2023 Author: Katelyn Chandter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:08
Sergey Lukovsky is a recognized authority in the fashion world - a person who has created a fundamentally new approach to fashion shows.
Fashionable St. Petersburg has recently received a new life. The director of the fashion show and the owner of the modeling agency Sergey Lukovsky managed to transform the shows with non-standard faces and innovative moves.
Over the past 10 years, Sergei Lukovsky has been a recognized authority in the fashion world - a person who has created a fundamentally new approach to fashion shows, who knows how to turn a fashion show into a truly bright event.
Sergei recently turned 39. He was born in Shlisselburg and five years ago was a soloist of the St. Petersburg State Male Ballet Valery Mikhailovsky, where he came without a special education.
Now Lukovsky is completely devoted to fashion. At the same time, in Russia he is one of the few who does this: he is a production director of a fashion show. Sergei has 14 seasons of Defile on the Neva, where he was the main director of the project, almost all seasons of Fashion Troopers, the Opium show in the Cadet Corps, the Sela show at the Mumiy-Troll concert, the creation of the Fashion School program on MTV, his own a modeling agency, staging shows for Estel and Elegance, designer shows of almost all clothing designers in St. Petersburg, British Fashion Days and much more.
Sergey Lukovsky and Alexander Nagorny, photo: LMA
- Is it true that no one in St. Petersburg is doing what you do anymore, and you are one of a kind?
- In fact, not only in St. Petersburg. Many designers from abroad, coming here, also do not understand who I am and what the essence of my work is. For example, when Philip Tracy, the great London designer who makes hats for the entire royal family, came to visit, the entire team that worked on the show was introduced to him, and he began to express his wishes to each individually. And the guys answer him: "No, no, talk to him" and point at me. Tracy turned crimson, was insanely nervous and began to ask who I was, that he only needed to talk to me about all the issues of organizing the show …
In the end, Tracy never understood why I was responsible for everything. He also did not understand why I do choreography, casting, and everything, everything, everything. Indeed, there is no name for my profession. It is impossible to call her somehow. It could be a project director, because I handle all organizational issues. It can also be a casting director, because I am often engaged in the selection of models. It could also be a choreographer, because I work with girls on the catwalk. It so happened that I do absolutely everything, and my whole life is an accident.
I got into ballet quite by accident. I have no education, but nevertheless I became a ballet soloist and danced for 15 years, went on tour. There were numbers with Volochkova, soloists of the Mariinsky. Also, by chance, I took up choreography for figure skaters, began to stage separate numbers. He worked with Moskvina, Anton Sikhrulidze and Elena Berezhnaya when they were still skating. Naturally, I also took up fashion absolutely by accident. Once in some salon 20 years ago I was offered to do some kind of show. It was the only "Lux" salon at the time. I did one show, then I was invited to conduct choreography in a model school … So it all started spinning.
- What is the innovation in your work?
- This is actually a very interesting and very thankless job. And why? Let's take some kind of theater, a performance that is rehearsed throughout the season, the year. Everything takes a very long time to prepare: the scenery, the light score, the actors are preparing for a long time. Then, when the performance is included in the repertoire, it can go on for a year, two, three. With us, everything happens differently - only once, and this has its own specificity. Nobody has the right to make mistakes. And why? If there is some kind of overlap in the theater, then it can be corrected in the next show. We do not have such an opportunity.
I will never forget Tanya Kotegova when we made her a show called "Baltic Coast". The entire arena was covered with kilometers of canvas. They brought 4 tons of sand, into which they buried the stumps, laid out boardwalk, installed wooden boats, I hung the logs on the chains from the ceiling. That is, there was a complete feeling of the Baltic coast with its nature. After the end of the show, Tanya literally cried when she saw that the dismantling of the scenery began. Because everything - oops - and passed, and never again! We will never show this anywhere else! Only here and only now.
Each time I have to be different, otherwise I will not be in demand. I do this business because every time I have to surpass myself. If I don’t do this, then I will be of no use to anyone.
- Do you consider yourself an iconic personality of St. Petersburg?
- I do not know. Maybe yes. Indeed, a lot of people know me. Even then, when I was dancing, our troupe had performances in the October hall, I had some fans. But even now, if you take the projects "Defile on the Neva", Estelle's show, up to one and a half thousand people come to the hall. These viewers probably know me. Again, we have a modeling agency, now it is about 240 people. Plus the former models. And, probably, these people also know me, remember, love (smiles).
- How did you come from ballet to your own modeling agency?
- We are 4 years old, but we have a year in two. Working off the season is a huge load. The creation of the agency was a natural step, everyone said: “Lukovsky, come on. Lukovsky, why not? " We went to this for a long time. Now I am glad that our models are in demand abroad. They advertise TopShop, Valentino, open men's Versace show. Our models were approved by Donatella Versace herself.
- What is your attitude towards young designers, do they turn to you?
- Yes. Of course, not so much to me, but to my agency, they need models. But I'm sorry, I can't mark any names. Yes, we have a "rag", there is a "fly", but what they teach there … When the guys leave to study in London, Milan, they come with their luggage. Again, we need money to develop in this area. And who will invest them? No one. The state does not support young designers in our country. There are no government programs, so there are no young designers. We have an idea for a project to support young designers, we will do it soon. This will be a monthly event, after which, I hope, I will be able to name new names. At the end of April there will be the first presentation of young guys kazimov_gracheva.
Sergey Lukovsky and Alexander Nagorny, photo: LMA
- "Defile on the Neva" will start soon. Can you somehow call it your brainchild?
- Rather, I took part in its development. But I don't work there anymore. This is how the circumstances developed. In "Defile on the Neva" they refused the position of the chief director of the project. Now every designer will choose his own director … But, of course, 90% of designers have already chosen me. I worked at Defile for about 14 seasons. A lot was invested, I am very grateful to Ira Ashkenadze (organizer of the project "Defile on the Neva" - the main St. Petersburg fashion week - editor's note), that she allowed me to work there, trusted me. But you always have to start something new …
- Do you promote Petersburg in your work?
- The fact is that Peter is an amazing city. It is an organism that lives on its own. Separate from the state, from the capital. What is happening in St. Petersburg, there is no such thing anywhere else. I don’t mean to say that I am doing something amazing. But when people come from abroad, when they see what has been done in St. Petersburg, they are shocked. There is such a company called Elegance, I have been working with them for a long time. And somehow the director of development of the company came and saw our usual ordinary show. Can you imagine? She came to the dressing room in tears. She cried and thanked. She also said that in Germany they never have such a level and there is no such moral saturation. People from abroad come here and see what they could not even imagine. Peter lives his own life. It's different. It is very intelligent, intelligent. I am shocked by Tanya Kotegova, who has been working for decades. This style can only be in St. Petersburg. And for me, the face of our city is Tanya. She makes insanely intelligent clothes.
- What do you think Petersburg of the future?
- It's hard to say, sometimes my heart bleeds when I see some new buildings in the center. This is not close to me. I don't like innovations in architecture. Peter must remain Peter. Peter, be Peter! I like the dirty scary shabby walls of the houses. I like our gray swamp, heavy clouds. Again, nowhere, I once flew around the world, nowhere else is there such a heavy sky. There are no such low clouds anywhere else. Only here the plane emerges from the clouds directly to the take-off site. I like our grandmothers, our dirty Gorokhovaya … I sometimes get the feeling that St. Petersburg has always been so dirty. And this is our flavor. Yes, it's hard here, but this is what attracts us.