Glamorous Azerbaijanis - Exclusive!!! Fashion guru, businesswoman and it-girl - all this is about one woman - Aysel Trudel Aysel Trudel biography who is the father

Bet on red

“Probably my greatest success is collaboration with Christian Louboutin. We are great friends, we often call each other and meet. I remember when I celebrated my 30th birthday in Paris, he prepared a surprise for me. I invited only those closest to me - my mother, several friends, Sati Spivakova. Christian took us to a Vietnamese restaurant and constantly hovered around me - this would do, then that would do. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and then it turned out that he needed to discreetly cut off a lock of my hair! For what? He made shoes for me from plastic, under which he placed my curls and photographs that were memorable to me. It was such a gift!”

Left: top, skirt, everything - Marc Jacobs; shoes, Carven. In her hands is a Marc Jacobs jacket. Right: Sweater, Jonathan Saunders

Necklace with brooch pendants, Oscar de la Renta

Academy Award"

“I have quite a lot of hoodies from democratic brands - they are so comfortable! Bright blue and yellow necklace - Oscar de la Renta. This designer always dressed the first ladies - Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton. And I met all of them at his receptions. I was especially impressed by Nancy Reagan - a very elegant, well-groomed woman, as if from another era.”

Dress, Azzedine Alaïa

“Azzedine Alaïa’s long dresses were at one time only in his couture collections. And for the first time he made a floor-length dress for a commercial line - I immediately bought it. By the way, Azzedine and I have been friends for a long time - every time I’m in Paris, he invites me to visit. The most interesting people always gather with him, and the designer himself bakes fish in sea salt. We communicate, even though he doesn’t speak English - Azzedine often calls me through his secretary, asking how I’m doing, how the children are. A very unusual and sincere person!”

For the love of art

“I really love the film “Slave of Love” - Nikita Mikhalkov shot it based on the material of the artist Rustam Khamdamov. He is a rather private person, but one day I finally got to his house and saw his paintings. In the end, I persuaded him to make a drawing, which we placed on bags, the facade of our store and sweatshirts - now this is the symbol of Aizel Moscow! And Libertine designers Cindy Green and Johnson Hartig, whose dress I wore with a sweatshirt, were at my husband and I’s “mural” in the Moscow registry office. We invited a few guests, and they were just in Moscow - and so it happened!”

Novikova Inna 05/30/2012 at 11:00

Aysel Trudel, the owner of elite boutiques in Moscow and a representative of famous European fashion brands in the Russian Federation, Christian Louboutin, Agent Provocateur, Diane von Furstenberg and several others, visited the Pravdy.Ru video studio. The publication's editor-in-chief Inna Novikova spoke with her about fashion, Russian wives and men, helping children and her new projects.

- Aysel, I want to start our conversation with a strange ranking of the best Russian wives who worthily represent their husbands in the West. Anna Kournikova, Olga Sviblova, Natalya Vodianova took part in the rating, you took first place. Please tell us what the phrase “a Russian wife who worthily represents her husband in the West” means?

As far as I remember, it was a rating from Harper's Bazaar magazine. It was a revelation to me that my husband and I took first place. They came to film us in Sardinia in the summer. I was just pregnant. Italian journalists were filming Russian girls who were married for foreigners. My husband is Canadian. But he lives between Moscow and Monaco. His parents moved to Monaco many years ago. He is an architect and designer. He has a development company in Monaco. He has many projects in America, some in Moscow.

- What did you need to do to get into this rating?

I don't know, to be honest. According to Harper's Bazaar magazine, we were included in this rating.

- We have written a lot about the fact that mixed marriages are more complex than internal ones: a different mentality, a different upbringing, a different perception of even the most common everyday problems. Have these differences affected your family? By the way, where were you born?

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I was born in Baku. My parents were diplomats and traveled a lot. Since the third grade, I lived constantly in Moscow, then it was still the Soviet Union. I graduated from MGIMO. As for the attitude of foreign men towards women, I can absolutely say that foreigners treat women as an equal half, as a worthy member of society.

-Are you comparing with Russian men?

Yes. And with the Azerbaijani ones in the first place. Foreigners give you more freedom and allow you to be who you are, they don’t violate your rights, they don’t put pressure on you, they don’t say: “No, don’t work, look after the children, don’t take a nanny.” That is, they allow a woman to realize herself fully, if there is such a need. I have such a need. I can’t help but work, I can’t stay at home. I have been working since I was 16 years old. It was very important to me that this side of me would not be infringed. There is also this point: when a woman is strong, when she has character, then not all men like it. My husband and I have been married for over seven years. Fortunately, I have not yet experienced pressure from my husband even once. On the contrary, he supports all my endeavors.

- When you married him, did you already have fashion boutiques?

Yes they were. When we met, he took an active part in the design of these stores. I took on quite a serious amount of work - everything related to design, rental, construction. His companies directly adjusted many projects, and they differ from the general level in Moscow.

- Because they are Canadian?

Because they are simply different. The specifics of a multi-brand store are very different from a mono-brand store. There are from 70 to 80 brands in the project, all of them have their own character, all of them have their own direction, which changes from season to season. If the interior of this store is very loud: for example, you make a red ceiling, or red curtains, or some very bright wallpaper, customers begin to get lost. Therefore, when we opened the store, the task was to create a comfortable, cozy space in which all brands would coexist, in which there would be no distractions and customers would be able to focus their attention on things.

- In fact, most likely, the success of any store depends not only and not so much on the interior. What is important first of all is the manager, the owner of the business... You are a young woman, but already quite an experienced, well-known person in this market... How did you get into this business?

I traveled a lot. I went to France, America, England, Italy, went to different stores. I always wanted to do something in Moscow that has never happened. I wanted to bring designers to Moscow, I wanted to show our people things that we had never seen.

- Why “we never saw”? The Iron Curtain fell 20 years ago.

The Iron Curtain may have fallen, but I wanted to show young brands that you can experiment with, I wanted to show people how they can be combined... I don’t want to say that I’m the first to do this in Russia, but, for example, Marc Jacobs, We brought Stella McCartney and many other European and American designers to the Russian market for the first time. This all happened about ten years ago. Naturally, the initial reaction was ambiguous: people took a closer look - they were used to wearing Gucci, Prado, Dolce Gabbana and Versace. But some kind of evolution has begun, and today the brands we brought are advanced.

- Besides travel, what other components of your success are there?

- We have one iron rule - the client is always right. Unless people who come to the store get personal and start insulting the sellers. We work in the service industry, and our task is to make people happy. It doesn't matter whether they bought something or not. The goal is that once they come to our store, they always want to return there. Today they have no money, but tomorrow they do.

In general, it all starts from the moment you order the collection: how you deliver it on time, how you imagine it, how sellers sell it, a lot depends on pricing. This is a kind of complex.

The work of salespeople is a psychologically difficult job. They account for 50 percent, in my opinion, of the store’s success, because these people communicate with customers, broadcast their attitude and mood. We are all living people, we have problems, we have good and bad days. And we try to train sellers to leave negativity behind the store doors, to be positive towards customers, to tell them the truth (what is really suitable, not to force things), so that people come back and become our regular customers.

- This is the most important argument - the client is not the one who bought something from you, but the client is the one who came to you for the second time. But how to find, prepare sellers, how to make them love customers? It seems like a simple task, but very difficult to complete.

Our employees are motivated by their salary; this is a very good salary according to the market. We all work for ourselves, financially. All sellers have a personal percentage of sales. Plus the mood, a healthy atmosphere in the team. I myself spent a very long time going to other stores, watching how they served me. I found my leading sellers this way.

- Did you go to other stores and take those you liked?

Yes, this is the market, this is normal, everyone does it.

- What if they come to you?

They come and try to entice. Someone, in very rare cases, leaves. Again, this is the market.

- You said that the work of a salesperson is psychologically difficult. Do you conduct any training with your staff?

Of course we do. Recently we were commissioning a new project - an online store, and the question arose about creating a call center. Since our product is exclusive, we set ourselves the task of finding specialists for the call center among the sellers. We have selected the best, with a pleasant voice, those who know how and love to communicate. So they were trained...

- So they will work both as salespeople and in a call center?

They will combine - this is also sales, only sales via the Internet. I believe that the task here is even more difficult, because clients from the regions cannot come to our boutique, try them on, touch them. We basically planned all this for those living in the regions.

Over the past three or four years, we have received a huge number of calls and letters from completely different parts of Russia with a request to open an online store. We have been nurturing this idea for a long, long time. Still, we decided to make a separate project from the store.

On the site we pay great attention to styling. We take very detailed photographs of each item so that you can imagine it completely accurately.

- A man comes to the store. The participation of a seller who can advise is very important. The thing hangs on a hanger, looks great, but when you put it on, it turns out that you’re not wearing it very well. In an online store, you can’t touch, or listen, or look in the mirror...

Well, you can listen, that’s what the call center is for. In addition, there is always the opportunity to return the product. Of course, buying online is riskier because, as you say, it is impossible to try on. But, according to the law, people have the right to return the goods within two weeks. In addition, before placing an order, our specialists always call and find out in great detail the features of the figure, which models people prefer, how they sit on them.

- Please tell us about how representatives of various leading brands and designers came to Russia at your invitation.

For example, we made an interesting exhibition at Garage together with Dasha Zhukova. It was a joint art project between David Lynch and Christian Louboutin. David presented photos of Christian's abstract shoes, which, of course, cannot be worn. The project was a great success in Europe and around the world. About 15 photographs of David Lynch were sold to collectors from Russia.

He is a director and very rarely takes photographs, so this project is exclusive, connected, on top of everything, with fashion. David has been friends with Christian for a long time, they have been nurturing this idea for a very long time. When I was in Los Angeles, the three of us discussed over dinner how we were going to do this. There was a huge presentation in Paris and Los Angeles. I really wanted to bring these works to Russia. And the reaction in the Garage was amazing: people walked and watched for a long time, they liked it.

The second project, which I think is also successful. In 2010, together with Olya Sviblova, we organized a huge exhibition in Manege. Diane von Furstenberg, one of the world's leading fashion designers and private collectors, brought her entire art collection, including works by other famous designers. Plus, we agreed with Moscow State University, and she gave lectures to students at the journalism department. It was such a success, you can't imagine.

We really want to repeat this. First, second, third courses - they just sat and listened with their mouths open, the applause lasted for 40 minutes, they didn’t let her go. She is an interesting, charismatic person. She is 62 years old, yet she is infectious with her energy. And you feel ashamed when you say that something hurts you or you don’t have the strength... I want to be like her. She is not a feminist, but she believes that women should have an equal position with men in society. Diana is the only woman in the world who was able to make both of her husbands, being gay, marry her. Her husband is one of the largest businessmen in America. There are 15-20 families in America that make up the elite, their family is one of them. Her husband is associated with Hollywood, with many production companies, including Paramount Pictures.

- How did you manage to bring her here?

I met with her in New York and said that I would like to represent her in Russia and maintain a long, fruitful, friendly and working relationship with her. It took me a long time to convince her. Diana wasn't sure that a young girl like me wouldn't let her down. She set quite difficult tasks for me.

By the way, she brought the wrap dress into fashion history. America is not easy to conquer, but she still conquered it. At the age of 18, she was already on the cover of the New York Times. This also says a lot. She is one of the first women to dress America in dresses, introducing the culture of dress.

- You talk about the culture of dresses, Aysel... It seems to me that in America there is still more of a jeans culture.

In America, there is also a jeans culture; they are mainly worn on weekends. I'm talking about women who work. Diana's main task was to create complete clothing for every day for secretaries, office workers, and corporate employees.

- I know that you would like to show our designers to the West. Apparently this is still a dream? In general, how far are we from them? What prospects do our young designers have?

There is a very great need for some Russian designers, such as Gazinskaya, Terekhov. When creating the website, one of our goals was to use our platform to promote Russian designers abroad. Unfortunately, not all designers today have the opportunity to upholster complete collections, export them abroad, rent hotel rooms, or sell them in showrooms.

Russian fashion is in its infancy. We have individual designers who are helped by business structures or financiers, they are sponsored, but there is no single center within which they would be connected with each other. It seems to me that Russian guys, our designers, have very great potential. We started selling Gazinskaya in the store, they react very well to her, she is a very talented girl, she is ahead of the curve...

- What does “get ahead of the curve” mean?

She uses very interesting prints in her designs, which many other designers around the world are picking up.

- Our girl from Russia, who does not have the opportunity for serious promotion, creates a vector?

Our girl from Russia is the only Russian designer who began selling in the Parisian boutique "Colet". There is an opinion that the designers who are sold at Kolet are at the peak of popularity today. If you get into Kolet, it means that everything is fine with you and your career will develop. Gazinskaya herself is a very pleasant person. I sincerely wish her all the best.

- But what are the chances for our designers to get into the best Parisian and other boutiques? Was Gazinskaya just lucky or is this some kind of pattern?

I think that somewhere she was lucky, somewhere it was her long and hard work. She is traveling abroad. Unlike many other designers, she has this opportunity. She exhibits her collection at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Many famous bloggers wear it. She has very bright prints, recognizable things. And in dresses and suits from her penultimate collection, with parrots, only the lazy did not appear.

- And yet, what advice can you give to young people on how to get to the West, how to become recognizable? Just don’t say that you need to work.

We definitely need to work. For my part, I can say that we are looking at a lot of designers. We will have about ten more young designers whom we will present on our website. If possible, we will try to exhibit these collections in large showrooms.

Although sometimes the task is not to get to the showroom, but to produce and ship on time. Not everything is simple with our exports either. It is very difficult to produce things in Russia and send them for export when you have production here.

- Isn’t it easier to order and produce in China, and then deliver from there very quickly?

To produce in China, you need volumes. If your volumes do not reach a certain turnover, then it is not profitable to produce in China. And then, we have wonderful tailors, wonderful fashion designers. In America, for example, you come to a huge block, 15 people are sitting: one embroiders, the other cuts. All the same. There's just a bigger market there.

- Do we make fewer clothes than in America?

No, but they have a certain government program that supports young designers. I am also trying to make efforts so that we finally have such a program. This is the face of your country. It’s always nice when our champion gets a medal, when Russia wins somewhere. Nice? Certainly. Maybe this is not the main problem. We have a lot of other problems that need to be solved. But when they start saying that it’s worse here than there, it’s not true. We need to find a way to support young designers, because clothes are and will always be worn.

- Who can help support young designers?

We need to work through the state program, find ways of subsidies and incentives. We are now seriously addressing this problem. I think that around the middle of the year we will have the opportunity to do something. I won't talk about it for now.

- Fine. Aysel, please tell me, who are your clients? Who do you tell that this designer is good, that one is bad?

Our clients are very different, ranging from people from show business, actors, singers, government and public figures...

- Builders?

Builders, ordinary people, housewives, schoolgirls - completely different women, girls, ladies.

- How would you determine the price category of your stores?

We have big sales, and there are clients who dress according to the sales. There are clients who dress when a new collection arrives. Our average bill is about 15 thousand rubles.

- I remember there was such news: student Ksenia Sobchak was stolen from diamonds worth either 60 thousand dollars, or 600 thousand dollars. Students, of course, are different...

Well, schoolgirls are also different. Ksyusha Sobchak - by the way, is also our client.

- And you also give her advice about what suits her?

If he asks, we give it.

- Do they even ask?

They often ask. Although there are those who really don’t like advice.

- And Pugacheva asks what suits her?

I adore Pugachev, I really like her. Unfortunately, Alla Borisovna has not come to us yet, but Christina has visited us several times.

- And do you give advice to Christina?

I can’t say that we give advice to Christina, there was simply no such need, but she periodically comes to our stores.

- I talked with Alexandra Kaloshina, a representative of the Valentino brand and other Italian brands. She said that brands are absolutely unnecessary. By wearing them, we are promoting them, but we ourselves get lost. Therefore, clothes should be, as she believes, non-branded, fashion should be for oneself.

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How many people, so many opinions. Unbranded?... Fashion changes, times change, moods change - everything changes. Today maxi is fashionable, tomorrow - mini, today long dresses, wide trousers, high waists are fashionable, again the fashion of the 1970-1980s is returning. Check out the latest shows. The fashion world is changing all the time, setting different directions. It's your personal choice. You wear what you feel comfortable in. It all depends on the structure of your figure.

- Some people have clothes here, and the structure of the figure is in another place, but at the same time the person is comfortable, good and happy.

Yes, he's happy. But this is the most important thing. Of course, sometimes he looks a little strange from the outside. I take these things calmly.

- What place does fashion occupy in your life?

In my personal life - very big, because this is my job.

- And in the lives of your clients?

In my clients' lives, clothing is a way of self-expression. It’s not for nothing that, for example, people are greeted by their clothes and seen off by their intelligence. Of course, the way you dress, the way you present yourself, the way you express yourself - all this says a lot. And it depends on who you are and where you work. For example, there are rules of etiquette. First ladies cannot wear tight or very short clothes, they must wear stockings at all times. When you work in government, you can't wear miniskirts or low-cut necklines. There is a dress code, and I think it must be adhered to. If you are associated with the artistic world, with the world of culture or fashion, this gives you more opportunities to dress in a more varied way.

- Do you know the statement that it doesn’t matter what we wear, the main thing is that we have a good hairstyle and good shoes?

I agree. When your head is not right, your shoes are dirty and worn out, nothing can be worse. A woman should try to be well-groomed. To do this, it is absolutely not necessary to buy expensive things. To take care of yourself, you need to be in the mood. Many will now think: “Well, I have three children. I’m at work from morning to evening. I don’t have time for all this.” Well, don’t have time to wash your hair? I will not believe.

We must create our own mood, this is very important. Believe me, it is absolutely not necessary to have a lot of money in order to dress beautifully. There are stores (unfortunately, we are not one of those stores) that today sell clothes that may not be of very good quality, but they correspond to fashion trends. Women just need to love themselves a little more and try, first of all for their own sake, to look better. When you put on a thousand or ten thousand dollar dress, that's not what's important, you know? It is important that we must love ourselves.

Even if we have two children, even if we don’t have husbands, we don’t have enough money - it doesn’t matter. Everything in life can change. And we can change everything with our attitude, with our own hands. I also work very hard. I achieved everything in this life myself. In any case, you cannot be discouraged, you must always move forward and love yourself. This is my motto in life.

- The most important thing is to love yourself. Our women can love everyone around them, except themselves. At the same time say: “Masha, what a beautiful dress you have.” What does our Masha answer? Masha says: “What are you talking about? This dress is a hundred years old.”

I always answer that way too, to be honest. It is believed that the most beautiful women live in Russia. There are beautiful and ugly everywhere. But for the most part, I agree, our women are the most beautiful. And more sincere, and, it seems to me, kinder. I traveled a lot, met different women. In America, women in general are very well-groomed - they go to hairdressers and get manicures. In France, ladies are not very well-groomed. In England they are generally not well-groomed.

- But still, ours are more natural, or something...

Ours are very beautiful, they only need a little bit. First of all, you need to set yourself up to the fact that everything should be fine, to set yourself up to be positive.

- Aysel, what do you see as your purpose, besides the fact that you have two children who need to be raised?

Two children whom I love very much... I don’t want to seem banal, but about three years ago I made a decision for myself, although I try not to talk about it openly, but my destiny is connected with my relationship with God. I feel the need to help people. Last year we organized a New Year's party in a Moscow orphanage for blind children. I just wanted to make a holiday for them, we invited artists, there were interesting performances. Even very seriously ill children - they also reacted. What do I want to tell you? It is very important to give warmth to someone, especially those who need it. Just stroke it one more time. I think this is very important. In general, I believe that people who can help someone with something, they should help. In general, we should help each other.

- If a patient cannot be cured, this does not mean that he cannot be helped.

Certainly. I say again, even very seriously ill children reacted: someone shouted something, someone stood up and started clapping their hands and stamping their feet. They express their emotions differently, they cannot come up and say: “Thank you very much.” Because sometimes they just can't talk. Someone was crying. Moreover, you can see from the children what families they come from. Some of their parents died, some were simply abandoned, and there are mentally ill children. They are isolated from society. They always enjoy attention, they are always waiting for someone.

- They all dream about their mother. The fact that adults are trying to somehow provide them financially is very important, but they need warmth...

My dream is for orphanages to cease to exist in Russia. There are nowhere else with such a number of orphanages as there are in Russia.