrial city and prominent educational center.
Five years later, a young man by the name of Hayam Hanukaev entered the Krasnoyarsk Art School, going on to study at the Krasnoyarsk Technical College. In 2004, he too made his way to Moscow, where he worked as a costume designer for various film production companies. Last year, he founded the design studio hAYAMhANUKAEV.The theme of his s/s 2009 collection, which he presented at the previous Russian Fashion Week, was "Freedom."
Photos 2009 s/s collection Copyright by hAYYAMhANUKAEV.
