“Such audacity cannot be left unaddressed. She’s a cunning fox, knows where to play the fool and where to shed tears.” Scandal involving Alena Kostornaia and costume designers continues to unfold
The scandal involving Alena Kostornaia and costume designers continues to unfold with more details.
original source: Telegram / Sport-Express / MatchTV / MatchTV
Yesterday, designer Alena Kuklycheva announced the termination of cooperation with Kostornaia, stating that the figure skater did not pay for the costumes. Alena commented on the situation saying that the federation will pay for the costumes and that she had to switch to another designer because of dissatisfaction with the quality. Here’s translation of Alena and designers commetes regarding situation.
Alena Kostornaia responded to the claims of the designer regarding unpaid dresses.
“The reason for this post is not the most pleasant. As an adult, I expected that issues would be resolved in an adult way. However, this does not always happen.
Regarding my alleged ‘debt.’ The contract for making our costumes for competitions in the 2023/24 season was signed with the Moscow Figure Skating Federation. This issue is being addressed with them, not with me. Therefore, I find it very confusing and hurtful that I suddenly became the one to blame. I would like to remind you that the federation will start working on January 9.
About advertising. Alena Vladimirovna (Kuklycheva), throughout our collaboration, I consistently mentioned you and your fellow designers in my stories. However, it turns out that the format doesn’t satisfy you, but this became known only now.
It is very unfortunate that our cooperation ended on such a minor note,” Kostornaia posted on her Telegram account
“It’s strange to hear about unpaid costumes because the costumes for all the shows were made through barter. Moreover, many of them are already with Alena [Kuklycheva].
Unfortunately, I can’t send some of them to her due to a very tight show schedule. But it’s not clear why payment is needed if we are talking about barter.
As for the competitive costumes that Alena claims were not paid for, that’s also surprising. The school pays for the costumes, not us personally. And the documents were processed for the school. So, the claim is not against us. The documents were correctly processed only at the end of December, and now it’s the New Year holidays in the country, with many organizations not working. It’s like going to the post office and demanding a package, causing a scandal when they tell you, ‘Ma’am, we are not working!’
After two refusals to fix the poor-quality work, I simply went to another designer. Alena apparently saw me in a different dress and decided to post such a message. Yesterday, they were insistently demanding that I send everything immediately, and I promised to do it as soon as I could.
Regarding the words about not promoting her, we tagged her in our stories. I couldn’t guess that it was necessary to make a post detailing Kuklycheva’s work,” Alena said in a comment for Sport-Express.
Costume designer Daria Dmitrieva, who worked together with Alena Kuklycheva on Kostornaia’s costumes spoke about the lack of respect from Alena Kostornaia.
Kostornaia claimed that the contract for making competitive costumes was concluded with the Figure Skating Federation of Moscow.
“We do indeed have this contract with the federation, and we are waiting for the money, I don’t know if it will come. As for the show costumes, there was an agreement personally with Alena that we make them for free, but Alena returns them. After three years, they still haven’t been returned.
It was generally difficult to work. Constant situations of ‘sew this’ two days before the performance. Brazen and disrespectful behavior. That’s why it all resulted in a post on social media.
Q: Did you write to her asking to return the costumes? What did she say?
We asked to return the costumes if they were not needed, and if they were needed, we asked for payment. In the end, she sent back the costumes that were not needed, and the ones that were left have not been paid for yet,” Dmitrieva commented to MatchTV.
Designer Alena Kuklycheva also responded to Kostornaia’s recent comments.
“Q: What do you think about the promise of payment in January?
I don’t know how it will be, as for now the costumes are unpaid. The costumes were delivered long ago and have been used in performances several times. The documents were prepared in December. We were expecting payment at the end of the year. The conflict is largely about Alena not fulfilling the oral agreement. Five designers worked, creating costumes for her. We’re not talking about just one costume! Alena knew that designers were working in exchange for publicity, and that completely suited her. No one will sew a dress for just an Instagram stories in return.
Alena thought that was enough for the work – a few mentions on social media. Designers were simply used. I asked for help, and they assisted. The last dress, the fairy one (Cinderella), was sewn. A large number of costumes were made, not just two or three; it’s a huge amount of money even in terms of materials, not to mention our work. She returned some of the costumes that were no longer needed. However, she still hasn’t returned some of them. She says she needs the dress till January 10. I asked her to return everything since the costumes were made a long time ago, and there’s no more promotion!
In private messages, she wrote that she doesn’t owe anything anymore. I had to turn to the public. I can’t go to court because there was an oral agreement with Alena. Besides, time and nerves – it all takes a toll. And now everything is very unpleasant for me. But such audacity cannot be left unaddressed. She’s a cunning fox, knows where to play the fool and where to shed tears,” said Kuklycheva to “Match TV.”
Related topics: Alena Kostornaia
Uff, not a nice story. The designer must feel really frustrated. The ‘gentleman’ agreements are not always easy…