Welcome to The Blog

Hi everyone!

My name is Darina. However, if you are visiting this page, you probably already know me or have seen me around.

After years and years of persuasions by my friends and family, I have finally decided to start sharing and to be more open about my work and experiences.

Let me introduce myself. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, I have been living in Toronto since August 2012.

I am a fashion journalist. Like Quentin Tarantino never attended a film school, but spent all his free time in the movies, I never had a formal training in journalism. I did my degrees in Cultural Studies and in Fashion. That enabled me to get the deepest knowledge in various cultural areas, but my main interests, besides fashion of course, are film, art, popular and celebrity culture, travel and lifestyle. Being very curious by nature, I sometimesfeel that I didn't choose journalism as a career, but it chose me.

I have always perceived fashion not as simply clothes, but as a visual language of communication. That is one of the reasons why I don't leave fashion academia. Fashion studies is an emerging area and there is so many things to discover. My research focuses on true style icons, where I analyze how iconic figures of fashion embody the cultural norms of their times.

But don't get me wrong - I love having fun and playing with fashion too. I love parties and events, that is why being an Events Editor for FAJO Magazine is a great opportunity for me to combine work and fun.

As a true postmodernist self, I tend to mix the opposites, to blur boundaries of reality and hyperreality, being a serious young lady and to make a complete fool out of myself sometimes.

So, welcome to my blog and enjoy the ride!

And, yes, my hair is naturally curly.

Photo by Maryna Svyatyshenko for FAJO Magazine