Irina Dzhus
Award Winner - Design - Designer of the Year 2021
Irina-Dzhus @irina.dzhus @dzhus.conceptual.wear
When did you first realize you wanted to pursue a career as a designer?
I remember myself at the age of 5, dreaming to be an apparel designer. Since then, I've been constantly improving my artistic skills: I explored my granny’s vintage fashion magazines and sketched all the time. Being just 7, I scrap-booked my own magazine, in which I even drew advertising. Never in my life have I had any doubts that I would be designing clothing.
If you could go back and tell yourself one thing before beginning your career what would it be?
I’d explain to myself that creating a mini collection to sell it to fellow local industry insiders and a few private customers abroad is something very different from a real brand launch – If I could go back to that period, I wouldn’t rush to announce the official start. Due to the lack of experience and a zero budget, I had to face many situations in which my already existing brand was discredited, and I’ve lost many development opportunities due to being unprepared yet already self-assured. I would advise myself in the past not to hesitate to learn from established professionals rather than pretend I was one of them (which came out very convincing, though. It’d be better to start my own label being acknowledged enough of how this business works.
5. What is your favorite part about being a designer?
Generating concepts for a new collection Is my biggest joy. Experimenting with the cut, inventing new ways to transform and utilize the pieces, selecting fabrics, and developing the whole line with all the synthesis between the outfits and the symbolism behind it – these are the most enchanting processes for me. And what is truly rewarding is having clients who choose DZHUS garments not only because of their stylish look and quality but also because of the innovations we contribute to fashion and the spiritual synergy these extraordinary personalities feel with our clothing. When like-minded people discover our work for themselves, it’s my greatest pleasure to notice their harmony and fulfillment.
Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
We are just continuing to follow our philosophy, developing the idea of cruelty-free and transformable clothing as a future of fashion design – and who knows where it’s going to get us.
What motivates you as a Fashion Designer?
What stimulates me to deliver new concepts non-stop is not a personal ambition but a feeling of my destination and duty to grab these inventions from the world of ideas and bring them to the physical dimension, where those can be utilized and appreciated.
DZHUS is featured in Volume-three
Corpus Collection | DZHUS AW19-Lookbook
PHOTO: Pymin Davidov @ pymin_davidov
STYLING: Irina Dzhus / DZHUS Style Studio @irina.dzhus
MAKEUP & HAIR: Marina Averyanova / Y.Vision Creative Group @averyanova_mkmua
MODELS: Adama Diedhiou @maadadie,
Valentina Plyushch @valentyna_omela / Direct Model Management
STYLING ASSISTANT: Andrii Popov @popovandrii
VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY SHOES PROVIDED BY: INTERTOP
PHOTO: Ania Brudna @aniabrudna
STYLING: Irina Dzhus / DZHUS, Style Studio @irina.dzhus
MAKEUP & HAIR: Marina Averyanova / Y.Vision Creative Group @averyanova_mkmua
MODELS: Anastasia Kolenkova @a.kolenkova, Dasha Savchenko
STYLING ASSISTANT: Andrii Popov @popovandrii
VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY SHOES: House Martin @housemartinkiev
Why did you choose a career as a Fashion Designer?
Because I couldn’t even imagine myself making a different career, I wouldn’t say I chose to be a designer. Naturally, I went to a children’s art school, then to university where I studied fashion design, and did an internship with Victoria Krasnova, a Ukrainian conceptual designer. Eventually, I launched my own brand, DZHUS, upon my graduation in 2010.
What was your biggest fear when going out and starting your own line?
Since I didn’t have any initial funds (except my income from wardrobe styling, which I’d been already doing for a couple of years before launching the brand), it was too risky to invest in the first collections, and my fear wasn’t in vain. Although the press got interested in my designs from the beginning, and we’ve gained quite a numerous audience really quickly, we still had very few sales, and there were times when I thought I’d never make any profit from the brand. Luckily, the situation gradually got better, and along with that, we’ve improved the technologies and use of materials, making DZHUS clothing much more functional and comfortable, without any loss of the creative aspect – and that evolution was appreciated by customers. Now, I wouldn’t recommend launching a fashion label with a lack of funding – it takes huge effort to gain just normal results in this case, and all the development processes are very slow. It is painful to have a clear vision of how much could be done about the brand yet be unable to fulfill most of that due to a financial shortage.
How do you want people to feel when wearing your clothes?
I create for people who treat clothing as a material embodiment of their distinctive inner world. Finding a perfect shell for their individuality, they don't aim to hide themselves from the surrounding ambient but to enter it as the truth and advanced version of themselves.
Every person who wears DZHUS is one of a kind. Our customers are creative, intelligent, independently thinking and open-minded, successful in their way of self-expression. They’ve learned their own personality very well and it’s very important for them to find clothing that will implement their vision and transmit it to others. When I wear my creations, I’m much more me than without them. It won’t be an exaggeration to say DZHUS pieces replace introduction when you meet people.
Who and what inspires you?
My major source of inspiration is clothing itself. To create an extraordinary piece, it’s extremely useful to explore the most ordinary ones. Once you’ve learned what a standard is, you can use your imagination and skills to interpret it in diverse ways. I’m so much into playing up archetypical patterns: inverting them, merging details with each other, and using some classic elements in a very unexpected way. I enjoy beholding nature’s impact on man-made objects, making them imperfect and hence – unique. My design principles take their origin from the ways in which all existing things influence each other and change.
Although I'm always making sure to release only unique work that doesn't imitate other designers in any way, there are brands whose approach I admire and learn from. I've always looked up to Martin Margiela's revolutionary vision of clothing as such, its meaning as an object and a subject of fashion. I've been inspired by Issey Miyake's celebration of fabrics' properties and potential.
