Masha Popova is Finding Velocity

Real Talk with the Ukrainian Designer About Her First Runway Show, Inspiration, and the Industry

Theories suggest that recurring dreams are related to an unresolved challenge in one’s life—a tension, a conflict, or a desire. I am asking Masha Popova about her dreams. “I don’t really remember my dreams. Sometimes I remember falling, because that’s when I always wake up,” she says. “But sometimes I start running, sort of fast, and then I jump in the air and I’m flying. I remember running, flying, and falling.”

It is almost irrelevant to ask someone who is living one of their dreams what they experience while asleep, but her answer conveniently amplifies the ethos behind her latest SS23 collection. Popova explains to me the attempt to create a body of work that allegorically emulates the feeling of an adrenaline rush. “That was a starting point for me,” she explains. “I just wanted to feel like I was moving fast, to forget about everything and play loud music, to be able to feel like nothing else matters.” Running, flying, and falling.Born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1991, Popova set out to study architecture, working in tandem with her studies, though unfulfilled by the monotonous nature of the survey work. She applied to Central Saint Martins and moved to London, ultimately interning with Phoebe Philo at Celine, and then at Maison Margiela. When we first speak, it’s over video call, three days out from her first-ever runway show. Her fashion career runs a similar trajectory to other CSM alumni—interning for prestigious luxury brands following the completion of a master’s degree, and being thrown head-first into an industry that’s largely inhospitable of the realities many emerging designers face: working alone or with a small team at best; humble; ambitious; broke. She is one of several emerging designers whose work reflects the no longer so subtle dialectical relationship between fashion and “real life”—with supply chain issues, war, a tanking economy, a normalized global health crisis, along with the pressures of staying afloat creatively and financially while newly in the spotlight, there is often little reason, or option, to avoid mitigating these tensions through their work. “My work is personal, so it is political,” she says.

Popova’s SS23 runway presentation offered a satisfying glimpse of garments that eschew the elegance of a butterfly (her top from last year in its likeness arguably catapulted Popova into the feeds of TikTok style enthusiasts, securing Gen Z awareness) and instead trade sweetness for grit. Denim is bleached, gathered, stitched and unstitched, washed, dyed, pleated, and emblazoned with tire treads. It suggests toughness by virtue of what the material can endure and how it can transform, tailored silhouettes connoting a feeling of graceful velocity, a bridled adrenaline rush.I spoke with Popova preshow about her creative work and industry pressures, then met her in London postshow to recap her runway debut.

How has it been preparing for your show?That's so exciting! But maybe overwhelming.I guess it makes sense, and kind of relates to how our current reality lately feels at odds with luxury fashion, like it’s hard to sustain excitement when so much else is happening in the world. How are you feeling about that, apart from preshow stress?

It's absolutely insane. It's a huge amount of work apart from actually making collections. I'm having so much drama. Stock is stuck at the border. First runway show, it's a lot.It is… also terrifying.Honestly, I’m only learning the industry now. And I still don't understand the whole thing, how it works. I didn't know what PR does until this month; I didn't really realize how so much of that works. Young designers, I don't know how they’re doing it. Now that I have a show I have a lot of people surrounding me—a creative team, people who love the brand, who are my friends and they're doing it with me for free almost, just covering expenses. But if you think of what is usually expected from the designer—emerging fashion brands are expected to spend way more than they could ever possibly make. It's just insane. And it feels like everyone else is earning but young designers are meant to be doing it to sustain their future. I don't want to sound too depressing. I'm very, very grateful for a lot of help that I got from people within the industry. I know that you interviewed Sinéad before and I just spoke to her recently, and she was like, “Oh my god, I'm falling apart, it’s just insane.” Because it's her first show as well.

So you have a bit of a network in London, with other emerging designers?That's very sweet. It’s cool that it’s not competitive.It seems like lately there’s pressure for younger creatives to make political work. Do you relate to that at all?I wonder if that relates to your recurring dreams.Do you like to be in control?

I know quite a lot of them; we kind of all know each other. Some, we studied together at the same school or ran in the same circles. Generally everyone is very helpful with each other; there’s a natural network.Yeah, absolutely not. Everyone is always supportive, and happy to help because everyone has been through the same thing. And they know what it takes. It’s special to have that extra level of support. That's a really big part of being here, for me. Everyone here understands the same struggle.I feel like sometimes, if the work is personal, it becomes political in a way because our lives are political—they have to be. If a brand is huge and established, there are so many people involved, it loses that sense because it's not as personal. Like the war impacts me, but maybe not in a way that directly affects my aesthetic. For about two or three months, I just felt like nothing is important. I spoke with other designers from Ukraine, and everyone was like, “Why am I doing this? Why am I making clothes? If anything, I should be doing something else, helping somehow.” It was quite a lot to process. And that’s maybe how it impacts my work. I'm trying to not let it take over me, but in a way, this collection is darker. In terms of colors, nuance, aesthetic. Not because of the war, but because there’s actually so much change happening all the time. Sometimes I want to scream. So, [the collection is] inspired by driving very fast. It's not really like racing clothes, but it's more about this feeling—it's very romantic for me, because I actually don't drive. But you know, the picture of someone who's speeding down the highway listening to loud music, like nothing matters. And having that adrenaline rush.[Laughs] Maybe.I don’t love it, but I don’t really have a choice, I sort of have to be. I’m learning to let other people help me. I don’t have a consistent team that I work with, so it’s hard to just trust someone with something. I need to find a balance.

Your work has been described as Y2K—how do you feel about that?

I guess it’s because of the butterfly thing. Butterflies really pegged me to that. Mostly because it was a thing of the 2000s, which has come back in style, so people were looking for clothing of that era. And with the ‘90s trend too, you could definitely find ‘90s in my work as well. I think it’s because I grew up in the 2000s; I was a teenager at that time, so I was learning how to communicate with the world through fashion by exploring a Y2K aesthetic. It’s just something that's naturally getting attached to our generation of designers. Like a learned fashion language through experience. Whenever I'm speaking I will have this accent—I'm speaking English, but I definitely have my Eastern European accent. Fashion language is the same, unconsciously. I never intentionally set out to create 2000s looks. This new collection for me feels a little bit costume, and that just naturally happened.

It’s cool to see how this collection is still super denim-focused, how you’re taking something that’s this utilitarian staple and really pushing it toward tailoring.So you’re big on washed denim?Would you say you’re redefining denim?

I’m getting more confident in terms of what I can do. Honestly, I’m a bit of a hater, I don’t love the unwashed denim aesthetic. Denim has so much magic, the fabric. There’s so much it can show us. I find leaving it unwashed is a little bit lazy—people claim it will change all its life but how much does it really change? You can't wash it because once you wash it, it gets so much smaller. So how much can you really wear it to give it so much life, if you can never wash it.Yeah, obviously trying to use sustainable techniques where I can. Techniques—technologies. People say washed denim is unsustainable, because of the waste-water. But even raw unwashed denim, when it does get washed at home, those chemicals are going down your drain and not sustainably cleared away or reused in the factory.No! [Laughs] I mean, I could never give myself a label like that.

[Laughs] I guess that'd be pretty bold.You're not tempted at all?What do you feel most proud of, of the show?So will you watch it back?

Yeah. That's why written interviews are so hard for me, you’re meant to say things like that and there’s no organic conversation. You wouldn’t be able to open up further about what you mean. It’s a very fine edge, between confidence and… I don’t even know the word. I honestly try not to ever read back any interviews that I do or watch back. I really never ever do it.I know, but no. I can't listen to the sound of my voice. I find it all too cringe. And also I know what I said. I will read reviews sometimes, things without my input. It’s interesting how people come to understand my work. Like the press from my show, some people thought it was Victorian inspired, which was cool. And someone said it was a marine underwater world, which is so unexpected to me.I felt like that the whole vision really came together. The music and lights and everything. And I didn't really imagine how powerful six minutes could be. This collection I imagined in my head. And obviously I’ve never done the show before, it's quite amazing, too. It's a shame that I couldn't actually see it from inside, it just felt so right. Like everyone who helped me do that, music and everything, they really got it on point.That’s definitely something I’ll watch back.

SSENSE. Editorial Magazine.