Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Darya Kosilova

Photographed By Ellinor Forje

“K-O-S-I-L-O-V-A.”

“Darya Kosilova. Polish?” I asked.

“Russian,” she replied.

After three weeks in Europe, Darya Kosilova is ready to go back to New York which is home. She’ll miss Denmark. “It’s the most perfect place. Everybody is outrageously beautiful. And they’re all on vacation. I’m always working,” she said. She’s right. Getting in touch with a professional in the Scandinavia in the month of July and part of August - fuggedaboutit. Any semblance of a relationship you’ll have is with their automated answering machine telling you, in two different languages, “I’m on vacation”.

We’re on the rooftop of the Generator Hostel in Copenhagen with a view that could easily be the back drop in one Lemuel Gulliver’s voyages. The white flower pots that serve as part of the roof top décor appear to have been snatched from a Brobdingnagian’s window sill. It’s not a negative. The Generator has impeccable design for a hostel as other hostels are usually, as Kosilova and I would say in unison, “Disgusting”. The Generator has eight hostels across Europe that look more like boutique hotels than the tales of horror you sometimes here about from the adventurous traveller on a budget. Although I’ve crossed the main street to the side street Generator is on several times, I’ve completely missed it.

Kosilova works as an art director for “The Lab Magazine”, the producution house that curates Generator's #REGENERATE14 event where I’d earlier received the notification:

Hi

Sorry there has been a change and it’s Friday from 7pm. I've put you on the list and I hope you can make it! 

Unfortunately I won’t be there but my colleagues Emma and Ernest will be at the door so do say hi to them!

Thanks!

Belen

I reply that I'll be there with bells on.

#REGENERATE14 is an interactive concept of strangers sharing space peacefully. The first event was held in Berlin where Kosilova worked with the publication and website she joined four years ago. The team behind “The Lab Magazine” originate from Canada. And Kosilova met the lab leaders Justin Tyler Close and Jeremy Power Regimbal while an art student in Vancouver. She also has a visual collaboration called “Appppple Sauce" with creative director, Tyler Close.

In additon, she’s a model, which strikes you before her style. “Lately I’ve been enjoying softer dresses mixed with more conservative sexy as my outfits,” she said. She nailed it. Those black leather booties. I want them. Yesterday. We’re interrupted by a buzzing bee hovering over our drinks. It doesn’t disappear despite the effort to make the Honey. B. Fly away. After a minute of circulation it closes in on Kosilova’s cider then dives right into the bottle. “Did the bees all migrate to Denmark or something? I’ve never seen so many bees in one place,” said Kosilova. Neither have I. I also wonder about the exodus of ladybirds since I haven’t seen a single one the entire summer. I’ve noticed other insects I swear didn’t exist when I was growing up. Plain weird mutations seeking refuge in my bedroom at night. I’m not making this up nor have I been drankin’ on a beach like Beyoncé. Damn evolution if that’s what it is.

“I’m an animal lover but…” says Darya Kosilova before pouring out the liquid gold on the wooden floor. Our eyes meet. Then we get back to work.

3 comments:

  1. Love the picture. Denmark is a cool place, hope I can go sometime. xx

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  2. First of all, the outfit. She owns the photo. It's perfect in every sense of the word.

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  3. Fashion-Forward Female.

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