Originally appeared as web-itorial in Jute Magazine*.
Crimean born Larisa Tomashchuk, knew from the age of four what she wanted to do with her life. “I remember how in the kindergarten all the children were asked who they wanted to be when they grew up and everybody said that they wanted to be the policemen, doctors, actresses, singers, and I wanted to be a fashion clothes designer.”
“I graduated from the Kiev National University of Technologies and Design where I obtained my Master’s degree in art modeling of costumes. Beat everyone in contests, always won top places. I did an internship at Tatiana Parfionova fashion house in St. Petersburg, where the designer offered me an official job. Then I worked at a Kiev fashion house until I realized that I was ready to say more, and launched my own brand.”
Larisa, reinvented herself as Lara Quint, and created her own brand. When she began looking for a nom de plume, she “began to look through all the characters’ names in my favorite books and found one named John Quint, and I quite liked his name. I started to look into the meaning and it turned out it was short for quintessence, which seemed very much a definition of me; as I love all at once. I am impatient in my ideas and I find it difficult to stop the flow of ideas in my head. Therefore, the five main spheres that are the quintessence became my credo in life. ‘A ship will sail the way you name it’. This is our saying.”
Now located in the heart of Kiev, Lara has her “own studio, where all my collections are created and where I accept clients. This is my kingdom, my world in which I constantly reside and where I surround myself with the best people, only traveling abroad or work can get me out of there.”
Lara’s design inspiration comes from her own personal experiences, and reflections on everything from Baudelaire poems, to the world around her.
*Jute was founded by fashion photographer Lynzi Judish and hair and makeup artist Kadie Murphy in 2013. The first issue of Jute launched in September of 2013 and has been constantly growing ever since. Jute magazine celebrates the individual fashionista. It’s about fashion at all levels and finding your own style by mixing and matching. We love everything from Gucci to Guess to Goodwill. It’s not about where the clothes come from, it’s how you wear them. (Jute was discontinued in 2018.)