Karaganda coal on the Milan catwalk: designer Olga Zeller presented an unusual collection of jewelry

The jewelry brand TuLOla from Karaganda was presented at the Milan Fashion Week. Its founder, Olga Zeller, prepared jewelry made of stabilized charcoal for the show.

Karagandinka started creating accessories back in 2016. Then she worked with natural stones, leather, jewelry resin and other materials. I started working with coal in 2019, when I participated in a project dedicated to the cities of Kazakhstan. Olga was designing accessories for clothes representing Karaganda, and decided to use coal as a symbol of the mining region. She made large earrings out of it.

– Those earrings, of course, could not be worn: they were fragile, they stained the skin and clothes. Over time, I learned how to stabilize coal. I work with jewelry resin, and I use it to stabilize coal. It helps to strengthen the charcoal and make sure that it does not stain anything," says the craftswoman.

Over time, Olga learned to understand the grades of coal and its properties. The jewelry designer lives in a private house and buys coal for heating. Sometimes coal is found with mineral inclusions. This is what she uses in her work. According to her, anthracite is the most beautiful coal of the highest quality.

– Of course, such coal is not supplied for heating. It would be very expensive, and each piece would have to be selected manually. But the company where we buy coal already knows what I do, and they always bring a bucket of anthracite," Olga said.

Olga's works have been repeatedly awarded at competitions in Kazakhstan, as well as exhibited at various exhibitions and art fairs. And at the end of September, she presented her jewelry collection at Milan Fashion Week. Before receiving an official invitation, the craftswoman sent sketches of her works to the organizers.

– Participation in such screenings is paid. The amount was quite large, and I was told that a creative group could come and share the costs with everyone. That's what I did," says the designer.

Olga invited her friends and acquaintances to go to Milan as models. The idea was also for jewelry to be presented by ordinary women, not professional models. The main requirements were height above 165 centimeters and a harmonious figure. All the models learned how to pose and walk on the catwalk before the trip. As a result, a group of girls and women of different ages and professions gathered. The youngest of them is 23 years old.

– Some of the participants went with their families: they planned to visit Milan and at the same time decided to take part in the show. In total, there were 14 of us," Olga said.

At the show, the TuLOla brand aroused real interest. European fashion experts highly appreciated the idea, aesthetics and quality of jewelry.

Olga plans to develop the brand further, expand the range of jewelry and continue to promote Kazakhstani design in the international arena. In November, she is preparing to present her jewelry at Kazakhstan Fashion Day and Turkey Fashion Week.