Dark and Daring: Elle Muliarchyk

Having grown up in Vietnam and Belarus, young Elle Muliarchyk soon experienced fashion oppression. Wearing her school uniform for most of the day, clothes were simply something to wear, not something with which you could express yourself. After moving to New York at age 15, she was soon discovered by celebrity photographer Patrick Demarshelier in a coffee shop. She would sometimes do up to eighteen shows a day during fashion week in New York and adored every minute of it. "Modeling is about finding the medium between letting go and having control in front of the camera,"said Muliarchyk. Realizing that modeling wasn’t enough for her, she soon moved on to photography and filmmaking while still pursuing modeling on a part-time basis. 

Now 26, Elle Muliarchyk has become famous for her photographic fitting room series. She snuck her camera into the fitting rooms of various designer boutiques and captured herself wearing some of the most fabulous creations of the season. On some occasions she would even sneak miscellaneous items from the store into the room to pose with. When asked if she had ever been caught she replied: "I have been asked to leave the store several times, on other occasions they would call the police but I’ve only ever ended up in jail once and it was because they thought I was trying to take drugs." Muliarchyk also makes it clear that the only thing she’s stolen is the soul of the clothing.

Recently embarking on a new project, Elle Muliarchyk worked with designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Alexander Wang to create outfits for unconventional models.  Muliarchyk snuck into churches across New York City, dressed statues of saints in the designer clothes and photographed them. Elle said that she was surprised that no one objected to it once she started getting caught and that the Vatican actually supported her because they believe it was good publicity.

Many find Elle Muliarchyk’s strong sense of rebellion inspiring. Her dark and daring photographs are getting her on our list of style savvy people to be watching.

Elle photographing herself for her fitting room series.