Ulyana Sergeenko showed her Spring/Summer 2015 couture collection this week, (see it here, courtesy of Style.com), and while it is one of my favorite couture houses, it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, prior to taking in Sergeenko’s Spring/Summer 2014 couture collection, I had very firmly situated her in the camp of street style stars that I hate. You know who I’m talking about; the girls who dress (or better yet, are dressed) solely to have their pictures taken by Tommy Ton, Scott Schuman, etc. To me, they represent a fashionable version of everything that’s wrong with fashion week, whether it be New York, London, Milan or Paris, and everything that is wrong with what we have come to label as “personal style” aka “street style” aka sponsored dressing aka fame whoring. Ulyana was 100% on this list with her veils and her capes and her swim caps and her borderline medieval dress wardrobe. Her theatrical get-ups all screamed “Look at me” and/or “I am trying really hard”, etc. And look at her the street style photographers did. Every season. She has become one of the usual suspects (and somewhat suspect, they are) on W, Style.com, Vogue, and other big sites’ street style sections. However, her S/S 2014 Couture collection, her most wearable one to date, put it all in perspective for me. The at times-overly full skirts, statement headwear, and other costume-dressing that she is known for, authentic or not (and I’m really leaning towards not), this is the best marketing tool she has and it has been the perfect mechanism (in addition to a bunch of financial backing) for her to transition from street style star to fashion designer worthy of Paris Couture shows and of major red carpet appearances.

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