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The year of silk euphoria |
Viktorina Savelieva. October 2022 |
The label of a new business registered in 1993 Kharkiv, Ukraine
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Below - images of its production and story about it. |
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This story continuation. Encouraged by my memories, on November 2022 I have made a blouse as a gift for my friend's birthday (the picture on the left) |
| It is known that the most indelible mark is
left by events that happened during catastrophes, which make
them unusually bright. Maybe that's why one of my life
experiments, which I want to talk about, seems to me one of the
most successful in my life. Let's go back, to the beginning of
1993. The collapse of the Soviet Union. Perestroika. The salary
becomes symbolic due to the rapid growth of inflation.
Businesses are falling apart, including the heavy industry
giants we work for. Everything collapses. There are no laws
anymore. Everything is in the hands of the former Communist
party and bureaucratic leaders, who have partially gone
to a dip hiding. Only they can pay a salary that can make a living.
Crime is on the rise. So far, nothing terrible has happened in
our family yet, we are ready for changes and decision-making. I
described our first experiment in the previous story Out of The
Box, Called Soviet Union. It was a time for new decisions. At
the family council, we decided that we should try to find our
own business that we would like and which would be enough for
living. However, what can be done in this situation? Obviously, in the conditions of lawlessness and growing inflation, the people will spend depreciating money. Usually the first thing to develop after a disaster is trade. The "shuttle trips" with buying and reselling, described in the previous story, have already been rejected. You need to sell what you make yourself. Here the plans of the family members diverged, and the further narration applies only to me. What can I do? - I can sew! I have been sewing since the age of 14 for the whole family, enjoying every thing. Coats became suits, skirts, trousers, sundresses, bags, rugs... Outfits changed every week. Favorite entertainment was to walk along the long institute corridor supposedly on business: tsok-tsok with heels in one direction, tsok-tsok in the other, catching men's admiring glances. Fabric stores were comparable to museums. Each fabric was palpated; and blouses, coats, dresses, and again: admiring glances of men arose in the imagination. Fabrics were my dream, my passion. Here it is - the cherished goal-dream: sewing fashionable clothes for sales! The top fashion was known: dresses, blouses and suits made of shiny silk in various color combinations. I know how to cut and sew, however, I need a team of professional seamstresses working "on stream". Tasks? – Money, materials, seamstresses and sales. A small digression about my method of checking the correctness of the choice. The unfolding events immediately after the choice made, give me a sign whether to continue or not with its implementation. Believe it or not, but some force that controls the situation from the outside helps me, obviously, my Guardian Angel, who is very intelligent. My task is to make a choice, having most accurately understood what I want most of all, and then to correctly follow the “signs”. That time there was a clear sign “continue!” Judge for yourself. An absolutely incredible set of circumstances made it possible to solve the issue of "production" in three days. Events unfolded like this. People tried different options and shared the information. In the evening my husband came and told me a conversation with a certain S., the director of an advanced enterprise that had a lot of non-cash money on its account. Hearing about my adventure plans, he offered to be my sponsor. This is about money. In turn, I spent the whole day calling friends and strangers, telling my crazy idea. In the end, an endless chain led me to Evgenia Ivanovna, who later became my partner and friend. As you know, ideas are in the air. This lady was the wife of a physicist with all kinds of regalia, which did not help him in any way in this situation. She also sewed and knew a man named Zhora, the owner of a whole container of just the kind of silk that is needed. The next morning, Zhenya and I were already in Zhora's warm garage, sorting out silks. We were shocked! Shiny Indian silk in 22 colors! In addition, the smooth texture alternates with jacquard of the same shades. I put my hands into a huge chest, feel and squeeze the silk, throw it on myself and on Zhenya, select combinations and laugh hysterically, almost squealing with delight. My hands and eyes still remember those unforgettable sensations. Zhora worked in some research institute, which, naturally, was living out its last days. During his last business trip to India, being an enterprising person, he bought there cheaply and sent a batch of silkSilk had small holes in some places across the field, but with manual cutting out, this was not a big drawback. He agreed to sell the silk for non-cash money, with which he obviously knew what to do. By the evening, the silk was already in Zhenya's garage. It remained to find seamstresses. Where to begin? Naturally, from the top. We visited the best sewing workshops in the city. The same as the state institutions, they were also living out their last days. People was still coming to work by inertia, but there was no salary anymore. By the evening we had a list of about 20 contenders willing to try. I am omitting the details and, of course, the complexity of organizing the production process. Unbelievable, but by the end of the month, for the Sponsor was displayed a collection of finished products. The crown number - fashionable dimensionless blouses with various color combinations. Two-colors, four-colors, six-colors. Malevich. Rainbow. Fireworks. A dream came true! How we sold them is a separate, no less
interesting story, however, not so bright. |