Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised that in Russia there is still life in the sphere of light, “light” industry. And what a life! I have noted some brands for myself and will buy their products at the first opportunity. To be fair, I will say that several brands are from Ukraine, and one is from Kazakhstan.
Of course, our comrades are still far from the giants and leaders of the fashion industry. But the one who walks will master the road. Therefore, we wish the guys from Russia who make clothes, shoes, accessories and other products good luck and support them with the ruble.
Gottlieb Schwartz
In the title photo of the post there is a young Moscow brand “Gottlieb Schwartz”, which produces inexpensive but very pleasant loafers, moccasins and monks.
Two childhood friends Andrey Zhakevich and Kirill Savchenko are working on Gottlieb Schwartz. According to them, they always loved good shoes, but could not find decent examples in Moscow. Before starting their own brand, Andrei and Kirill worked as shoemaker apprentices, then orders began for friends and acquaintances. That's how the idea came to start my own business.
You can buy Gottlieb Schwartz shoes at the Chop-Chop hairdresser (http://chopchop.me) on Patriarch's Ponds. The cost of one pair is on average 7,000 rubles.
St. Petersburg resident Vladimir, creator of the shoe brand Afour (read as “hey-fo”). Several people work under Vladimir, and together with them he realizes his ideas - he creates all possible men's shoes: sneakers, brogues, slip-ons, sneakers, and so on.
Apparel Bear Company
A Russian streetwear project aimed at representatives of active subcultures and people who are simply not indifferent to good clothes. Inspired by the monsters of sneaker culture, the guys decided to create their own brand.
The concept of the Apparel Bear Company is simple - to make practical items that will fit well into any wardrobe.
Compass
Shoe brand from Kharkov. High-quality shoes, which are produced in very small batches. But the assortment at Tsirkul is varied.
Ali Saulidi
Ali Saulidi is 22 years old. He made his first pair at the age of 17, while a student at the Kyiv College of Light Industry. Since then, not a month has passed without another new couple.
Classic garments of decent quality. The creator of the streetwear brand SH"U Andrey Kravtsov says that he has not completed any special educational institutions, I studied all the processes of sewing, making patterns, and materials on my own. Now he controls everything from sewing a garment to selling it.
Another header photo. The creator of the brand, Andrei, says that the idea of creating his own brand of street clothes came to his mind completely spontaneously, and it all ended with the creators of the brand using borrowed money to smuggle things on a ship. Now the company's products can be purchased in more than seven cities of Russia or ordered by parcel to any city.
On average, a T-shirt costs 700 rubles, a sweatshirt - 1,500, jackets, depending on the season, from 2,000 to 5,000. You can buy “Sword” in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Izhevsk, Bryansk, Ufa, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Murmansk and Kyiv. They are sent to other cities by parcels.
Buy: https://vk.com/sword_shop or https://www.facebook.com/mech.clothing
Ditch Clothing
Streetwear that borders on sportswear, as well as some nice hoodies and anoraks.
The average cost of T-shirts is 20 euros, jackets are 75 euros, hoodies/sweatshirts are 45–50 euros. Currently Ditch Clothing is sold in KapKan stores in Kyiv ( http://vk.com/kapkanshop), Slim Shop in Odessa ( http://vk.com/club26270325), Whales in St. Petersburg ( http://vk.com/whalesshop). Very soon the brand's clothing will appear in Moscow, Kharkov and Sevastopol.
Buy: http://madeinkiev.com
Sailor Streetwear
High-quality street and traditional men's clothing with a fairly diverse range.
They fit a full set of clothes (jacket, sweater, T-shirt and trousers) into a small collection, which some companies do not do, producing two sweatshirts and a couple of T-shirts. They pay great attention to the cut and quality of each item and often wear samples themselves first to understand how it fits and how long the item will last.
Buy: http://vk.com/sailorstreetwear
Black Light Magic
American style streetwear.
Laziness
The Kiev brand "Len" makes high-quality men's clothing, and the assortment includes both clothing and accessories - bags, key chains and even bow ties. I would especially like to mention leather accessories.
Approximate prices: T-shirts 19-15 euros, parka - 90, leather briefcase - 90-150, shoes - 90-120, shirt - 50.
You can order things by contacting the creators via Vkontakte ( https://vk.com/sevesimplestyle) or Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/%D0%9B%D0%95%D0%9D%D0%AC/514393498600673).
Ray Button
Traditional leather bags, wallets and other accessories are of excellent quality.
Neither rain, nor snow, nor sun are afraid of accessories. They only become better and more interesting from active travel around Moscow. Every day, leather bags acquire features and markings unique to their owner.
Select and buy: http://www.raybutton.ru
Handwers
Cases, wallets and bags from a brand based in Moscow.
The creators carefully approach the release of each product and spend a lot of time on it. Between the drawing of the very first sketch and the release of the model, two weeks, or maybe six months, may pass.
Buy: http://www.handwers.com/accessories
Classic backpacks and bags.
Experiments by an industrial designer on the forms and possible contents of seemingly ordinary notebooks and notebooks.
What a Moleskine! Many ideas need to be put on paper, paper should not interfere with this process, the medium should successfully balance between functionality and love for detail.
NB! from sunny Almaty. They sell notebooks through their website. The offline store is located on the street. Furmanova, 192, as can be seen in the “Contacts” section on the website. There are also telephones there. Information about the possibility of purchasing sketches in Moscow and St. Petersburg will appear on the website.
He talked about what family production is like in Italy, how to promote a shoe brand and what difficulties exist.
Origins
I started making shoemaking about five years ago. The first attempts were not easy, since in Russia the shoemaker profession is dying out, and there are only a few good craftsmen from whom one can learn the skills of hand-made shoe production. I tried to study on my own, studying Soviet literature and watching videos on Youtube, and also worked as an apprentice for a Russian shoemaker. Afterwards he went to Italy to study at Stefano Bemera’s studio, where he then worked for another year.
Upon returning to Russia, the idea arose to create my own brand. The name was not chosen by chance: the name Gottlieb Schwartz was borrowed from the classic work “The Countess of Rudolstadt” by the French writer George Sand, in which the character of the same name was obsessed with making shoes.
Gottlieb Schwarz operating system
I considered the production of shoes only with a stitching method for attaching the sole - such a sole will last for many years. However, I was faced with the fact that it is almost impossible to do this in Russia. The fact is that we have only a few shoe factories, but almost all of these factories work with the glue method - it’s cheaper and easier. It is for this reason that it is easier and more profitable for us to produce collections in Italy.
The first collection featured only men's shoes. The women's one appeared only in the third collection - we did not make any serious changes, we simply made a last and a size range from 36 to 40. The design remained the same.
Initially, I spent a lot of time creating what I thought was the perfect last. When creating it, all the parameters and features of the average Russian’s foot were taken into account. I also had to work hard on the patterns.
Now the process from sketch to finished sample takes 3-4 weeks. First we draw sketches. Then a fashion designer is involved, who develops patterns. After that, we sew samples - 6-8 pairs of models. With these models we make lookbooks, brand books and other photographic materials. Then we send offers to buyers. We launch everything into production only after we receive orders.
In Italy we create collections in a small family production. We don't have one factory where we place the order. The creation process involves about ten different operations and, accordingly, ten different production facilities, which are located in the city of Montegranaro. Here, every family has some small business related to the creation of shoes. All this functions like a big mechanism; families communicate with each other. We buy leather from one family, from a second we cut out and sew the blanks, from a third we tighten everything onto a block, and so on. We cooperate with friendly production, which helps us control this entire multi-step process.
We buy leather in Italy. There is a store there that represents one leather manufacturer. At the production itself, it is difficult to buy several skins, since they are sold in packs of ten pieces. One skin makes about eight pairs of shoes. We prefer to buy one skin at a time, but in different colors. This store has both Italian and French leather. We often choose French leather, as it is sometimes superior to Italian leather in quality.
Gottlieb Schwarz Spring/Summer 2016
Difficulties
There is no infrastructure for shoe production in Russia. The process of creating shoes requires six specialists: a block maker, a fashion designer, a cutter, an assembler, a seamstress and a shoemaker. It is still very difficult to debug production in Russia.
It is expensive to have a full production cycle. Large factories do not work with young brands because their volumes are small. In Italy we quietly produce 15 samples and a collection. In China, for example, no one would meet us halfway, knowing that we would order a hundred pairs.
We work with Europe and because of this we are highly dependent on the exchange rate. In addition, the Italians tend to delay deliveries. Over time, we learned to adapt to them. If they say it takes a month to produce, then we budget for at least two, because most likely they won't do everything on the same day.
Promotion
At the very beginning there was no specific brand concept - I made shoes for myself, friends and acquaintances. Then I began to communicate with people at various markets, read reviews and comments about my shoes. This is how the picture appeared target audience– mostly men from 22 to 50 years old who value classics and comfort.
Gottlieb Schwarz AW 15
Initially, we sold collections through our workshop in Moscow. Thanks to this, we have formed our own loyal audience, which is active on social networks and is always waiting for our sales. Starting this year, we have been cooperating with the Tsvetnoy department store.
In addition to releasing collections, we do custom tailoring. We also conduct shoe making courses every three months. Word of mouth works well here: people talk about us, tell their friends and family.
In the coming year we plan to continue working with Russian retailers, we are discussing cooperation with several more large stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in the future, of course, we want to enter the European market.
Shoemaker Gottlieb Schwartz is the hero of George Sand's novel The Countess of Rudolstadt, and Andrey Zhakevich (creator of the Gottlieb Schwarz brand) is a journalist by training and a shoemaker by vocation.
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« Almost 5 years passed between my first steps as a shoemaker and the creation of the brand. It’s not easy to learn how to make shoes in Russia; in our country this profession is dying out and there are only a few good craftsmen from whom you can learn skills. I tried to study on my own, studying Soviet literature and watching videos on YouTube, then I became an apprentice to a shoemaker, and then went to Italy to train in the studio of maestro Stefano Bemera, where I subsequently stayed to work for another year. When he returned to Russia, he founded his own business. Gottlieb Schwarz for me is both work and hobby at the same time“says Andrey.
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The brand has existed for about a year and a half and produces both ready-made shoe collections and custom-made models based on individual measurements. Each pair, made by hand, takes about 120 hours of work; machine production is used only partially and only when developing a large batch of a ready-made collection, such as, for example, for the Tsvetnoy department store. All materials are purchased in Italy. The pride of the brand is an orthopedic last, designed specifically for Russian consumers, whose feet are slightly wider than those of the average European.
The editors of FALOVERS appreciated the quality of the resulting shoes; in general, we really like it when cool players like Bulleit help start-up brands. In our realities, this is truly an excellent opportunity for a young project to express itself and receive a variety of support, from high-quality filming to media coverage.
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Andrey Zhakevich hopes that the collaboration with Bulleit will be an important step in the development of Gottlieb Schwarz and will change the attitude of consumers towards the domestic manufacturer.
“Our joint collaboration with Made For Bulleit allowed me to bring my bold ideas to life and expand the boundaries of the ordinary. I made a bold experiment with leather and bourbon, which I had been dreaming about for a long time.", – shared Andrey.
