The children went to sleep at ten o’clock. Then Oksana Alkhunsaeva sat down with a sewing machine. She won the machine in a competition. She had a piece of fabric in the house and about one hour before the night ended. She came back from her second maternity leave and worked in shops, not in sewing. Only the end of the day was free. She knew she had to sew. But she did not know how to do it yet.
One night she had a dream. Her grandmother was in the dream, and her grandmother said one word: “Sew.” Oksana listens to her dreams. Today people order her clothes from all over Russia: from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yakutsk and Kamchatka.
Oksana was born in 1984 in Ust-Ordynsky. It is a small town of about 15,000 people in the Irkutsk region. She was the youngest child and had two brothers. Her family kept the old traditions and spoke Buryat at home. Most families did not do this. But the family did not wear traditional clothes every day. Her grandmother had real Buryat boots, and that was all. The Buryats are a people who live near Lake Baikal, in south Siberia and north Mongolia.
As a child, Oksana made clothes for her dolls. She watched a TV show from Mexico about a village girl who came to the capital city and became a clothes designer. Little Oksana wanted the same life.
In 2008 she got a job at a Buryat culture centre. That year the centre helped to organise the Altargana festival in Irkutsk. Oksana was surprised, because she had almost never seen Buryat national clothes before. She said she watched everything at the festival and loved it. Then she understood what she wanted to make.
Her first clothes were for her family. They were beautiful, but nobody could wear them every day. Now she starts with the person. She asks the client what clothes they like, and then she makes a Buryat costume for them. Her husband, her parents and other family members all help her. In 2023 she was named the best designer in her district.
Sometimes Oksana laughs and says she wants a calm office job again. Then someone comes to her and asks for a costume like hers. She says it is like a voice that will not let her go and says: “Sew.”