Lotta Volkova

Biography

Lotta Volkova (born 1984) is a Russian fashion stylist and model. She is a fashion stylist for Miu Miu. Previously she was stylist at Vetements and Balenciaga.

== Early life and education == Volkova was born in 1984 in Vladivostok, Russia. She was named after the Led Zeppelin song "Whole Lotta Love". Her mother was a professor of physics, and her father was a sea captain. It was her mother who, from childhood, instilled in her the idea that she needed to live by her own rules. Lotta Volkova said about her mother: "She loved post-punk, the early eighties, the era of alternative rock, so I grew up in that atmosphere." It was her mother who instilled in Lotta a love of fashion - she took her twelve-year-old daughter with her on shopping trips to London and Tokyo. As Lotta Volkova admitted: "I had Prada shoes and Dior by Galliano jumpers." Early in her life she lived in an isolated region of Russia, and the internet was an important tool for her to find information. In an interview with Jina Khayyer she stated the following, "I grew up in Vladivostok, Russia, in the former USSR. We had nothing, but we had the Internet. I was obsessed with information. I was obsessed with finding things out. That is still my driving force, to find something new." When she was 17, she moved to London and enrolled in three art courses. When she was old enough, she enrolled at Central Saint Martins where she studied art and design.

== Career == While studying art and photography in London, Volkova became involved in the city's club scene and began making clothes for herself and her friends. Around 2004, she launched a label named Lotta Skeletrix, producing pieces influenced by punk, New Wave and post-punk culture. The label was stocked by boutiques including The Pineal Eye and Dover Street Market. Volkova later discontinued the label and moved to Paris in 2008 to concentrate on styling. In Paris, Volkova began working with Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy. She later met Demna Gvasalia and joined Vetements from the label's second season and first runway presentation. Contemporary profiles described her role at Vetements as extending beyond runway styling to casting, fittings and creation of individual looks. She also appeared as a model in the label's shows. After Demna became artistic director of Balenciaga, Volkova worked on his early collections for the house and consulted on its casting and runway presentations. Her collaborations with both Vetements and Balenciaga ended in 2017. During the same period, she worked with labels including Sies Marjan and Mulberry, and styled editorial projects for magazines including Dazed, i-D, Document Journal and 032c. In 2020, she collaborated with Adidas on a collection of ready-to-wear clothing and accessories. During Nicola Brognano's tenure as creative director of Blumarine, Volkova styled a number of the label's collections. Her styling of its Fall/Winter 2021 and Spring/Summer 2022 shows accompanied Brognano's revival of Blumarine's early-2000s visual codes. She continued styling the house's runway presentations through at least its Autumn/Winter 2023 collection. Volkova's first work with Miu Miu was the label's Autumn/Winter 2021 show. She subsequently became a consultant across its collections and styled its runway shows and advertising campaigns. Fashion-industry coverage identified her styling as one factor in Miu Miu's renewed visibility, particularly following the widely publicized cropped sweater and micro-miniskirt look from its Spring/Summer 2022 collection. In 2022, she launched her first collection with Jean Paul Gaultier.

=== False association with Balenciaga campaign === In 2022 she was wrongly associated with a controversial ad campaign by Balenciaga. The work was heavily criticized for its depiction of children holding BDSM-themed teddy bears, as well as for featuring text from the federal statute the United States v. Williams (2008). Volkova received significant criticism for her involvement with the brand, as well as for previous Instagram posts she shared which depicted gothic and occult-themed photographs and artwork. A photograph of a model carrying two blood-soaked dolls during a runway show was widely circulated at the time and alleged to be Volkova, though this was later disproven, as the photographs were attributed to be that of an unnamed model taken during the 2016 China Fashion Week. It was subsequently revealed that Volkova had not worked with Balenciaga since 2017, and had no involvement with the ad campaign in question. In a press release, a representative for Volkova stated that of course "she condemns the abuse of children in any form" and further adding "Lotta Volkova has not worked with Balenciaga or its team since 2017 and she has in no way participated in the brand's recent Instagram or advertising campaigns."

== References ==

== External links == Official website https://www.vogue.com/article/future-of-fashion-shows-lotta-volkova