One Bulgarian woman is turning the world's ideas about fashion upside down

Consumer fashion is becoming a growing problem for nature. The French government is among the pioneers who decided to start a fight against this "pollutant" by proposing a ban on the so-called ‘fast fashion’ advertising.

The bill was discussed in the country’s parliament in March of this year, and its proponent is the MP Anne-Cécile Violland. Among the proposed restrictions are the imposition of penalties on cheap clothes to offset their environmental impact.

Meanwhile, there is one Bulgarian woman living in Germany, who has impressed the whole world with her designer clothes and has totally changed the established ideas about consumer fashion.

Fashion for connoisseurs

Together with her twin sister, Paulina Tsvetanova left for Germany immediately after graduating from the German Language High School in Plovdiv. In that country, Paulina completed three master's degrees - in Art History, Philosophy and Christian Archaeology. She first worked in various galleries, publishing houses, and companies until one day, in 2016, she decided it was time to go freelance.

I sat down with a white sheet of paper and asked myself: "What do I love the most?" Paulina tells Economic.bg.

Together with her sister, who lives in Paris, they begin to visit different vintage markets, where Paulina would buy various designer dresses from the 1950s as well as jewellery and souvenirs.

I started combining everything I bought and very expressly ended up opening a store in West Berlin," she shares.

Originally her brand, called Paulina's Friends, was a concept store for art, design and vintage fashion. To be able to cover her expenses, Paulina turned her shop into a kind of workshop for vintage and conceptual fashion.

That's how I managed to finance my project. Back then, this type of concept store was not so popular. And my extravagance and the non-standard things I offered were eye-catching."

In seven years, Paulina changed four locations of her shop, in the meantime she learned to sew and at one point decided that it was time to return to her original idea – create her own fashion designs. Thus, from a concept store, Paulina's Friends turned into an exclusive clothing brand that conquered the fashion catwalks of New York, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Milan.

Photo: Tanja El Kabid

At one point I asked myself if what I was doing was my thing. I felt like a real estate broker who rents out some space and makes a lot of compromises to pay the rent. So, after 2018, I started with fashion and sewing," says Paulina.

Her clothes are suitable for both men and women. There are no sizes and Paulina uses fabrics from all over the world. She herself says that there is no country in the world that she visited and did not bring something from there to weave into her clothes.

To date, Paulina does not have her own shop, and all the magic happens in her living room in Berlin. Sales are online or directly on-site. Four girls help her sew.

The big stage

Being part of the fashion weeks in Milan, New York and Paris requires not only an invitation from the organizers but also quite serious self-financing capacity and sponsors.

In the beginning you think that once you are invited to the red carpet, everything is provided for you. A fashion show costs between 7,000 and 20,000 euros. It lasts for five minutes, but you prepare for it a whole year," explains Paulina.

She also says that a large part of her clients choose this fashion because of the exclusivity it brings to them – the garment is one of a kind and has been shown on the world stage.

The clients of Paulina's Friends are from different countries, but there are also several Bulgarian women who are regular customers of Paulina.

I think that there is a lot of hope for such fashion in Bulgaria. I have often asked myself whether I should return to Bulgaria at some point. There is a much bigger opportunity for things to develop because the market is much smaller. And when a person has once succeeded in the West, it seems to be easier to succeed in Bulgaria after that," says Paulina.

Over the years, she has faced many difficulties, such as lack of investors and many other obstacles on the way to the big stage - but she did not give up because of the emotion that her work brings and most of all... the sense of completion of a childhood dream.

I have kept design drawings from my childhood in Bulgaria, which if someone had seen them back then, they would have said I was crazy. Now I exhibit these designs at international art fairs."

Interior Design

In addition to designer clothes, Paulina also creates interior design products and in particular – blankets with sentimental value. She started sewing them from old clothes that held sentimental value to her.

Seeing what she creates, many people began bringing her their old clothes and asking her to create blankets out of them. Paulina started to sell her creations to various hotels as well but in rather limited volumes.

The path that Paulina has decided to follow next is an expansion of the scale with which she creates her works.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov