Model, Activist, Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, London, United Kingdom
I learned about Ms. Alexandra Kutas through a vast WOW Woman network and was excited and awestruck before our meeting. Of course, as anything related to Alexandra, our day in London was nothing short of extraordinary. Never have I met a WOW Woman for an interview but ended up at a West End musical and chatted for hours in a café.
Nothing Ms. Kutas dreams up will ever surprise me. Of course she is an excellent speaker and a fearless orator, wouldn’t expect anything less from an accomplished journalist and an activist. Of course she advised the mayor of Dnipro, a Ukrainian city, on the accessibility of urban spaces; for four years she attended Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk National University despite the near-total lack of infrastructure with disability access adaptations. Of course she partnered up with a designer in India as a first model with a disability from abroad working in an Indian fashion market. Of course she has started a fashion label with the goal of meeting the needs of the wheelchair users in a fashionable way. Of course she called out British doctors who doubted that she would ever get pregnant, and proved them wrong. She is Alexandra Kutas and she is a WOW Woman!
1. Name
Alexandra Kutas.
2. Where is your hometown?
I was born in Dnipro, Ukraine and lived there until the age of 24.
3. Who has given you the strength to be an activist, entrepreneur and a public speaker?
My parents gave me the voice and the people I’m lucky to work with made it louder.
Injustice doesn’t allow me to stay silent.
More than anything I believe in the world of equal opportunities where people are seen through their professionalism, drive and humanity, not something which was given without choice. Your gender, color of your skin, your mental or physical challenges should not define who you are and what you are capable of doing.
4. How did you get scouted for fashion and model work?
The first time? The story of my first professional work with a photographer sounds like one from a magazine. I was spotted in a café during lunch time. We smiled and complemented each other’s outfit. Svetlana introduced herself and invited me to have a photoshoot together. I fell in love with the process of photography and with that little seed, a big desire to work in the fashion world was born.
5. In the world of fashion, you are a role model. Do you feel any pressure and what do you want people to know about you?
I do not feel pressured by it. I feel inspired when I meet like-minded people who just do not believe we should wait another decade to admit the obvious: just how diverse our world is. Taking diversity seriously is the only way to move forward in the fashion world. Inclusion gives a big opportunity for innovation.
6. How do you deal with adversity? What is the most difficult feeling you ever had to struggle through and overcome?
Helplessness. That’s the most difficult feeling of all. When I was 21 my mom, my biggest support, suddenly got very sick.
I felt like my whole world just crashed and no matter how hard I tried I could not fix it. When you are taking care of someone, it’s easy to neglect your own emotional and physical needs. However it’s crucial to become your own biggest support. You can’t help anyone if you don’t know how to properly take care of yourself. By taking care I mean eating and sleeping well. I started taking vitamins and meditating. I also kept myself open and willing to ask for additional help if needed. Step by step things started to get better. I felt helpless when I tried to fix my mom’s life, but I felt empowered when I started changing mine. I was much more helpful for her when I felt well myself.
7. What advice would you give to people who are going through difficulties right now?
What would I say to that person? I can’t even imagine what you are going through. I wish I could give you a virtual hug. As for everyone in one way or another, this year personally has been extremely challenging for me.
Despite stereotypes held by my doctors throughout my life, I got pregnant at the beginning of this year.
When you are looking at the end goal it might feel extremely far and impossible to reach. Despite stereotypes held by my doctors throughout my life, I got pregnant at the beginning of this year. When I was going through the weeks of severe morning sickness at the beginning I thought I would never make it successfully to the due date. But here we are, two months ago I gave birth to the beautiful girl Sofia. My husband was holding my hand when we first saw our daughter. That was one of the happiest moments of my life. However the pregnancy, C-section, recovery and being a new parent during the world pandemic has been quite difficult.
I found it helpful to deep breathe in and out and take everything one day at a time. Whenever I’m struggling I’m trying to remind myself this is just a bad day. I know sometimes it’s hard but you got to deeply believe tomorrow will be a good one. Sooner or later that day will come.
You should try and make a list of simple things that make you feel joy, make your eyes shine. For instance I sing songs for my daughter, I got a playlist of the music that lifts me, and her, up.
Does Sofia have a middle name?
She does! It’s Chinese Rulan, which means the flower orchid. Also her name written in Chinese has the same number of character strokes as her date of birth. A lot of symbolism.
Do you sing to her in Ukrainian and/or Russian?
It’s one of my favourite activities to do with her! I’m not a big fan of kid’s songs so I dance with Sofia under the songs of Okean Elzy, Skryabin, Hardkiss, Alyona Alyona, Skai. One day when she is older I’ll definitely take her to the concerts of Ukrainian music bands.
8. Who are the WOW Women who inspire you?
In terms of public figures would love to have a glass of wine with Elizabeth Gilbert and Michelle Obama. I’d also chat with Sara Blakely about fashion entrepreneurship. In general I see women that inspire me every day. Nowadays my daughter is the most inspiring lady of all.
9. What qualities do you like about yourself?
Determination. I become unstoppable if I set my mind to something.
Creativity. I believe life and lack of accessibility taught me to come up with extraordinary solutions.
Appreciation of beauty. Art, photography and nature inspire me a lot.
And I don’t know, I guess my sense of humour? My husband says I’m funny.
10. What would you tell your teenage self?
Oh Gosh, first I would hug her tight and say you’re going to do well, because you will do it your own way. It won’t be easy, it will require great courage to listen, to trust yourself. But so worth it.
You will look for and you will find your own truth, the vision of what you believe in with your whole heart, believe more than in yourself. It will be something that gives you your inner fire because that's what is most important. That's what will push you forward no matter what. Please do your best to protect it and celebrate your uniqueness.
Will you ever feel lost, doubting your path or do not know what to do? Sure, just remind yourself that’s okay. It happens when you are taking this risk to explore and be who you are. And sometimes you might feel like giving up. Give up for a bit, it does not mean that you lost it. It means life can be really challenging and you are just tired in that moment.
Learn to be a kind friend to yourself, no pressure. You will get up again and again on your own time, I know you will. At times I dream up the things I would tell myself in my teens. It makes me feel more motivated.
Give yourself a break, give some time to figure all this out, ask for help. Accept these moments of your weaknesses, it’s okay.
11. When you think of your ideal career what do you see? Is it fashion? Is it business? Combination of both? Activism? All of the above?
I have been wearing a lot of different hats throughout my career and I must admit, I enjoy the variety. I’m most passionate about solving the problem of the lack of comfortable, stylish outdoor clothes with inclusion at heart. I still have a dream to appear on the Vogue cover one day, will see which route takes me there.
12. What projects are you working on now? How far do you think we are from real inclusion in fashion?
Unfortunately, diversity in the fashion world is still quite fragmented. Good news, it’s slowly changing. However we still do not see models with disabilities on Vogue covers and billboards. I'm the world's first runway model in a wheelchair but I want to make sure I won't be the last one.
I teamed up with the top Ukrainian fashion designer Fedir Vozianov to design and market an adaptive clothing fashion brand Puffins. Together we hope to create stylish outdoor clothes, keeping inclusion at the forefront of our efforts. We are about to release our first raincoat collection, which was designed with the capability of meeting the needs of wheelchair users in a fashionable way.
