Lady with a dog. How ex-Kharkiv wore dogs of all Hollywood stars

Among her clients are Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Sting, Torrey Spelling. Former Kharkov resident Yana Syrkin sews and sells luxury clothes for dogs. One piece of clothing from her boutique in downtown West Hollywood costs an average of three hundred to four hundred dollars. Before creating her own business, Yana worked for fifteen years as a production designer at Hollywood film studios and dressed stars for the Oscars.

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The doors of Yana Syrkin's “Fifi & Romeo” boutique are closed for casual passers-by. You can get inside only by prior arrangement. This is how the owner of the store protects her rich and famous customers from the intrusive attention of onlookers and paparazzi.

“Although some celebrities, on the contrary, like to arrange photo shoots out of their visits. Once Christina Aguilera came, and a dozen and a half photographers gathered near the store,” laughs Yana Syrkin.

She spends a small tour of the shop-studio, which is more like a toy kingdom.

“I always wanted my own dollhouse. So I took it and created it myself,” says the owner of a luxury boutique for dogs. Around are porcelain dogs, sparkling collars, miniature handmade sweaters.

Yana Syrkin was the first to start sewing clothes for small dogs. Hollywood stars, surrounded by whom she worked for fifteen years, turned the passion of Yana into a fashion trend.

Her Fifi & Romeo, opened in 2000, became the world's first luxury boutique for dogs.

And after Oprah Winfrey invited Yana to her show and told all of America about the new brand, everyone fell in love with dog clothes. “Have you seen anything cuter?” Oprah asked her viewers during the show, holding in her hands one of the dog sweaters sewn by Yana.

“When you just start your business, and such a superstar like Oprah Winfrey, your store advertises to all of America is indescribable,” recalls Yana. Oprah Winfrey, along with Elizabeth Taylor and became one of the first regular customers of Yana Syrkin.

“It’s easier to say whose dogs I didn’t dress,” the owner of the boutique thinks for a second. “I probably had them all.” Angelina Jolie buys only black and white cashmere sweaters for her dogs, and Britney Spears buys pink ones,” Yana Syrkin recalls the preferences of her clients.

She also dresses dogs for movies. The funny dog ​​that Reese Witherspoon never lets go of in two parts of Legally Blonde is also the work of Yana.

“Initially, the dog was only supposed to appear in a few scenes. But we decided to come up with our own style for her and dress her in clothes that would match the outfits of the main character. As a result, she became another star of the film,” Yana smiles.

From Ukraine to Hollywood

Yana was born in Kharkov. In 1979, her family moved to the United States. She jokes: “Everyone then went in search of a better life, and we went. In my opinion, found.

According to the distribution of the Jewish Federation, the family ended up in Ohio. “When we were approaching Columbus, I looked out the window - and there was an open field, there was practically nothing. I also thought: what kind of village is this, where is the city? We never found the city,” Yana recalls her first impressions of America.

In the Midwest, the family lived for about five years, then moved to Los Angeles. Yana entered the University of Southern California, Department of International Finance. To pay tuition, spun on two jobs. Saved a good scholarship. Nothing foreshadowed the future of Hollywood, only the beginner financier Yana Syrkin suffered from boredom surrounded by her serious groupmates. “At the university, everyone around me was very conservative and boring. I thought all the time: if I study with them, it means that I will have to work with them, but we have nothing in common, ”she says.

Yana decided to change her profile and go to law school. And then, during the summer holidays, a friend called to help her and work as a costume designer at Paramount Pictures. “I went for the summer and stayed for fifteen years,” Yana shrugs. — The irony of fate: many people dream of getting into Hollywood, and they don’t succeed, but I succeeded. Although nothing falls from the sky there. We had to work a lot."

As a costume designer and designer, Yana has worked at major Hollywood film studios: MGM, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, New Line Cinema, Touchstone. She was a personal stylist for Sting, Lucy Liu, Robert Joney Jr., Ann Hatch, Eliza Donovan. On her account - work in a dozen films and serials, including Blade and Singer at a Wedding. For her work in the popular TV series “Ellie Macbill”, she received an award as the best designer of the year from the Costume Designers Guild.

Man dog friend

One day Yana was given a small Chihuahua dog. “It’s very difficult during filming. You’re away from home all day, and when you have a small dog with you, it’s like a piece of home is with you,” admits Yana.

Because of the resemblance to the famous character from Star Wars, she named the dog Yoda. The miniature dog became a constant companion. However, it was not easy to carry the dog through the studio security every day, and Yana made a special bag for him, in which the little Chihuahua was almost invisible. And when Yoda caught a cold and Yana had to pay two hundred dollars for a visit to the doctor, she sewed clothes for her pet from the sleeve of her old sweater so that he would always be warm. “When we saw Yoda in a sweater at work, everyone went crazy. Hollywood stars started buying small dogs for themselves,” Yana recalls.

It was then that it turned out that the pet clothing niche is absolutely empty: “It turned out that there is no dog clothing anywhere. I could not find anything in the stores. ”

Yana began to sew clothes herself. As an experiment in 1998, she sent samples of her goods to the famous Barneys brand store in New York and invited them to sell clothes for dogs. The store ordered things for ten thousand dollars, and Yana had to urgently sew dog sweaters for an already paid party.

She always wanted to prove that you can build a real business on clothes for dogs. Therefore, Jana took a loan secured at home and in 2000 opened a store of her dream in Los Angeles. Friends and part-time Hollywood celebrities Robert Jones Jr came to the holiday party on this occasion. and Anne Heche.

World stars later became regular customers in Yana Syrkin’s store. Cameron Diaz, Britney Spears, Drew Barrymore, Christina Aguilera, Ketty Perry, Kate Hudson, Anne Hathway, Torrey Spelling, 50Cent came to her.

The cheapest thing in a boutique is worth a hundred dollars, there is no upper limit of cost. For example, a handmade cashmere sweater for a small dog costs 350 dollars. It does not see a single seam.

Yana herself designs the models and makes sure that everything is sewn perfectly.

She also has sets of clothes for the dog and her hostesses, designed in one design decision. American Express used one of these kits to advertise.

Leading American media wrote about an unusual dog boutique, while Yana herself became a frequent guest on television shows.

Later, she dug up twelve boutiques in Japan, but the partners who had faced financial problems let down, and now there is only one store in Tokyo, similar to Los Angeles. However, Yana is not discouraged - her dream of her dollhouse has already come true.

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