Lena Slukhanova was born in USSR (now Russia). In her own words, she shared:
“My childhood was in a communist Soviet Union where creativity and individualism were against the law. As a young girl, I had two brown and black dresses. It was impossible to find in stores any dress with different colors. I dreamed of designing something beautiful to wear every day. At the age of eight, I started to create my own clothes. I would search for pieces of colorful cloth to alter and design my boring clothes. Soon, my friends asked me to make their clothes more beautiful.
At that time, It was rare to see a designer magazine in my country, but when I found one, I would stare at the beautiful colorful clothes, and I said to myself, “One day, I want to design my own clothes and have them in the magazine.” I was a schoolgirl being taught to defend my Communist country, but by night I was a rebel designing and altering clothes for my friends and family.
My love for beautiful clothing and desire to develop allowed me to have the resources to move from the rural, poor countryside to Moscow. I put myself through college to study, and then in the evening, I started to
work on my own fashion designer store for children. The Soviet Union no longer prevented me from doing what I loved. Fashion and design for kids and teens gives me more motivation and more ideas.
In 2017, I moved to the U.S.A. and have worked tirelessly on my new fashion line. The Covid years made it difficult, but I adapted, and during Covid, I designed thousands of masks by hand and shipped them all over the country.”
Creating clothes and being fashionable is Lena’s passion in life. The fashion photographer and local fashion opportunities have brought her designs to several magazines, and now to participating in Tampa Bay Fashion Week to present her LENKASNOVA collection.
“My dream comes true. Having to hide my love for fashion for the first twenty years of my life due to the threat of arrest has made me appreciate the freedoms designers have, and I want to use this freedom to introduce my “LENKASNOVA” designs to the world.” Learn more about LENKASNOVA here.
