FOR THE LOVE OF THE BUSINESS

What could be the downside to the “greatest job on earth”?

- GEORGINA LAVERS

Take a stroll past Milan’s Duomo, past La Scala Opera House and into the midst of the Montenapoleone shopping district in central Milan, and you'll find the Rubeus Milano showroom. The luxury accessories brand does not hold back when it comes to finishings; scarlet purses and boots are draped in heavy brocade akin to a tapestry, and craftsmen peer over spectacles to inspect the innards of a heel. One may think that this kind of brand would have it made the moment it was conceived. But, like so much in fashion, the myth is always ba little shinier than the reality.

"We launched in November 2013, but it was only in 2019 that we started to turn a profit," says its founder, Nataliya Bondarenko. The designer admits that there has been some typically "fashion" moments; opening a jewellery exhibition in Paris at the Louvre with a necklace with 69 carats of Alexandrite, for example - but between these high-octane occasions, hard graft has been found.

"I don’t have typical working hours, I work all the time," she says. "It’s a fastpaced industry and there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that can be not so glamourous,” she says.

As a job, fashion designer conjures up images of swanning around with silks and sketchpad in hand. But with no established career route and often with student loans from top fashion schools to pay off, many will never make it to independent without external funding.

“I think its very difficult today to establish yourself in such a saturated and competitive market,” agrees Bondarenko.