Tag #151557 - Interview #78270 (Semyon Gun)

In 1959 I went to work as an assistant modeler at the Fashion Model House that had just opened in Odessa. In a year I became a modeler. Our director Zinaida Fominichna Gaivoroskaya was a former Party leader at Vorovskogo garment factory. She was a man-like creature with hoarse voice, a chain smoker and she liked drinking. We were horrified. We expected to see a more refined person on this post. We were surprised that she learned to conduct fashion design meetings so skillfully that any professional could envy her. She managed to have a new building given to us. There were hardly any magazines. Every month we received 5 fashion magazines from Moscow for two weeks. Every year a group of modelers went to methodical meetings held in Moscow for representatives of 36 Fashion Houses of the USSR. We took there our garment collections and mannequins with us. I remember coming to the All-Union Chamber of Commerce where they had foreign made clothes on hangers. We looked at them and forgot about everything else. We drew pictures of them and tried them on. We discussed how they were made and discussed the technology. This was how we learned. We also went to theaters and art museums.