Tatiana Sorokko
Encyclopedia
Tatiana Sorokko is a Russian-born American model
, fashion journalist and haute couture
collector. She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion house
s, appeared on covers of leading fashion magazines, and became the first Russian model of the post-Soviet
period to gain international recognition. After modeling, Sorokko worked as contributing editor for such publications as Vogue
, Vanity Fair
and Harper's Bazaar
. Her distinct personal style and her private collection of historically important haute couture
clothing were subjects of museum exhibitions in Russia and the U.S.
), a "closed town" and a top-secret nuclear research community in the Soviet Union
, and was expected to pursue a career in science. In 1989, at the age of eighteen, when Sorokko was studying to be a physicist at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, she was discovered by Parisian modeling agent Marilyn Gauthier, owner of Marilyn Model Agency, and invited to Paris.
for Dior
and Yves Saint Laurent
and was photographed for Harper's Bazaar
by the influential French photographer Guy Bourdin
.
The 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) blue-eyed Sorokko has modeled for Dior
, Givenchy
, Chanel
, Lanvin
, Yves Saint Laurent
, Christian Lacroix
, Gianfranco Ferré
, Claude Montana
, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen
, Comme des Garçons
, Issey Miyake
, Yohji Yamamoto
, Giorgio Armani
, Gianni Versace
, Roberto Cavalli
, Prada
, Calvin Klein
, Vivienne Westwood
, Chado Ralph Rucci
, Marc Jacobs
, Michael Kors
, Bill Blass
, Ralph Lauren
, Oscar de la Renta
and Donna Karan
, among other leading designers and brands. She was also frequently photographed for editorials and covers of European and American magazines such as Harper's Bazaar
, Vogue
, W
, Elle
, Glamour
, and Cosmopolitan
.
In 1992, when Sorokko moved with her husband to California, she began to focus her energy on career opportunities in the United States. Already well-known by major fashion designers and editors, her career took off in America as quickly as it did in Europe.
Despite her modeling engagements all over the globe, Sorokko continued her education at the Academy of Art University
, in San Francisco, where she studied History of Fashion.
Sorokko appeared on the cover of Runway, a book of fashion photographs by Larry Fink
, and was featured opposite Brad Pitt
in a commercial for Acura Integra
. In 1994 she made a brief appearance in Robert Altman
' s movie Prêt-à-Porter
. Sorokko is also a subject of a book, published in Moscow, Russian Models, by Ekaterina Vasilyeva, which credited her as the first widely recognized Russian model to emerge after perestroika
.
With the publication of the December 2001 issue of the Russian edition of Vogue, Sorokko, who is fluent in both Russian and English, embarked on a new career as its Foreign Correspondent and Contributing Editor. As author of Telegram from Tatiana Sorokko, a popular monthly column of fashion and style commentary, she covered a wide range of hot topics and personalities. Among numerous subjects of Sorokko's stories, drawn from her first-hand experiences, were fashion and design luminaries such as Gianfranco Ferré
, Ralph Rucci, Andrée Putman
, Manolo Blahnik
, Yohji Yamamoto
, Philip Treacy
, Richard Avedon
, and Herb Ritts
, to name a few. Her last Telegram was published in Vogue's December 2004 issue.
In the early 2000s, Sorokko also contributed to the Italian Vanity Fair
, for whom she produced and styled photo shoots with prominent personalities, including actor Peter Coyote
and author Isabelle Allende, to name a few.
In January 2005, Sorokko began work as Contributing Editor for American Harper's Bazaar. Among many notable personalities, Sorokko interviewed Kateryna Yushchenko, American wife of the Ukrainian President, for the September 2005 issue, and, for the August 2008 issue, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi
. She has styled shoots featuring Elizabeth Taylor
, Joan Collins
and Linda Evans
, Donatella Versace
and daughter, Allegra Beck
, fashion designer Andrew Gn and Tod's
founder, Diego Della Valle, Republican Presidential Nominee, Senator John McCain
and wife Cindy McCain, Wolfgang Puck
and his wife, accessories designer Gelila Assefa, and Ralph Lauren
in Moscow, among others.
In 2009, Sorokko was listed in the Moscow edition of Time Out magazine among the extraordinary "50 People and Things that are Moscow's Gift to the World."
, on tour in the United States, and she was the narrator at the Wind Quintet's debut performance of Jean-Pascal Beintus
' Wolf Tracks
, at the Phillips Collection
in Washington, D.C. In its review of the performance, The Washington Post
reported "watching a tall blond supermodel win all the Wolf Tracks applause."
Sorokko is an avid collector of haute couture and antique jewelry, and has frequently donated or loaned pieces from her collection to various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
, in New York, the de Young Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor
, in San Francisco, and the Phoenix Art Museum
, among others.
Sorokko is often invited to speak on the subjects of fashion and style, and her engagements have been with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
, the Phoenix Art Museum and the San Francisco Academy of Art University. She has also been a featured guest on The Martha Stewart Show a number of times, discussing a wide range of topics, from cooking to fashion and collecting couture.
and essays by fashion designer Ralph Rucci, photographer Marco Glaviano
, and exhibition curator Dennita Sewell. The show was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. It was widely covered in the Russian media and hailed as the “most glamorous event in the life of the capital.”
In September, 2010 Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style exhibition traveled from Moscow to the United States and made its U.S. debut at the Phoenix Art Museum. Both exhibitions showcased works from the early 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century, by renowned designers and fashion houses such as Mariano Fortuny
, Jeanne Paquin
, Jeanne Lanvin
, Grès
, Pierre Balmain
, Jean Patou
, Balenciaga
, Emanuel Ungaro
, Azzedine Alaia
, Jean Paul Gaultier, Gianfranco Ferré
, Vivienne Westwood
, Comme des Garçons
, Yohji Yamamoto
, Halston
, James Galanos
, and Chado Ralph Rucci
, among others.
During Sorokko's extensive modeling career, she has met and befriended many of the designers represented in the exhibition. She also became a private client for quite a few of them, most notably Ralph Rucci, and the show, according to FIT
Museum director Valerie Steele
, included "lots of beautiful Ralph Rucci". Many of the haute couture gowns on display boasted luxurious sequin
and metallic thread embroideries
, and hand-burnt ostrich feathers, while others, according to the Financial Times
, were "covered with pearls," or elaborately embroidered with beads by artisans of the French house of Lesage. The exhibition also featured Sorokko's collection of rare Hermès
bags in exotic skins, as well as unique pieces of jewelry by the illustrious Venetian jewellery house, Codognato. The show opened to the public on September 16, 2010 and was on display through January 2, 2011.
To mark the opening of the exhibition and release of the accompanying hard cover catalog, private book signing parties have been hosted by Bulgari
in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, and Roger Vivier
in Paris and New York. The events were packed with fashion insiders, who snapped up more than three hundred autographed copies of the book at the San Francisco party alone.
Sorokko's distinct personal style and uncommon sense of fashion have been much talked and written about in American and European mass media
, and earned her a reputation as a "style icon" and fashion visionary, but it was Vogue that over a dacade ago, first recognized her style's influence on fashion and touted Sorokko as an "eagle-eyed iconoclast," a "reluctant trend-setter," and a "fad
-making model." Among the trends she has been credited for starting or popularizing, are the widespread today vintage clothing
and "skull" jewelry, particularly that of the cult
Italian designer Attilio Codognato, whose memento mori
jewelry she has been wearing and championing since the early 1990s. According to Style.com
, Sorokko's style can at times be "subversive." "I'm wearing my blouse upside down and backward," she told the reporter, referring to her Yves Saint Laurent
haute couture blouse. On another occasion, Sorokko was asked by Jim Shi of the Daily Front Row
about the oversized Donna Karan
coat she was wearing. “This is her trench from the last collection,” she informed him. “You may not recognize it because I am wearing it inside out. You know me – wearing it the normal way would be too ordinary.” More often, however, Sorokko's style is described as "timeless." “Tatiana’s timeless wardrobe reflects her individual point of view," fashion curator Dennita Sewell told ArtDaily
. Her "inborn sense of style and extensive modeling experience shape her selections which transcend current fashion trends." According to Glenda Bailey, "Tatiana is an icon for the way she looks in fashion, but also for the way she looks at fashion. It makes her a great fashion collaborator." Ralph Rucci agrees: “Tatiana's style is not only flawless, it is also highly influential. She has absolutely inspired me.”
Sorokko was named in 2000 to the International "100 Best Dressed" list by American Vogue, and in 2007 to the "Best Dressed Women of All Time" list by Harper's Bazaar in its 140th anniversary issue. She made Bazaar's Best Dressed list again in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
, a real estate developer and art collector turned art dealer, with galleries in San Francisco, New York and Beverly Hills. She has one stepdaughter and resides with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area
.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
, fashion journalist and haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
collector. She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion house
Fashion House
Fashion House is an American telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006...
s, appeared on covers of leading fashion magazines, and became the first Russian model of the post-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
period to gain international recognition. After modeling, Sorokko worked as contributing editor for such publications as Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
and Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
. Her distinct personal style and her private collection of historically important haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
clothing were subjects of museum exhibitions in Russia and the U.S.
Early life
Raised the daughter of nuclear physicists, Sorokko grew up in Arzamas-16 (now SarovSarov
Sarov is a closed town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Until 1995 it was known as Kremlyov ., while from 1946 to 1991 it was called Arzamas-16 . The town is off limits to foreigners as it is the Russian center for nuclear research. Population: -History:The history of the town can be divided...
), a "closed town" and a top-secret nuclear research community in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and was expected to pursue a career in science. In 1989, at the age of eighteen, when Sorokko was studying to be a physicist at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, she was discovered by Parisian modeling agent Marilyn Gauthier, owner of Marilyn Model Agency, and invited to Paris.
Career
Intrigued by a future she had never expected and encouraged by Gauthier, Sorokko moved to Paris in 1990 and quickly exploded into the international fashion world. Within two weeks she walked the runwaysRunway (fashion)
Runway or catwalk describes a narrow, usually flat platform that runs into an auditorium, used by models to demonstrate clothing and accessories during a fashion show In fashion jargon, "what's on the catwalk" or similar phrasing can refer to whatever is new and popular in fashion.- Exclusive...
for Dior
Dior
Dior can mean:* Christian Dior SA, a French clothing retailer* In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth legendarium:**Dior Eluchíl, a Half-elven of the First Age**Dior , a Steward of GondorDior is a surname, and may refer to:...
and Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
Yves Saint Laurent or YSL is a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Today, its chief designer is Stefano Pilati. Yves Saint Laurent, founder of the brand, died in 2008.-History:...
and was photographed for Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
by the influential French photographer Guy Bourdin
Guy Bourdin
Guy Louis Bourdin , born Guy Louis Banarès, was a French fashion photographer.-Life and career:Guy Louis Banarès was born December 2, 1928, at 7 Rue Popincourt, Paris...
.
The 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) blue-eyed Sorokko has modeled for Dior
Dior
Dior can mean:* Christian Dior SA, a French clothing retailer* In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth legendarium:**Dior Eluchíl, a Half-elven of the First Age**Dior , a Steward of GondorDior is a surname, and may refer to:...
, Givenchy
Givenchy
Givenchy is a French brand of clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics with Parfums Givenchy.The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de Givenchy and is a member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Pret-a-Porter...
, Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
, Lanvin
Lanvin (clothing)
Lanvin is a high fashion house founded by Jeanne Lanvin.-History:Lanvin made such beautiful clothes for her daughter that they began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children...
, Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
Yves Saint Laurent or YSL is a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Today, its chief designer is Stefano Pilati. Yves Saint Laurent, founder of the brand, died in 2008.-History:...
, Christian Lacroix
Christian Lacroix
Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded.-Early life:Lacroix was born in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France. At a young age he began sketching historical costumes and fashions. Lacroix graduated from high school in 1969...
, Gianfranco Ferré
Gianfranco Ferrè
Gianfranco Ferré was a fashion designer also known as "the architect of fashion" for his background and his original attitude toward creating fashion design....
, Claude Montana
Claude Montana
Claude Montana is a French fashion designer. His company, The House of Montana, founded in 1979, went bankrupt in 1997.Born in Paris in 1949 to a Catalonian father and German mother, Montana began his career by designing papier-mâché jewelry covered with rhinestones...
, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
, Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons, written コム・デ・ギャルソン in Japanese and French for "Like Boys," is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe....
, Issey Miyake
Issey Miyake
is a Japanese fashion designer. He is known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.-Life and career:Miyake was born 22 April 1938 in Hiroshima, Japan. As a seven year-old, he witnessed and survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He studied...
, Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto
Yōji Yamamoto , is an award winning Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Yohji is considered to be among the master tailors whose work is thought to be of fashion genius and he has been described by Julie Gilhart, fashion director for Barney's New York as probably the only designer...
, Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
, Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Madonna, Elton John,...
, Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
, Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...
, Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
, Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, Chado Ralph Rucci
Chado Ralph Rucci
Ralph Rucci is an American fashion designer and artist. He is known in particular for Chado Ralph Rucci, a luxury clothing and accessories line. Rucci's clothing designs have appeared in a number of major exhibitions, and he has won some significant fashion-industry awards...
, Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...
, Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Michael Kors is an American fashion designer. He is best known for designing classic American sportswear for women.-Personal life:...
, Bill Blass
Bill Blass
William Ralph "Bill" Blass was an American fashion designer, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is known for his tailoring and his innovative combinations of textures and patterns...
, Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
, Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
and Donna Karan
Donna Karan
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.-Early life:...
, among other leading designers and brands. She was also frequently photographed for editorials and covers of European and American magazines such as Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, W
W (magazine)
W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, who purchased original owner Fairchild Publications in 1999. It was created in 1971 by the publisher of sister magazine Woman's Wear Daily, James Brady. The magazine is an oversize format – ten inches wide and...
, Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
, and Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
.
In 1992, when Sorokko moved with her husband to California, she began to focus her energy on career opportunities in the United States. Already well-known by major fashion designers and editors, her career took off in America as quickly as it did in Europe.
Despite her modeling engagements all over the globe, Sorokko continued her education at the Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
, in San Francisco, where she studied History of Fashion.
Sorokko appeared on the cover of Runway, a book of fashion photographs by Larry Fink
Larry Fink (photographer)
Larry Fink is an American photographer best known for his black-and-white images of people at parties and in other social situations.- Life and career :Fink was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York...
, and was featured opposite Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
in a commercial for Acura Integra
Honda Integra
The Honda Integra is a compact luxury performance coupe made by Honda during the years 1985 to 2006. The sporty front wheel drive car is able to house five passengers with a two door hatch or four door sedan available.The Integra was on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list six times, in...
. In 1994 she made a brief appearance in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
' s movie Prêt-à-Porter
Prêt-à-Porter (film)
Prêt-à-Porter is a 1994 American satirical black comedy film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot during the Paris, France, Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers...
. Sorokko is also a subject of a book, published in Moscow, Russian Models, by Ekaterina Vasilyeva, which credited her as the first widely recognized Russian model to emerge after perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
.
With the publication of the December 2001 issue of the Russian edition of Vogue, Sorokko, who is fluent in both Russian and English, embarked on a new career as its Foreign Correspondent and Contributing Editor. As author of Telegram from Tatiana Sorokko, a popular monthly column of fashion and style commentary, she covered a wide range of hot topics and personalities. Among numerous subjects of Sorokko's stories, drawn from her first-hand experiences, were fashion and design luminaries such as Gianfranco Ferré
Gianfranco Ferrè
Gianfranco Ferré was a fashion designer also known as "the architect of fashion" for his background and his original attitude toward creating fashion design....
, Ralph Rucci, Andrée Putman
Andrée Putman
Andrée Putman is a French interior and product designer.Long considered as a shocking eccentric by the French as she likes to defend the indefensible, Andrée Putman partly owes her reputation to foreigners...
, Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE, , is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand.-Biography:Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and born and raised in the Canary Islands , Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris...
, Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto
Yōji Yamamoto , is an award winning Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Yohji is considered to be among the master tailors whose work is thought to be of fashion genius and he has been described by Julie Gilhart, fashion director for Barney's New York as probably the only designer...
, Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy OBE is an Irish milliner.Born in Ahascragh,in the West of Ireland, he lived with his parents, seven brothers and sister across the road from the village church...
, Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
, and Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts
Herbert "Herb" Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture.-Early life and career:...
, to name a few. Her last Telegram was published in Vogue's December 2004 issue.
In the early 2000s, Sorokko also contributed to the Italian Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, for whom she produced and styled photo shoots with prominent personalities, including actor Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Apple's iPad campaign. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000 Oscar...
and author Isabelle Allende, to name a few.
In January 2005, Sorokko began work as Contributing Editor for American Harper's Bazaar. Among many notable personalities, Sorokko interviewed Kateryna Yushchenko, American wife of the Ukrainian President, for the September 2005 issue, and, for the August 2008 issue, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
. She has styled shoots featuring Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
and Linda Evans
Linda Evans
Linda Evans is an American actress. She is known primarily for her roles on television, and rose to fame playing Audra Barkley in the 1960s Western TV series, The Big Valley...
, Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace
Donatella Versace is an Italian fashion designer and current Vice-President of the Versace Group, as well as chief designer. She owns 20 percent of the entire stock market assets of Versace. Her brother, Santo Versace, owns 30 percent...
and daughter, Allegra Beck
Allegra Versace
Allegra Beck Versace is an Italian heiress, aspiring actress, and major shareholder in the Versace company. She is the daughter of designer Donatella Versace and ex-fashion model Paul Beck.- Early life and fortune:...
, fashion designer Andrew Gn and Tod's
Tod's
Tod's Group is an Italian company which produces shoes and other leather goods, and is presided over by businessman Diego Della Valle. It is most famous for its driving shoes....
founder, Diego Della Valle, Republican Presidential Nominee, Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and wife Cindy McCain, Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, businessman and occasional actor. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions...
and his wife, accessories designer Gelila Assefa, and Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
in Moscow, among others.
In 2009, Sorokko was listed in the Moscow edition of Time Out magazine among the extraordinary "50 People and Things that are Moscow's Gift to the World."
Other projects
In 2004, Sorokko was invited to perform with the Russian National OrchestraRussian National Orchestra
The Russian National Orchestra premiered in Moscow in 1990.It was the first Russian orchestra to perform at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican and in Israel....
, on tour in the United States, and she was the narrator at the Wind Quintet's debut performance of Jean-Pascal Beintus
Jean-Pascal Beintus
Jean-Pascal Beintus is a French composer. Born in Toulouse, France in 1966, he studied double bass and composition at the conservatories of Nice, Lyon and Paris during the 1980s. When John Eliot Gardiner created the Lyon Opéra Orchestra in 1983, he selected Beintus as a founding double bass player...
' Wolf Tracks
Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf
Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf was a 2005 album that combined the orchestral composition Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev with a 2002 composition, Wolf Tracks, which had its score written by French composer Jean-Pascal Beintus and text written by Walt Kreamer...
, at the Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
in Washington, D.C. In its review of the performance, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reported "watching a tall blond supermodel win all the Wolf Tracks applause."
Sorokko is an avid collector of haute couture and antique jewelry, and has frequently donated or loaned pieces from her collection to various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
, in New York, the de Young Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is a fine art museum in San Francisco, California...
, in San Francisco, and the Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix art museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western...
, among others.
Sorokko is often invited to speak on the subjects of fashion and style, and her engagements have been with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco and one of the largest art museums in California.-External...
, the Phoenix Art Museum and the San Francisco Academy of Art University. She has also been a featured guest on The Martha Stewart Show a number of times, discussing a wide range of topics, from cooking to fashion and collecting couture.
Museum exhibitions
In April, 2010 the Russian Fashion Museum in Moscow honored Sorokko with a large scale exhibition Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style. The show featured a collection of over eighty garments and accessories from Sorokko’s personal, largely haute couture wardrobe. A hard cover book by the same name was published to accompany the exhibition and included a foreword by Harper’s Bazaar editor Glenda BaileyGlenda Bailey
Glenda Adrianne Bailey OBE is the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, a monthly fashion magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. She was appointed to this position in May 2001. Before joining Harper's Bazaar, she served as the editor-in-chief at the U.S...
and essays by fashion designer Ralph Rucci, photographer Marco Glaviano
Marco Glaviano
Marco Glaviano is a reputable figure in the fashion industry as a premier photographer who has been sought after by famous supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Paulina Porizkova, and Eva Herzigova. He has been the leading pioneer of digital photography and was the first to publish the first ever...
, and exhibition curator Dennita Sewell. The show was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. It was widely covered in the Russian media and hailed as the “most glamorous event in the life of the capital.”
In September, 2010 Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style exhibition traveled from Moscow to the United States and made its U.S. debut at the Phoenix Art Museum. Both exhibitions showcased works from the early 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century, by renowned designers and fashion houses such as Mariano Fortuny
Mariano Fortuny (designer)
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, , son of the painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, was a Spanish fashion designer who opened his couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946.- Life :...
, Jeanne Paquin
Jeanne Paquin
Jeanne Paquin was a French fashion designer, known for her resolutely modern and innovative designs.Born in Saint-Denis in 1869, Paquin trained as a dressmaker at Rouff and later opened her own fashion house in 1891, the first woman to ever do so...
, Jeanne Lanvin
Jeanne Lanvin
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin was a French fashion designer and the founder of the Lanvin fashion house.One of the most influential designers of the 1920s and '30s, Jeanne Lanvin's skillful use of intricate trimmings, virtuoso embroideries and beaded decorations in clear, light, floral colors became a...
, Grès
Grès
Grès was a French haute couture fashion house. Parfums Grès is the associated perfume house, which still exists, and is now based in Switzerland. -History:...
, Pierre Balmain
Pierre Balmain
Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain was a French fashion designer. Known for sophistication and elegance, he once said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement."...
, Jean Patou
Jean Patou
- Early life :Patou was born in Normandy, France in 1880. Patou's family's business was tanning and furs. Patou worked with his uncle in Normandy, then moved to Paris in 1910, intent on becoming a couturier.-1910s - World War I and later:...
, Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
, Emanuel Ungaro
Emanuel Ungaro
Emanuel Ungaro is a French fashion designer.-Early life:Ungaro's Italian father fled to France from Francavilla Fontana of Brindisi province because of the fascist uprising in Italy...
, Azzedine Alaia
Azzedine Alaia
Azzedine Alaïa is a Tunisian-born couturier and shoe designer, particularly successful since the 1980s.-Biography:Alaïa was born in Siliana, Tunisia on 7 June 1940. His parents were wheat farmers but his glamorous twin sister inspired his love for couture. A French friend of his mother fed Alaïa's...
, Jean Paul Gaultier, Gianfranco Ferré
Gianfranco Ferrè
Gianfranco Ferré was a fashion designer also known as "the architect of fashion" for his background and his original attitude toward creating fashion design....
, Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons, written コム・デ・ギャルソン in Japanese and French for "Like Boys," is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe....
, Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto
Yōji Yamamoto , is an award winning Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Yohji is considered to be among the master tailors whose work is thought to be of fashion genius and he has been described by Julie Gilhart, fashion director for Barney's New York as probably the only designer...
, Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
, James Galanos
James Galanos
James Galanos is an American fashion designer, widely considered to be one the world's foremost 20th century couturiers.-Early life:James Galanos was born September 20, 1924 in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only son of Greek-born parents...
, and Chado Ralph Rucci
Chado Ralph Rucci
Ralph Rucci is an American fashion designer and artist. He is known in particular for Chado Ralph Rucci, a luxury clothing and accessories line. Rucci's clothing designs have appeared in a number of major exhibitions, and he has won some significant fashion-industry awards...
, among others.
During Sorokko's extensive modeling career, she has met and befriended many of the designers represented in the exhibition. She also became a private client for quite a few of them, most notably Ralph Rucci, and the show, according to FIT
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
Museum director Valerie Steele
Valerie Steele
Valerie Fahnestock Steele is a fashion historian, curator, and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York...
, included "lots of beautiful Ralph Rucci". Many of the haute couture gowns on display boasted luxurious sequin
Sequin
Sequins are disk-shaped beads used for decorative purposes. They are available in a wide variety of colors and geometrical shapes. Sequins are commonly used on clothing, jewelry, bags, shoes and lots of other accessories. Large sequins, fastened only at the top, have been used on billboards and...
and metallic thread embroideries
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
, and hand-burnt ostrich feathers, while others, according to the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
, were "covered with pearls," or elaborately embroidered with beads by artisans of the French house of Lesage. The exhibition also featured Sorokko's collection of rare Hermès
Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear...
bags in exotic skins, as well as unique pieces of jewelry by the illustrious Venetian jewellery house, Codognato. The show opened to the public on September 16, 2010 and was on display through January 2, 2011.
To mark the opening of the exhibition and release of the accompanying hard cover catalog, private book signing parties have been hosted by Bulgari
Bulgari
Bulgari is an Italian jeweler and luxury goods retailer which has been owned by the French firm LVMH since October 2011. The trademark is usually written "BVLGARI" in the classical Latin alphabet , and is derived from the surname of the company's Greek founder, Sotirio Voulgaris...
in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, and Roger Vivier
Roger Vivier
Roger Vivier was a French fashion designer who specialized in shoes. His best known creation was the Stiletto heel.Vivier has been called the "Fragonard of the shoe" and his shoes "the Fabergé of Footwear" by numbers of critics. He designed extravagant richly-decorated shoes that he described as...
in Paris and New York. The events were packed with fashion insiders, who snapped up more than three hundred autographed copies of the book at the San Francisco party alone.
Personal style
– Tatiana SorokkoSorokko's distinct personal style and uncommon sense of fashion have been much talked and written about in American and European mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, and earned her a reputation as a "style icon" and fashion visionary, but it was Vogue that over a dacade ago, first recognized her style's influence on fashion and touted Sorokko as an "eagle-eyed iconoclast," a "reluctant trend-setter," and a "fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
-making model." Among the trends she has been credited for starting or popularizing, are the widespread today vintage clothing
Vintage clothing
Vintage clothing is a generic term for new or second hand garments originating from a previous era. The phrase is also used in connection with a retail outlet, e.g...
and "skull" jewelry, particularly that of the cult
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
Italian designer Attilio Codognato, whose memento mori
Memento mori
Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die". It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality...
jewelry she has been wearing and championing since the early 1990s. According to Style.com
Style.com
Style.com is a fashion website. It was formerly the online site for the fashion magazine Vogue and [W] W magazine featuring online versions of some of the magazine's content as well as internet-exclusive material such as event photographs and style-related articles, before Vogue developed its own...
, Sorokko's style can at times be "subversive." "I'm wearing my blouse upside down and backward," she told the reporter, referring to her Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent may refer to:* Yves Saint Laurent , French fashion designer* Yves Saint Laurent , a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé...
haute couture blouse. On another occasion, Sorokko was asked by Jim Shi of the Daily Front Row
Daily Front Row
is a fashion-industry publication, commonly known as . is operated by IMG Publishing, a division of IMG. Brandusa Niro is the editor in chief of The Daily....
about the oversized Donna Karan
Donna Karan
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.-Early life:...
coat she was wearing. “This is her trench from the last collection,” she informed him. “You may not recognize it because I am wearing it inside out. You know me – wearing it the normal way would be too ordinary.” More often, however, Sorokko's style is described as "timeless." “Tatiana’s timeless wardrobe reflects her individual point of view," fashion curator Dennita Sewell told ArtDaily
Artdaily
ArtDaily is an Internet-based media company founded in 1996 by editor-in-chief Ignacio Villarreal and a group of professionals in the art world. Its website is presented as an online newspaper, with content updated each day of the week. Its headquarters are located in Mexico City.- Content and...
. Her "inborn sense of style and extensive modeling experience shape her selections which transcend current fashion trends." According to Glenda Bailey, "Tatiana is an icon for the way she looks in fashion, but also for the way she looks at fashion. It makes her a great fashion collaborator." Ralph Rucci agrees: “Tatiana's style is not only flawless, it is also highly influential. She has absolutely inspired me.”
Sorokko was named in 2000 to the International "100 Best Dressed" list by American Vogue, and in 2007 to the "Best Dressed Women of All Time" list by Harper's Bazaar in its 140th anniversary issue. She made Bazaar's Best Dressed list again in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Personal life
In 1991, Sorokko met and later married Serge SorokkoSerge Sorokko
Serge Sorokko is an American art dealer, publisher and owner of the Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco. He played a major role in establishing the first cultural exchanges in the field of visual arts between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period of perestroika...
, a real estate developer and art collector turned art dealer, with galleries in San Francisco, New York and Beverly Hills. She has one stepdaughter and resides with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
External links
- Tatiana Sorokko Fashion Model DirectoryFashion Model DirectoryThe Fashion Model Directory is an online database of information about female fashion models, modeling agencies, fashion labels, fashion magazines, fashion designers and fashion editorials. FMD is often denoted as the IMDb of the fashion industry, for being one of the world's largest fashion...
- Tatiana Sorokko Steps Out Daily Front RowDaily Front Rowis a fashion-industry publication, commonly known as . is operated by IMG Publishing, a division of IMG. Brandusa Niro is the editor in chief of The Daily....
- First Soviet Model Tatiana Sorokko Exhibited Her Wardrobe RIA Novosti
- World Fashion: Russian Charm Offensive Russia TodayRussia TodayRussia Today may refer to:* Russia Today, an English language 24-hour television news channel from Russia. It was launched in 2005 and is not related to an online news service of the similar name operated by EIN News...
- A Fashionable Life: Tatiana Sorokko
- Top Models of the 90s