Childhood and youth
Masha Tsigal was born on January 3, 1980 in Moscow. A famous designer from a fairly famous and intelligent family. The male line of the family, namely the grandfather and father, are sculptors; their works can be found throughout Moscow, including Moscow monuments. Masha Tsigal’s mother and grandmother are artists; her mother’s fashion designer’s works are exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery. Her works are also exhibited at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
The father and mother of the future designer wanted their daughter, Masha Tsigal, to follow in the footsteps of the family, so first the girl was sent to study at an English school, and she also attended classes at an art school. After completing secondary education, Maria enters the Stroganov School. However, the girl lasted for 3 years, and in her 3rd year she was expelled. Masha goes on a break: her life is filled with parties in the capital’s nightclubs and active rave activities. At this time, Alexander Bartenev had a great influence on Masha Tsigal.
January 3 1980
In 2010, a girl, Masha, was born into the famous Moscow artistic family Tsigali-Birshtein.
Her grandmother Nina Vatolina was a famous master of poster graphics, who made 1941
-year poster “Don’t talk!” Grandfather, Max Birshtein, is an outstanding painter. Another grandfather, Vladimir Tsigal, is a monumental sculptor who built many monuments in Moscow. Dad, Alexander Tsigal, is a sculptor. Mom - Anna Birshtein - is an artist whose works hang in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum.
“Born into an artistic family, I wanted to be anything but an artist! - says Masha. “It’s terrible when everyone has to draw gifts on their birthdays!” Much more than painting, Masha Tsigal liked to dress up her mother and decorate the house. English and art schools, figure skating - in her childhood there was the entire standard educational set, with the exception, perhaps, of music school. After graduating from secondary school, Masha enters Stroganovka, why be disingenuous - through connections. “I arrived for the exam by taxi, wearing white shorts and a T-shirt. Among the applicants I found bearded men and serious women with families. My drawing was the worst, but they still accepted me. They couldn’t help but accept him from such a family. I probably wouldn’t have gone to the exam at all.”
Masha Tsigal studied at Stroganovka for three years: her internship at Gus Khrustalny became the limit of her patience. A student working with glass dreamed of Murano - but ended up with a crystal factory that develops tableware. After which she decided that she and Stroganovka could manage without each other. At this very time, the crazy nineties for Moscow began...
IN 1995
year, having met fashionable people, Masha Tsigal begins active rave activities. “It was all very bohemian and very similar to real artistic life: just what I wanted so much,” recalls Masha, “So, to the horror of my parents, I left Stroganovka and began to actively hang out...” The outraged parents resettled the prodigal daughter in a separate apartment, leaving me without a penny of money - and even without a refrigerator. But the idleness did not last long: the “X hour” was meeting Andrei Bartenev. “I've never seen anything like this. I suddenly realized how a person’s desire to work adorns him. Everyone has full respect, and it’s a pleasure myself.” Soon Masha Tsigal makes her first collection - from gramophone records.
“I wanted to do something, but it was unclear from what. There is no money, there is only desire. And you love music very much!” The love for music resulted in the melting of not the best examples of it, recorded on my mother’s records: at home, together with a young man, they melted down records like “For you, women.” Vinyl took its revenge with an unreal stench... Thus the collection “Let’s be like the sun” was born. The performance was shown at the Hermitage club. Models in black tights carried structures made of plates. At the end of the show, Masha came out with a sun backpack (made of plastic, covered with foil) on her back. The next day, an article was published on the front page of Kommersant under the headline “The Sun has risen in the Hermitage.” The sun of the new day made designer Masha Tsigal a celebrity.
And then there was an untamed fashion competition in Riga, on the jury of which sat
Paco Rabanne: he gave Masha Tsigal the main prize.
“Constructions made from records were not things, of course,” recalls Masha Tsigal. “Back then in Moscow, instead of fashion shows, there were art projects.” This made life a little difficult: the artists who modeled “things that could be worn” did not understand where their place was. Masha Tsigal participated in painting exhibitions and made performances that could be sold to clubs as shows: just like today's pop stars sell their concerts to casinos. Her second collection, entitled “Lapland” - made of fused plexiglass, covered with an ornament of silver film - was just such a “show for sale”.
The next collection from Masha Tsigal - already half avant-garde, half wearable - was Place Tsigal: it was shown at the Metelitsa club. They even had to make decorations for the club, in which Andrei Vulf later conducted his program for a long time. Lika Star appeared on the podium, who then, in 1996
year, she was a pop star - without underwear, in a transparent dress. Clothing from the Place Tsigal collection, with her favorite patterns that Masha drew since childhood - cats, sailors, etc.. - was the first step to ready-to-wear. The second such step was the “Exhibitionists” collection. “These were already quite wearable things that needed to be sewn somewhere. It wasn’t cheap to place orders at the studio, and no one had any money.” Theater workshops became a way out of the situation: due to a lack of money, they gladly accepted orders for a modest remuneration.
“This, in fact, is what sets me apart from other designers. They came into fashion from Soviet ateliers, and I came from real art life.” A child of real art life, she, at the same time, was never a fan of second-hand stores and garbage dumps. “I grew up with good things: my mother always dressed beautifully, bought things from speculators, wore my great-grandmother’s vintage clothes.” Therefore, all the money earned from fashion shows was spent on good fabrics. And then the fabrics were painted and decorated with prints.
The problem with fabrics plus the fashion for black among Moscow bohemia – Masha Tsigal decides to make collection 97 in black. Having joined forces with Station 106.8, which was iconic at that time, they stage a show on Pushkinskaya Square. The podium stretches from the cinema to Tverskaya Street; the area had to be closed off. “Some people have a business, but I have a show,” Masha laughs. It was the “Favorites of the Moon” collection, gothic, with great hairstyles and models with bleached faces and black eyes.
Masha Tsigal shows her next collection “Exhibitionists” on the newly built City Bridge. Newspapers later wrote that if the bridge had fallen, Moscow would have lost all its celebrities. There was no longer any avant-garde in this collection; the clothes were quite suitable for wearing. “By that time, my worldview had already completely changed: doing art performances was no longer interesting. At the same time, I didn’t quite understand who I was – an artist, a stylist or a fashion designer... New strength was needed.”
And then Masha Tsigal goes to London - for new strength and education, which nevertheless turned out to be necessary. Despite the fact that everyone unanimously persuaded her to stay (it was stupid to leave when her career took off and all the magazines were unanimous in choosing the designer of the year), Masha left. And I exchanged all this for the London College of Fashion, Faculty of Fashion Marketing. Masha was the only Russian on the course. Face magazine helped a lot in overcoming the snobbery of the public, with a ten-page article about Russia - it was made by journalist Ben Iris, who came to Moscow and made friends with bohemia and the underground: in this article, of course, there was a photograph of the Machine. And yet, life in London was by no means easy. "Money is tight. Student hostel. England put its head in place." Several phone numbers brought from Russia helped make the necessary connections: Andrew Logan, whom Masha met in Riga, helped her get a job as an assistant to Zandra Rhodes. “I worked as Cinderella. She did everything: sent faxes, sat on a mannequin, ordered pizza. I had to learn how to cut and sew.” Then she was hired by Mr. Pearl is a master of corsets, a man with the thinnest waist in the world, who has been living in a corset for seven years now - by a lucky chance, of which Masha had so many in her life, he turned out to be a fan of Russia.
IN 2000
In 2006, Masha received a call from Moscow and was asked to appear at the Actor Gallery: her studies in London were completed, Moscow seemed more promising - it was time to return. “All the tasks that I set for myself in London were completed. I learned a lot and realized what I want to do in life. I decided on what needs to be produced, what sells, and what I myself will wear. Moreover, new life and new people appeared in Moscow, instead of bandits and drug addicts-artists... I became interested here again.”
In two years, Moscow has really changed. In this situation there was only one way: to create something new in return. That is, work a lot and hard. The London theme of corsets could not help but develop: Masha is making the “Mania Tsigal” collection. Dresses with corsets, transparent laced bodices, lingerie... The collection was dedicated to the “manias of the twentieth century”: delusions of grandeur, dizziness from success, nymphomania and kleptomania. The next development of the theme of female sexuality was the Forever Love collection - it was shown at the first Moscow Russian Fashion Week. “I really wanted to make underwear,” says Masha Tsigal, “But when I arrived at the Tushino hosiery factory, I was faced with complete Soviet lawlessness. And then I realized that even a very beautiful collection would have no prospects for mass production. With such a collection you can sit and work at home, like an expensive seamstress. But this is not my way of life.” Deciding that some kind of social guarantees are needed, Masha joins the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation. “If earlier I wrote in questionnaires that I was unemployed, now I write that I am an artist.”
IN 2003
-m Masha Tsigal took up business seriously: she borrows money, rents an apartment on Petrovka, buys three sewing machines - and begins to implement London ideas.
is
how the XXX (Triple X) collection (autumn-winter 2003/2004) appears
in the “sporty glamour” style. Sources of inspiration are a healthy lifestyle, contemporary art and electro-clash music. At the same time, Masha actively works with musicians: she makes stage costumes for them. Clients: “Disco Accident”, Dima Bilan, Decl, group “Bi-2”, “Tatu”. It is Masha Tsigal who comes up with the images of schoolgirl girls in short skirts for Lena and Yulia. “I put them on short checkered skirts, made according to the classic cut of a Scottish kilt. And also small T-shirts. Julia is in pink, Lena is in blue. These T-shirts are hand silk-screened with kissing girls from 80s comic books.”
The next collection is the spring-summer “Five Stars”, developing the theme of r'n'b - for self-confident young people with specific goals and aspirations. There was no fashion for r'n'b in Moscow at that time - it came only the next year. “DJs even refused to play this music at shows,” recalls Masha. T-shirts and sweatshirts with the inscription respect, marijuana leaves, embroidered in gold - items from this collection are sold in Podium and E-life no less successfully than Dolce&Gabbana. A wonderful finale of the year: the magazine “Faces of the Year. Idols of Russia” again places Masha on the list of the best designers of the year (for the first time they did this in 2001
-m). And one more thing: she finally registers the brand; it is now called Masha Tsigal Design International.
IN 2004
Whitney Houston comes to Moscow on tour. She has a request: she wants to buy something from Russian designers. The organizers bring her velvet tracksuits from Masha Tsigal - she buys five and asks to introduce her to the designer (“I went to her room at Balchug, she hugged me and said thank you”). Whitney appears on the Kremlin stage in a white tracksuit. Another star who appreciated the clothes from Masha Tsigal is Albert, Prince of Monaco. “He saw a suit at one of the oligarchs’ parties, immediately found me and asked me to make the same one.” The personalized suit was presented to the prince immediately.
The next autumn-winter collection is called O2: it is again overalls and leggings, sweatshirts with hoods and down jackets, jeans and T-shirts. The East Pole now attracts Masha more than the West: Japan in the lens. “Before creating it, I went to Tokyo and was inspired by the theme of girls from Japanese mango comics and the theme of real samurai guys.”
The spring-summer collection, called ORB, which means “orbit” or “magic circle”, symbolizes immersion in depth: now Masha is interested in mystical signs - pentagrams, infinity signs, amulets, magic symbols. Everything that brings goodness, luck and love. Not a single black sign, only pure positive energy. The energy of a dynamic metropolis combined with the magic of ancient Kabbalah - this is the taste of today.
“For the last two months I’ve been watching and reading manga comics all the time,” admitted Masha Tsigal in February 2005
th.
She herself is gradually becoming like a manga girl: instead of curls, there are long hair tied in two tails... Now her creative workshop is a spacious studio in the Central Telegraph building, with high ceilings. In the appropriate mood, she is working on the fall-winter 2005
, which has already been given a sonorous name - “A”.
Again bright colors, again sexy and sporty; denim line, tutu skirts, jackets, dresses and T-shirts - on April 7, 2005
it was shown at RFW, in a tent on Vasilyevsky Spusk.
And in 2006
year Tsigal tries herself in a new role.
She is developing a collection for adults and children and calls it “Wonderland”. In 2007
, the first Masha Tsigal boutique opened in Moscow.
Masha begins to collaborate with different brands and develops an exclusive design for each company. IN 2008
year she organized a show as part of “Prague fashion week” with a collection called “Balance”.
In 2010
, a new children's collection “Yakimanka” was released.
In 2010
, Masha also worked as a designer and stylist at the “New Wave” in Jurmala, helping to create images for the contestants.
IN 2011
-
2011/2012 was
shown .
www.ok-magazine.ru ↑ collapse
First works
A few years after dropping out of university, the girl had a great desire to create a masterpiece in the fashion industry, which directly became the beginning of Miss Tsigal’s career: she created structures on her head from vinyl records, with which models dressed in tights walked along the catwalk. Literally the next morning, the Kommersant newspaper published an article about fashion designer Masha Tsigal. The girl’s career takes off, after some time she receives an award from the hands of Paco Rabanne at the Assembly of Untamed Fashion, held in Riga.
First collections
The first full-fledged collection was Place Tsigal, then the designer released the “Exhibitionists” collection. From 1996 to 1998, Maria collaborated with various artists and created costumes for filming in music videos. At the same time, she received a grant to study in the UK. The girl enters London College to study Fashion Marketing.
In 1999, Masha Tsigal's show took place as part of London Fashion Week. After 2 years, the already recognized designer was accepted into the ranks of the Russian Union of Artists. Returning to Moscow, Maria releases a collection consisting of dresses with corsets, as well as a collection of underwear.
Masha Tsigal now
Now Masha Tsigal remains a sought-after Russian designer. In 2022, she designed a print for gift scarves for the Yves Rocher brand. The girl also released 3 collections: Hoody drop (fall-winter 2018), capsule spring-summer 2022 (a lookbook was posted on Masha’s official website, for which the designer posed herself) and a comeback collection “With love, from the 2000s!” The latter consists of velor tracksuits “with ears,” which brought Tsigal popularity in the 2000s.
Masha Tsigal in 2018
Masha does not advertise her personal life. In a 2022 interview with the portal dom2life.ru, the designer admitted that she always dated handsome young guys, but not for the sake of joint photos on Instagram. The girl wants a serious, strong relationship.
According to Tsigal, there is one person with whom she is “ready to meet, who will become the closest.” At the same time, the fragile blonde, whose height is 165 cm, has always remained the center of attention of men. Sports, yoga and dancing help the designer stay in shape and maintain a normal weight - Masha prefers those types of physical activity that develop flexibility and plasticity.
Masha Tsigal design international
In 2003, Maria decides to fully organize the business. The girl rents an apartment in the center of Moscow, in addition, she purchases all the necessary equipment, including sewing machines and sews a collection of clothes. At the same time, she created stage outfits for popular performers at the time - the Tatu group. It was she who created the image of schoolgirls in ultra-short skirts for the group’s soloists. Actually, at this time the registered brand Masha Tsigal design international was created.
Notes
- [nomerorg.com/mosgibdd/ Traffic police database]
- [lviv.mobile.mycityua.com/sovrb/birshteyn-anna-maksovna Birshteyn Anna Maksovna – Reproductions of paintings by famous artists]
- [www.ok-magazine.ru/stars/persons/item9529.php?day=12&month=12&year=2012&ELEMENT_ID=9529 Masha Tsigal//OK! Magazine.]
- [www.luxurynet.ru/bomond/3132.html Masha Tsigal: heiress of artistic talents]
- [7days.ru/news/masha-tsigal-sobiraet-syna-v-shkolu.htm Masha Tsigal is getting her son ready for school - 7Days.ru]
Achievements of the designer
In 2004, a concert was held in Moscow by Whitney Houston, who purchased five costumes from Masha Tsigal, and in one of them she even appeared on stage at her own concert. The Prince of Monaco also wears a suit made by Masha at his request. According to the designer, she was happy to complete a custom order for such a high-ranking official. In 2005, Maria opened her own workshop.
Some of the most famous collections are:
- a collection of bright original cases for mobile phones from Euroset electronics stores;
- capsule clothing collection for Savage;
- collection of tracksuits with ears.
Maria also collaborated with companies such as EBay, Pepsi, Libero, and Colgate.
In 2004, a can was developed for Coca Cola; 2008 was remembered for a joint project with McDonald's. In 2009, Masha worked on creating an image for participants in the New Wave competition. In 2001, a capsule children's collection was released for the Yakimanka Trade House. The year 2022 is marked by cooperation with the Familia company.
I love
work
“...I love to work. An idle lifestyle is not for me.”
/ (Masha Tsigal: I want to make the girls happy; Irina Shanina; Internet portal Rol.Ru, 12/20/2001)
men as clients
“...I love men as clients. It's easy for me to work with them. Men, as clients, are very afraid of looking bad. For them, looking good is much more important than for women.”
/ (Masha Tsigal: I want to make the girls happy; Irina Shanina; Internet portal Rol.Ru, 12/20/2001)
London
“I love London very much. I studied there and have many friends in London. That’s why my favorite city is London.”
/ (The main event in the life of Masha Tsigal; Ekaterina Mudrik; website “Woman.Ru”, 12/08/2005)
Personal life of a designer
In 2007, Tsigal met designer Nikita Nagibin. The romance developed so rapidly that literally a month after they met, the girl was already pregnant. However, the wedding did not follow.
Before the birth of the child, the couple lived together, and, according to Masha, the future father of the child took care of her. But after the birth of his son Arseny, Nikita left the family. They broke up more than once, then got back together, in the end Maria and Nikita made the final decision to separate. The father communicates with his son, and Masha supports their relationship.
well, I don't like it
meat
“The family has always loved meat. But I haven’t eaten it for eight years now and I’m very pleased with myself. I believe that each person makes his own choice. And if someone suddenly has a desire to become a vegetarian, then I will support him... I am at war with my son’s new nanny, who wants to force us to buy meat. I will never allow this!
to plan
“Planning... is very difficult, in my opinion, and even strange... I have no attachment to planning my life... I am a very impulsive person. This applies to both personal life and work. I live by intuition."
vulgarity
“The worst thing is vulgarity. I really don't like this. I love naturalness: clean, unmade-up faces, loose hair. Too perfect, without a flaw - lips, shoes, everything in color, everything in tone.”
