Hailing from Dudinka, a sleepy town on the remote northern Siberian plains, Yulia Vasilevskaya escaped boredom, bad friends, and last but not least, a bleak future, by heading to Moscow to further her education. While working jobs on the side, fashion brand YULIAWAVE, without doubt Vasilevskaya’s claim to fame, emerged by spontaneously creating a dress for her 25th birthday. Eight years on since its inception, the Russian designer has fully established her womenswear brand and has taken its operations to a new level by opening a standalone boutique in the Russian capital’s leafy Presnenskiy district. Occupying a 106 sqm. (1,141 sq.ft.) unit on the ground floor of a monumental 1930s residential building, Vasilevskaya tapped architects Roman Gulyaev and Maria Tsakharias of architecture practice Gulyaev \ Tsakharias to create a matching interior design. Inspired by the building’s bare concrete walls, the duo envisioned a palette of natural, monochrome materials that also underpins the signature style of YULIAWAVE.

Interestingly, due to a lack of many familiar finishing materials on the home market, the initial idea of using non-finish coatings and showing the building’s concrete shell was executed. Upon entering the premises, shoppers find themselves in a small yet lofty salon furnished with steel clothing racks lining the wall and in the middle where they flank a seating unit. An elongated sales counter ushers shoppers towards the back of the store, while overhead, a large LED screen features branded footage. Embedded in the small corridor leading to the back section is a small office and a bathroom. Equally light-filled thanks to three large windows, YULIAWAVE‘s back room sees an additional showcase of apparel, but also cabinets laden with jewellery, positioned opposite three steel-clad fitting rooms. Additionally, an entire corner serves as a lounge where to sit back in between shopping sprees. The new YULIAWAVE store carries the brand’s full range of womenswear, underwear, shoes and accessories.