Episode Transcript
Femininity is powerful in all its forms, exceptional women, rare girls must be appreciated in every
way for their perspectives, actions, thoughts, and their unique ways of being.
Rare girls are inspiring, and this is what this podcast is all about.
Hello, my name is Aziz and my guest today is Ariana Kyrdai.
Ariana is a fashion business student at Instituto Marangoni in London, United Kingdom.
Originally from Chernivtsi in Ukraine, her hobbies are reading fashion and psychology literature.
In addition to this, she was selected as a mentee, participant, and student of the Women
at Dior leadership and mentorship program created by Christian Dior Couture House in
order to empower young ladies.
This is one of her most important achievements in her professional life for the last years.
Now she is a student of the one-year mentorship program as well as working as a sales associate
in Giorgio Armani.
Ariana, how are you today?
Hi, hello.
Thank you for a nice introduction.
I'm pretty good today.
What about you?
I'm feeling positive.
I'm feeling excited.
To know more about you and I will ask you this.
If your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you as well as do
you feel your personality is a little bit different when you are in Ukraine compared
to living in London?
Did anything change you?
Thank you for your question.
So I think the first thing that my friends will say about me is going to be that I'm
really passionate about fashion because I'm really, really into this industry.
I really love what I'm studying and what I'm doing right now in my life.
And also talking about me being in London and in Ukraine, in Chernivtsi, in my own city,
I don't really think I'm different because I'm trying to be myself and to, yeah, just
to try to be myself and it doesn't matter either I'm in London or either I'm in Chernivtsi.
I'm just trying to follow my goals, my dreams and just to stay truly myself.
I like that and to understand you since you spoke about your goals and your dreams.
What is your ultimate dream when it comes to the fashion world?
What's your big goal that when you get there you think, yes, finally I am exactly where
I dreamed of being?
So this one is really interesting question because I don't think I have one big goal
and that's it because what is going to happen after this?
So time is changing and the world is changing and therefore my dreams are changing and my
goals are changing.
But I think my main mission is always to stay always honest with myself.
And in terms of fashion industry, I really want to positively contribute to this industry
and to help other brands and other startups and other innovative projects in fashion to
develop and to thrive and to successfully perform on the market.
So basically for now my main mission to learn as much as I can, to gain as much experience
as I can and then to start to help other startups, other small little brands and projects with
big mission and to develop on the market.
I like that.
That's very ambitious and actually exciting.
To ask you about fashion, how did you discover your passion for fashion?
How did you know or fall in love with it?
What's the story?
When and how did the things evolve?
So to be honest, there is no like a big story behind my choice, but I always was very into
fashion, I always was very into trends, I was following fashion influencers, I was watching
fashion shows, I was reading fashion literature a lot.
And then when it came to choose my university and to choose the industry I really want to
be in, and then I was like, okay, why not fashion?
And then also in addition, I really believe that fashion industry in Ukraine, it can be
even stronger than it is now because there are a lot of talented brands, a lot of talented
designers and I'm really, really proud of them.
I'm trying to share them here in London and to show how talented they are.
And I want to bring more in terms of fashion to Ukrainian market and to contribute to it
and to develop Ukrainian fashion market.
So that's why I decided, okay, let me study fashion in London, let me gain more experience,
let me increase my knowledge in this field and then come back to Ukraine and develop
fashion industry on international level.
I love that.
I love your vision for helping in the future of Ukraine, et cetera, and to ask you more
about fashion and your vision for it, especially that you speak about helping startups and
Ukrainian fashion brands grow their influence and impact and market share.
And therefore to ask you, there are like a dilemma for everything artistic like fashion
where if you are authentic, which is important to you, maybe that appeals to only a few people
in the market, not the majority.
But if you want to be mainstream, maybe you sacrifice a little bit of your authenticity
to do what most people will like.
How do you find that balance?
Do you find that this is true when it comes to fashion, that if you're too original, then
not enough people will understand that style and therefore you reduce your market share?
Or do you believe that the fashion world is so unique that being original and very, very
unique can help you grow your market?
Or how do you approach this whole balance between pleasing the market and being true
and authentic to yourself?
Really, really interesting question because I really think that the brands, first of all,
they should stay true to themselves.
They should really follow their DNA, their idea behind their mission.
And if the brand is honest, the brand is honest with the public and with the customers and
with the world, I think this is the main rule.
Just to stay honest and to show their values and to do what they're doing and to stay unique
because their uniqueness are making them growing and developing.
And I think this is exactly the problem now that the brands are trying to be mainstreaming
and to be the same on the market.
And I guess we really, really need brands who are really unique and they are not scared
to be unique.
And it's really, really important.
And from my point of view, some of the brands, they a little bit lack in kind of marketing
and maybe PR, so they do not really know how to use their uniqueness in order to grow.
Because I think their uniqueness is actually their strength and the way they can develop.
So basically, that's what I want to do in the future, just to help that kind of unique
brands to develop on the market, on the fashion market and to become more successful just
with the help of some kind of marketing instruments and other innovations.
Thank you.
That's a wonderful plan.
And to ask you about the Ukrainian fashion industry, you spoke about how you promoted
everywhere you go.
What do you say?
What is unique about currently about Ukrainian brands?
What do you feel is something they could develop to become even better?
And on a larger scale, it seems like the culture of Ukraine promotes creativity a lot more
than many Eastern European countries.
What is about the Ukrainian culture that can produce or create unique fashion brands like
it does?
So to begin with the uniqueness of Ukrainian brands, I guess, and I'm pretty sure that
Ukrainian industry is really innovative and really sustainable, which is really important
nowadays.
For example, we do have a lot of sustainable and environmentally friendly brands, such
as Xenia Schneider, who is recycling Denim, which is really innovative on the fashion
market.
And I would love people to know more about such brands.
Also, we do have DressX platform, which is digital clothing.
And it's something really, really innovative and new to the market.
And I'm really proud that I'm Ukrainian and that we do have such nice brands in our country.
And I really think they're going to develop even more in the future and they gonna perform
even more.
And moving to Ukrainian culture, yes, I definitely think that Ukrainian culture makes Ukrainian
people more creative.
And I think that Ukrainian culture is in DNA of a lot of Ukrainian brands.
And we do have a lot of Ukrainian fashion brands and designers who is promoting our
national clothes, such as Veshavanka.
And now I can see a lot of Ukrainian elements in collections of really popular worldwide
brands.
And even mass market Zara is making a lot of things like that.
And to be honest, I would love these international brands who are taking something from Ukrainian
culture to tell a little bit more about this and to share the story.
And in this kind of way, Ukrainian fashion industry can thrive even more.
But for now, unfortunately, a lot of brands just take Ukraine as an inspiration, but they
do not share a lot and they just kind of stealing the designs.
So on the other hand, I can tell that this is something good.
And this means that Ukrainian fashion industry is on the right track and we are definitely
doing something really good.
Thank you.
That is wonderful.
And since you're speaking about Ukraine, it's important to speak about the Ukrainian-Russian
war, the invasion that happened on February 24th.
How was that day for you?
How did you hear about the war?
How did you feel?
Did you believe it, not believe it?
What happened to you that day?
And how did your life and personality change in these seven months?
So on 24th of February, I was in London studying.
And when I woke up and took my phone, I saw a lot of messages from my family and friends.
And then I saw the news and then I started to understand what is happening.
And yeah, my first reaction was tears, of course.
I was really, really sad that the thing, this thing is happening now in 2022.
And yeah, and the first thing I texted my family and friends just to know how do they
feel?
Where are they?
Are they safe?
And of course, I think that the Russian invasion and everything that is happening is terrible.
And at the same time, I truly believe and I'm 100% sure that Ukraine is going to go
through it.
And now I can tell that this war and everything that is happening taught me and showed me
how proud I can be that I'm Ukrainian.
And I'm really, really proud to be Ukrainian, to be Ukrainian in London and to represent
my country here.
I agree with your sentiment and patriotism and all I can say is Slava Ukrainyi.
Heroin Slava.
Thank you.
And to know even more about your life in London, how was adapting going from Chernivtsi to
London?
Did any things about the culture surprise you?
Was it easy to adapt?
Was it a bit difficult?
Tell me about an experience of a Ukrainian girl going from Ukraine to London and how
was it making new friends, making a new life and new ways of living?
To be honest, I can say that it was hard because to move to another country and to start to
build your career, to start to make new friends and the new environment, it's hard and you
need to step out of your comfort zone.
But the only thing that gave me, like, let me go through it is my great desire and my
goals.
So firstly, when I moved to London, it was a little bit difficult because everything
was new, new friends, new university, new place and you should adapt to new reality.
But now I can tell that I'm really, really grateful for this experience in my life, one
of the most important and I'm really happy to be here and to gain a lot of experience,
to meet new people and just to develop myself in fashion industry.
So I'm really grateful to my friends who supported me in this kind of difficult decision for
me and I'm grateful to myself that I did this step for my future.
And yeah, I mean, if you really want to do something, you should go for it and just take
a risk.
I love that.
And I want you please to speak a bit more about that.
A lot of people want things, but they don't take risk.
What do you believe or what motivates you to take risks when many people just stop and
they live a life that is average without much risk taking?
So I think the thing that motivated me the most is my desire to develop and learn new
things.
So I just wanted to achieve all my goals in fashion industry and to take my, to put myself
in a new environment and just to grow.
So basically for me, it was hard, but I had a greatest support of my family and friends,
which is really important, and then I had this big goal to develop and that's it.
One day I just made this decision to move and to start build my career in fashion industry.
And I think if people, they do not take the risk and they don't do this step, so maybe
they should think that maybe they are following the wrong goal or the wrong idea.
So I mean, if you feel that you cannot do something and something is really scary for
you, so maybe this is the wrong way to take.
Thank you so much, Arianna.
This was my privilege, my honor, such a wonderful conversation and a way to understand you on
a human level.
I wish you success.
I wish you to transform the fashion world, and I know that Ukraine is proud of you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure for me to have this nice conversation.
Thank you for doing this, for doing what are you doing.
Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure for me as well.
