Maria Tsigal is a success story. From art avant-garde to sports glamor
Maria Tsigal (January 3 (?), Moscow, USSR) is a Russian fashion designer and stylist.
Masha Tsigal was born into a family of artists Alexander Tsigal and Anna Birshtein. Her father is a famous sculptor, her mother’s paintings hang in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, and her grandmother Nina Vatolina is a famous master of propaganda graphics (it was she who created the famous 1941 poster “Don’t Talk!” One grandfather is Max Birshtein, a famous painter, the other is Vladimir Tsigal is a monumental sculptor, the author of many monuments in Moscow.
Since childhood, Masha loved to come up with outfits, especially dressing up her mother, and also decorating the house for the holidays. But as she admits, she never wanted to become an artist, because drawing gifts for everyone’s birthday or New Year is too hard work.
After school she entered the Moscow Art and Industrial Institute named after S.G. Stroganova, however, dropped out after three years. The last straw was being assigned to an internship at Gus Khrustalny at a factory that produces dinnerware, because working with glass, she dreamed of something completely different.
The parents were unhappy with this action of their daughter, especially since she preferred active trips to Moscow parties to study. By the decision of her parents, Masha moved to a separate apartment, but this was the defining moment in her life.
The beginning of Masha Tsigal’s creative path was her acquaintance with the outrageous designer Andrei Bartenev in 1995, after which active development in the field of avant-garde art began. Since there was not a lot of money at that time, Maria, together with her boyfriend, melted her mother’s old vinyl records at home into costume parts. This was Maria’s first collection “Let’s be like the Sun.”
The avant-garde show was organized at the Erimitage club. Models in black tights wore designs made of shiny plates. At the end of the show, Maria came out with a sun backpack made of plastic covered with gold foil. The next day, the Kommersant newspaper published an article “The Sun has risen in the Hermitage.” After which Maria receives a prize for this collection at the Assembly of Untamed Fashion in Riga from the hands of the French couturier Paco Rabanne.
In 1996, at the Metelitsa club, the then popular singer Lika Star appeared on the podium without underwear in a transparent dress with children's drawings: dogs, cats, etc. It was a presentation of the semi-avant-garde collection “Place Tsigal”. Then, due to problems with fabrics and the fashion for dark colors, in 1997 Masha decided to create the next collection in black. Together with Station 106.8, which was popular at the time, they organized a show on Pushkin Square, which had to be closed due to the scale of the event. It was the “Favorites of the Moon” - gothic, with original hairstyles and models with bleached faces and black eyes. This was followed by the birth of the already quite wearable “Exhibitionists” collection.
For new ideas and a change of scenery, Maria goes to study at the London College of Fashion , Faculty of Fashion Marketing. Masha was the only Russian on the course. Andrew Logan, whom she met in Riga, helped her get a job as an assistant at Zandra Rhodes. Masha did all the work that was assigned to her - sent faxes, sat on a mannequin, ordered pizza, even cut and sewed. Then she was hired by Mr. Pearl is a master of corsets, the man with the smallest waist in the world.
In 2000, Masha received a diploma in Fashion marketing and returned to Russia. The London theme of corsets could not help but influence Maria and the creation of the “Maria Tsigal” collection, which was dedicated to the manias of the 20th century: dresses with corsets, transparent laced bodices, openwork lingerie. “Forever Love” collection presented at the first Moscow Russian Fashion Week. At the same time, Maria joined the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation.
The Masha Tsigal Design International brand appears in 2003: Masha rents an apartment on Petrovka and buys three sewing machines - this is how the “XXX” (Triple X) in the “sports glamor” style appears.
At this time, Masha is actively working with the musicians “Disco Crash”, Dima Bilan, “Bi-2”, Decl, Aurora (Muz-TV), Tanya Gevorkyan, and also makes costumes for the play “The Last Don Juan”, directed by M. Goreva and for the play “Sirano”, directed by Viktor Shamirov. It was Masha Tsigal who came up with the image of schoolgirls for the Tatu group.
In 2004, Whitney Houston came to Moscow on tour and appeared on the Kremlin stage in a white velvet tracksuit from Masha Tsigal. “I went to her room in Balchug, she hugged me and said thank you.” Another star who appreciated the clothes from Masha Tsigal was Albert, then Prince of Monaco. “He saw a suit at one of the oligarchs’ parties, immediately found me and asked me to make the same one.”
In recent years, Masha Tsigal has been participating in various interesting projects. So, following the creation of a design for the yacht Atlantis 55 (the interior decoration of the yacht is complemented by embroidery, rhinestones, appliqué, thermal printing and silk-screen printing in gray-white-pink velvet), Maria presents her own line of Hand Printed By Masha Tsigal sneakers.
At the invitation of Google, she participated in the development of the design of personal iGoogle pages for google.ru users. “In principle, I am interested in participating in new, creative projects with a powerful idea. Especially when it comes to large-scale and international ones, as in the case of Google.”
She started a new project - the production of carpets by Masha Tsigal.
Today Masha Tsigal is the author of more than 20 clothing collections.
The collections focus on sportiness and sexuality. Spring-summer 2008: crimson tunic, skinny jeans, velvet cocktail dresses embroidered with rhinestones.
In 2011, the collection was presented at the Children's Fashion Week at Yakimanka: bright colors and velvet tracksuits from Masha Tsigal, but in a children's version.
The main theme of the spring-summer 2013 collection is Soviet-era posters created by Masha’s grandmother, Nina Vatolina. But the poster theme only sets the style of the collection, the color scheme and images of Soviet propaganda. Small patterns on clothes are reminiscent of printed chintz, which was very popular in the USSR.
Masha continues to actively work on seasonal collections, and is also passionate about developing a creative hobby - Dj Masha Tsigal, which, according to Maria, brings good income. The passion for “DJing” happened by chance, about five years ago, Maria’s friend Dmitry Ashman, at that time the art director of the Zeppelin club and bass guitarist of the Bravo group, suggested recording a dj-set.
“We will teach you everything, and you will play the music that you like.” So it turned out that Masha Tsigal’s favorite music is to the taste of the Russian club audience.
Interesting facts from the interview:
“I was embarrassed for a long time that I had such a family. On the one hand, this is, of course, good. On the other hand, any success you have is perceived as “well, of course, with such parents...”. This is a shame. That’s why I didn’t tell anyone what my relatives were doing for a very long time...”
“...I didn’t have a TV until I was 20... my mother didn’t care about TV - she was either in the workshop or at parties... We had a radio playing, we had turntables. And it never occurred to anyone to ask if I needed a TV. At school I had a terrible complex: everyone was discussing the midshipmen, but I didn’t even know who they were. Then I realized that this was cool...”
“I am proud that I know all the intricacies of my business: and this is not only the technological and creative process of creating a model, but also accounting, advertising, market marketing... if you yourself do not understand these issues, you simply will not be able to calmly engage in creativity.”
Complex solution for a non-standard kitchen
After installing the rounded partitions, the kitchen turned out to be non-standard and very small. The room, with an area of 8 m2, acquired a complex, almost triangular shape. It was quite difficult to arrange such a space, so the main emphasis was placed on furniture.
A snow-white set of 20 mm thick MDF with glossy facades was ordered from one of the domestic factories. Handles were abandoned immediately, since they would become a significant obstacle in a small space. The fronts of the cabinets are covered with acrylic plastic and edged on all sides using a special technology with exclusive edges made in Germany. Thanks to this, the furniture is reliably protected from moisture penetration.
The apron and countertop are made of artificial stone
A built-in hood was installed above the hob
Tall snow-white cabinets with integrated handles visually increased the kitchen space. The room no longer looks so small and non-standard; in addition, there are enough places to store kitchen utensils and household appliances. The working surface was equipped on the left side, continuing it under the window sill. The sink was installed near the window, from which a wonderful view of the old city opens.
The kitchen has a stainless steel undermount sink
Cabinets are chromed with German Rehau profile
Masha placed a small collection of souvenirs on open shelves
The semicircular wall in front of the kitchen was decorated with animated cartoons in black and white
Masha Tsigal
Last night, the famous fashion designer Masha Tsigal said goodbye to the fashion of the outgoing twentieth century, showing all the most beloved, beautiful, feminine and sexy.
Everything that women loved to wear from clothes and underwear, everything thanks to which they rose to the heights of femininity, sexuality and seductiveness.
Every time a woman gets dressed, she thinks about men, and Masha, when creating a collection, thought about men, but created for women!
To create an atmosphere of luxury and hidden vice, the legendary oldest Moscow restaurant “Yar” was chosen.
In the noise of social life, in a cloud of smoke from the finest women's cigarettes "Vogue", the orange aroma of "Cuantro" liqueur and the sweetness of "Korkunov" sweets, the Moscow elite said goodbye to the fashion of the outgoing century
, remembering lace-up corsets, thin stockings and lace underwear, satin bows, deep necklines and pleated skirts, pink glittery lipstick and golden curls.
They remembered all the bright and feminine touches of the twentieth century... All the manias of the outgoing century were demonstrated not by models, as is usually the case, but by dancers from the Dolls club. In the best traditions of the past, they showed all the luxury of the female body: beautiful hips, thin waist and sexy breasts.
The luxury of movement and the seductiveness of gait..... During the creation of the collection, still in the golden and warm autumn, Masha shared her idea with us.
— My new collection is “Mania by Tsigal”. I'm just sick of this mania.
I'm in love with this mania! I have a real relationship with this collection. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
After all, fashion is like a luxurious lover who needs to buy something all the time, take her somewhere... The whole story. In the summer in Moscow, I came up with this idea - to show all the manias of the 20th century. There is a shortage of good clothes in Moscow. We know how much branded clothing costs in the West and in Moscow. This is not a justified pricing policy. And clothes for the middle class are represented by only a few lines, but you don’t want everyone to wear the same thing. Too limited choice. But beautiful, fashionable, secular, confident, successful girls need something different. And this is something else I want to give them. I use excellent fabrics, cut, good quality. In this collection I offer clothes from delicate knitted blouses with mother-of-pearl buttons to formal suits. I suggest searching and finding something of your own. What concept or theme do you have in your new collection?
I offer two fairly stereotypical images of women that men really like.
This is a light, soft caramel girl-nymphet and sexy emancipe. There is a lot of scope here for mixing these styles, experimenting and creating new options, space for creativity and the search for individuality. After all, there is always a third option, and not necessarily, many associate themselves with something else. Therefore, I propose mixing elements of the collection, details, so that a new one is born, exactly your image based on my collection. There will be a huge number of details of an evening dress, underwear, accessories. There will be a lot of interesting and unusual things. I suggest playing with your image, playing with details. The rules for this game will be your personal imagination. I offer mania for femininity!
And now the collection is ready and presented to Moscow!
“We must call things by their proper names, mine,” said Masha at a press conference before the show. So what are these manias, what are they? So, we present: Mania Tsigal is the most enjoyable Mania of the century, embodied in the clothes of a fashion designer. Delusions of grandeur
- evening dresses of a strict English style with provocative details.
Dizziness with success
- clothes for the office, in which it is convenient to earn money and flirt with business partners.
Nymphomania
- underwear for teenage girls and sophisticated women.
Fetishism - accessories and various pleasant little things from the collection. Masha Tsigal brought together all the manias, all the sexiest things of the century
with flirty petticoats, stockings and corsets, Soviet schoolgirl dresses, pleated skirts, false white collars and exciting short medical gowns.
A little vice combined with good taste and upbringing, a gentle look and a smile.
At the end of the show, the representative triumphantly presented Masha with luxurious purple lace embroidered with small flowers. It is from these precious and finest laces that the next Machine collection will be made, again feminine, expensive and elegant. Ekaterina Vladykina
