Kathrin Marchenko

Kathrin Marchenko is a textile artist and designer specializing in custom embroidery masterpieces. Her divine signature stitch is akin to a gestural drawing, the energy and emotion of each stroke evident in the stunning details of her threaded portraits and anatomical studies. These celestial designs are embroidered into transparent tulle fabric and seized by a wooden hoop, giving each piece a 3D effect.  

Born in Moscow, Marchenko studied and grew up in a small but cozy city in the Kharkov region of Ukraine. After admiring embroidered dresses from designers like Valentino, Elie Saab, and Dior, Marchenko was inspired to create an embroidered tulle blouse for a sewing course in 2016. She was hooked. The following year she took an embroidery course at Ecole Lesage School in Paris. 

Marchenko’s elegant fashion pieces conjure images of a vibrant fairytale. Feather-light tulle gloves look like translucent wings, flecked with Swarovski crystals. Brightly colored pheasants embroidered on a black tulle bodysuit show a more playful side. Beyond embroidery, Marchenko also creates resin art studded with dried flowers or speckled with gold leaf.

You can check out their latest projects on Creatively here.

What is the first creative project you remember?

At the age of 15, I was given paint to paint on ceramics, on vases and saucers. They, of course, did not find applications, but I really liked to mix a lot of shades and watch them frosting, they turned into bizarre shapes. 

I think, from that moment, I had a great desire to work with color, and over time this desire found itself in embroidery. 

Describe your aesthetic in three words.

Expression, sensuality, meditation.

What was the most fulfilling collaboration you’ve worked on?

The project I had with Gigi Hadid and V Magazine. We worked together for V Magazine’s Gigi Journal Part II. I expressed the theme of quarantine through a girl in a mask. She can be anyone—a doctor, a nurse, an artist, an ordinary passerby. In a pandemic, we are all equal, and each of us wears a mask or other personal protective equipment for global security.

What’s one creative project that taught you something fundamental about yourself?

The set of works, “Touché Amore,” has shown my unconscious fear of love, of feeling anything. I had no plan before working on this project, but that’s how it turned for me.

Do you think creativity is something you’re born with, or something you’re taught?

I think creativity is symbiotic, something with which you are born and it never leaves you. You see the world in this special, creative way and it has an impact on everything you do.

What’s the last dream you had?

A dream about free borders between our countries. My grandpa lives in Ukraine, while I live in Moscow, Russia. It’s really hard nowadays to see the people you love. So I hope one day all over the world people will have this opportunity to be near those they value and love. 

One hundred years from now, what do you hope people write about your work?

I hope that people will say that my works were sincere, done with honesty. That I expressed my feelings—good or bad—with my work, and that I wanted to make the world a little bit better with my art.

Follow @KathrinMarchenko on Creatively.

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