Tags
arts, artsyus, canada, culture, england, fashion blog, fit model, London, music, My Story, New Blog, Olya Shah, photography, russian, saint petersburg, Vancouver
Hello everyone!!!
Let me introduce my self to all of you.
My name is Olya and I want to start by telling you a little about my self, where I come from, and my life interests.
I, like most of you, love all things artsy. By artsy,I mean everything that has to do with fashion, beauty, music, photography, art, good books, interesting movies, documentaries, creative people and much more.
I was born in Leningrad, now called Saint Petersburg. At the age of 14 I moved with my mom to Vancouver, Canada. There, I have studied at John Casablanca’s Fashion Institute, where I took Modelling and Make Up Artistry classes, University Of British Columbia where I got History Degree( since I was little I was obsessed with European History). As well I have studied at Vancouver College, where I took Fashion Merchandising and Styling.
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Saint Pete’s |
Since I was a little kid, I was crazy about music, fashion, art, photography and Russian Literature. Music is a big part of my life. I get inspired by it, I love discovering new bands. Especially I like electronic music. I got into Electronic music scene at the age of 12. One of the first bands I listened to were Prodigy. I just recently saw them for the first time in London. It was amazing to see them after so many years.
I was lucky growing up in Soviet Union to have parents that were very cool, with European ways of thinking, good taste for fashion, music and art. My mom loved photography and often together with her, I use to take many pictures or make homemade videos. Developing pictures was my favorite thing to do, getting in the dark room with a special light and chemicals and seeing your creations come to life. Another awesome part about growing up in Saint Petersburg, was the fact that the city is a historical capital of Russian. Having rich history in arts, architecture, poetry and one of the best Russian music scene in my country.
Saint Petersburg is a city where Russian revolution happened and where great Tsars/Tsarinas like; Peter The Great and Catherine the Great ruled centuries ago.
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Van City |
When I moved to Vancouver, I missed all those cultural things. I use to visit museums and art galleries all the time, it was free for students. I even remember skipping classes at times with my best friend and going to the Hermitage(one of the best museums in the world). Vancouver is a young and small city, that is lacking in cultural things, that I love so much. But over all, it is a great multicultural city, with beautiful nature, ocean and mountains. It is one of the greenest cities and one of the most livable cities in the world.
Well, I had to get use to it and make the best of it, I always try to make the best of everything.
In Vancouver I got into fashion industry, working for different fashion companies and after some time I have discovered a really cool profession, called Fit Model. Many of you, just like my self in the past, will have no idea what a Fit Model is. Basically, it is a life mannequin. To do this job you, need to have good proportions, maintain the same body weight at all times, but most importantly, give critical feed back to the designers and technicians , about how the garment feels on the body. It is a cool job, and a great way to make some extra money. I have worked for two of the biggest, Vancouver, fashion companies, Aritzia and Obakki. After sometime I became a Model Booker for Aritzia.
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Londinium |
After 15 years of living in Van City I finally got bored of it, and my life there and decided to seek new adventures, in one of the coolest cities in the world LONDON.
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Leif Grunberger Photography |
