Katya Zelentsova on excessive knitwear and two-week trainrides

“It truly was a labour of love.”

Aptly named ‘If You Spend Two Weeks On A Train All Your Clothes Become Loungewear’, Katya’s graduate collection is a colourful kaleidoscope of thought-provoking knitwear. Ranging from brightly hued tights and bodystockings featuring cut-outs that not-so-subtly point to an idea of feminine sexuality, to finely woven semi-sheer bralettes, a bright pink bolero with blooming sleeves, and a dress assembled of three-dimensionally crocheted flowers. The latter piece she refers to as the ‘Bouquet dress’, signifying the terminus of Katya’s imaginative journey. “If the other looks are to be worn during this two-week train ride, the last look illustrates the bouquet of flowers your loved ones greet you with upon arrival.” Blurring the boundaries between fashion, art, and craftsmanship, many hours went into creating this final look; from crocheting the life-sized flowers with her grandmother over the Christmas break, to putting it all together with three sets of helping hands in February. “It truly was a labour of love,” Katya acknowledges.

The drive to express herself through fashion is something Katya recognised at a young age. “Dressing up made me feel excited, and I wanted others to feel the same way.” Reflecting on her childhood in Russia, she recalls a moment captured on her last day of kindergarten: a photograph of herself and her mother. “I’m wearing a tasteful fairy costume, glitter wings and all. I also put on my mom’s red lipstick for the first time in my life.” In this picture that she now has taped to her mirror, Katya is looking straight into the camera, with a solemn, almost somber expression. “I’ve always thought it was a funny contrast,” she says. Another image that comes to mind is one taken by a friend on a high school trip to Saint Petersburg. “To be honest, I don’t even feel like I’ve changed that much,” Katya tells. “I still listen to a lot of the same music and watch the same films. I think I’ve more or less peaked at fourteen.”

Translating her teenage impressions into designs, Katya often occupied herself sketching or reading her grandmother’s old knitting magazines as well as the Russian edition of sewing magazine Burda. Flash-forward to her life in London at Central Saint Martins, Katya would consult Burda every now and then when developing an earlier collection. She’d adapt the knits seen in the magazine by expanding the proportions or altering the pieces to make them more sleek and therefore more modern.

“It was a bit tough, but ultimately it’s just problem-solving. You can hand-knit, or you can get really creative with it.”

Katya’s natural adaptability and ability to think creatively came in handy when COVID-19 hit earlier this year. However, the first few months of lockdown were quite restricting for her. Freshly graduated from the MA Fashion, Katya found herself forced to transition from having a fully-equipped studio, to working from home with limited supplies. “It was a bit tough, but ultimately it’s just problem-solving. You can hand-knit, or you can get really creative with it. People have built miniature versions of Disneyland in their backyards during the lockdown – what’s a knitting machine in comparison with that?” Katya’s hands-on and honest approach is consistent throughout her aesthetic philosophy. Although succeeding digitally is definitely beneficial to a young designer’s career, she does not go out of her way to somehow ‘make’ her images stand out. She embraces the fact that either her vision appeals to someone, or it doesn’t. “And I’m at peace with that,” she says. “I hope the clothes are special enough to withstand both scrutiny and indifference.”

“Some things have disappointed me in ways I couldn’t predict, but others have given me hope for the future. The industry, after all, isn’t some isolated autonomous entity – it embodies all of us.”

Reflecting on her experience at Central Saint Martins, Katya tells me it was “stressful, rewarding, frustrating, character-building and – most importantly – great fun.” Whereas she herself has evolved a lot throughout her studies, her perception of the fashion system has mainly stayed the same. “I think I went into it having quite a sober outlook on the industry and it hasn’t changed much since then,” she confesses. “Some things have disappointed me in ways I couldn’t predict, but others have given me hope for the future. The industry, after all, isn’t some isolated autonomous entity – it embodies all of us.”

“Foreseeable future?” Katya asks when I inquire about her upcoming plans. Her closing note: stay creative, arrange new work, and book a massage appointment.