Fashion label DV makes its debut in the Middle East

Daria Vasileva opens her heart on her new line with Gazetta

While in Dubai for her Spring-Summer 2024 showcase, the charming creative director of the emerging couture label which takes her initials, DV, sat down for an interview with Gazetta to talk about the fashion line, her inspirations and her love for the Middle East. 

Born in Russia, Daria pursued her education between England and her home country, traversing through diverse domains before discovering her ardour for fashion. In 2023, she launched DV: her fascination with the history of costume inspired her to make her childhood dream of becoming a designer reality. 

Daria aspires, through DV, to make every woman donning her garments feel inspired and empowered, all the while honoring their individual identities.

FV: With a degree in philosophy and a background in advertising & PR, what made you create your own fashion line, DV?

DV: Theater! For quite some time, I used to be a communications director at the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. I had opportunity to work with great people who inspired me and contributed to my development and creativity. When the theater closed for renovation, I had 2 options: either wait for its reopening or do something on my own. I chose the second option! I decided to invest the inspiration I received in the theater and my love for fashion into my own business. 

FV: Many emerging brands are already fighting for market share in the region, how do you think DV will be different?

DV: We make a unique product based on the synthesis of different cultures: we offer not just collections, but a way of living. 

Many brands entered the UAE market with the same products as elsewhere, but we have developed a special collection for the region that fully reflects the cultural and historical characteristics of the Arab world. The collection for the UAE market will be constantly expanding, in the nearest future we will launch some items for expats within the Middle Eastern drop.

I put multi-level meanings into each collection. When developing a new capsule, we select 4 key components which become its basis:

1) a historical era;

2) inspired personality;

3) an art object or art direction;

4) fashion trend.  

Thus, we want to introduce audience to our aesthetics also as meanings that historical periods carried, inspiring personalities and art. 

We are not an ordinary fashion brand, we are into intelligent fashion, and it is important for us to convey the meanings, art of creating and wearing into our collections.

FV: What is your opinion on the style of the UAE woman, understanding the diverse multicultural nationalities that live in the UAE?

DV: The Middle East has always had a special interest in fashion and luxurious lifestyle. UAE customers are well educated in fashion trends and attentive to quality. The UAE market is very vast, and the style of women here is unique: at business meetings I am inspired by the style of businesswomen, at a dinner in a restaurant I admire their evening looks, and on the beach, I celebrate their resort outfits. It is impossible not to dress up for any occasion in Dubai!

FV: The current DV collection is really tactile — clothes you wanted to touch — but it’s also made of functional, incorporating pieces. What were your references for this collection? What were you inspired by?

DV: The story of DV began when I saw a painting by Bryullov: the Portrait of the Shishmareva Sisters in the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. It inspired me to create a velvet jacket with lace, and that was the first item of DV collections, which later also became a bestseller.

Now, art is one of the four components that we put at the core of each collection. For example, when creating the Ramadan line for the UAE, we were inspired by the period of early romanticism with its femininity, lightness, and airiness. The person we were inspired by was Shudu Gram, a virtual model who captivated internet users with her mystery and bewitching appearance. We chose the artist Rene Magritte and his painting The Lovers as our art direction. We combined all these components into one collection using trends – translucent flowy fabrics, maxi lengths in products, structural lines of shoulders and capes.

FV: How do you balance being a designer while overseeing so many different parts of launching a new E-com site?

DV: I spent a whole year assembling a team of real professionals for the brand. That allowed me to delegate various processes and spend more time for creativity.

Clear planning helps me maintain balance in my work: I always devote the first half of the day to tactical tasks that require special concentration, and the second part to creativity.

FV: How have the UAE sensitivities and culture impacted on DV and on your own approach to fashion?

DV: This influence can already be seen in our new collection: we took a different look at the mystery of the closed silhouette and began to make more elegant things, also for the other markets. After all, the more mysterious a woman looks, the more you want to know her.

FV: What’s the vision you have for DV in the UAE and the rest of the Middle East region?

DV: Our mission in the region is to create a truly strong women’s community. Different girls live here – locals and expats – and together they embody beauty, strength and femininity. We want to unite women through fashion, create unique events in the region, where participants will make new friends and improve themselves in a community of like-minded women.

FV: With the UAE’s ever expanding mall culture, do you plan to go brick and mortar soon?

DV: Yes, we are now represented online in the UAE market: on our website dv-global.com you can order items with a fitting. Our next step is to enter multi-brands, and of course, open our own unique space in Dubai, which will become a DV fashion space for our stylish women’s community.

And while her online platform experiences an unprecedented surge in orders from all across the Middle East, Daria maintains her composure, diligently steering a multi-store expansion initiative in the region – and all of us at Gazetta cannot wait to celebrate a great success story in the making.