1994th, unnamed dress

 

1994th, unnamed dress 

 Excuse in advance my English, friends...

The project "Alexandra and Alexander Seraphim’s knitted aberrations" was orphaned after the death of my wife (and co-author) Alexandra. Even when she was alive, there was no hope that our knitwear would receive support and development in Russia. We were denied any grants and any support as a startup, as a small business entity, and as a creative project in the field of culture. For example, the Minister of Culture of the Chelyabinsk region, who distributes countless and diversified grants to support varied cultural initiatives, refused us, saying that our knits "are clothing items, and clothing is utilitarian in nature, clothing has nothing to do with the cultural sphere and art!" One more example: the Ministry of Economic Development redirected us to the Industrial Development Fund of the Chelyabinsk Region. And they answered: "Good afternoon. Based on your information, your project cannot be funded by the Foundation. Today, the Fund does not consider entering into startup projects. If there are tools that could support your project, we will definitely contact you. Thank you very much for contacting us." And so long. Within the last ten years we were denied any support from any state structures in Russia.

In general, my beloved Russia has done and is doing everything so that our knitwear will never be presented in the world, so that we would never have been able to produce a large collection reflecting all our creative ideas and skills, so that we would never have been able to take it outside of Russia and show it outside its borders. In other words, in fact, it will not be an exaggeration to state: our homeland simply HAS STRANGLED our project...

And I think it's time to preserve at least virtual traces of our creativity, at least photos of what Alexandra and I managed to do... I have been starting the cycle since 1994, with one dress in each publication... There will be about 300 publications, I think.

So, the first one. The dress without a name, made in 1994, was shown in Moscow in 1995, and was sold the same year. I can (and I hope) reproduce a lot of our past knitwear, but I can't reproduce this dress. This is impossible without Alexandra. There are only four photos left of this dress… All four photos were taken in the summer of 1995.

1994th, Alexandra and Alexander Seraphim’s dress #37, unnamded: