Galina and Nikolay Biryukov called their collection the “Silver Ring of Russia”, after the Russian Federation’s new cross-regional initiative that sets out to establish the next grand historic, cultural and tourist route. The first being the famed “Golden Ring of Russia”, of course, spanning more than 700 kilometres of the circular theme route connecting old Russian cities with numerous architectural, religious and cultural sites to the northeast of Moscow.
Similarly, the Silver Ring connects cathedrals, churches, monasteries, palaces, gardens, fortresses and museums gravitating towards the northwest, where the magnificent St. Petersburg dominates over the River Neva and the Baltic Sea.
The Biryukovs use a stylised imperial crown as the leading decorative element of their collection. They had introduced the imperial crown motif, the most exclusive insignia of all Tzar’s regalia, already in their previous collections, e.g. in Top Secret (SS 2018) and Parfum (FW 2018-19), both presented at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. In this context, the Silver Ring takes up the thread of their fashion story.
Another echo or Russian history resonates in the collection’s carefully selected colour scale. It references Galina Biryukova’s roots, as she comes from the region where the iconic painter Dionysius created his famous monumental masterpiece in the early 16th century. The colour palette spanning gold and sky blue to purple and olive green shades deliberately references some of the painters of Russian symbolism.
The couple point out the in*uence of Mikhail Nesterov (1862-1942) and Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927). The latter was nicknamed the “Russian Rubens” for his fondness of depicting full-bodied women. Another source of inspiration for the designers was the work of Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900), one of the masters of Russian landscape painting.
The Silver Ring collection is a distillate of all of the above – the turbulent history, stunning architecture, breathtaking landscapes, art and religion, nostalgia and melancholy.
Galina Birjukova je diplomirala v Modnem laboratoriju Slave Zajceva v Moskvi. Leta 2016 je na tekmovanju poklicnih modnih oblikovalcev prejela nagrado imenovano po Nadeždi Petrovni Lamanovi, oblikovalki in kostumografinji, kreatorki na carskem dvoru, po ruski revoluciji pa tudi utemeljiteljici sovjetske mode.
Nikolaj Birjukov je slikar, grafični umetnik, fotograf in modni ustvarjalec, hkrati pa tudi restavrator. Diplomiral je na restavratorski šoli v St. Peterburgu in kot restavrator monumentalnih slik služboval v tamkajšnjem muzeju Ermitaž. Leta 1995 je diplomiral tudi na pedagoški univerzi v St. Peterburgu, na oddelku za umetnost, kjer je kasneje poučeval zgodovino umetnosti. Zakonca Galina in Nikolaj Birjukov sta ustanovitelja blagovne znamke KGB (inicialke njunih imen: Kolja Galja Birjukov), s katero sta doslej predstavila devet kolekcij na tednu mode Mercedes-Benz in Estet v Moskvi, na tednu mode v Minsku v Belorusiji in na drugih modnih dogodkih. Od leta 2019 je KGB tudi uradna znamka agencije “Models Runway Italy” iz Milana.
Galina in Nikolaj Birjukov v svojih projektih pod znamko KGB raziskujeta možnosti umestitve ruske zgodovine umetnosti v sodobni kontekst, pri čemer ju najbolj fascinira obdobje ruskega umetniškega simbolizma.
