Young label Tata-Naka, introduced by two identical twins Tamara and Natasha Surguladze (Tata and Naka respectively, born in Tbilisi, Georgia, 1978), is swiftly gaining reputation of a most promising project in Britain, attracting buyers like Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Imbruglia, Kelly Osbourne, and Jessica Parker, and receiving a huge press acceptance all over the world.

The twins came to London in 1996 and graduated from prestigious school of fashion design St Martin’s in 2000, their undergraduate work attracting attention of renown stockists and their graduate collection selling out entirely to Barneys in New York and Liberty`s in London.

The faded grandeur of their home country is their shared source of inspiration. To the girls, Georgia evokes nostalgia and fantasy, carrying a sense of romantic past splendor. Their winter collection 2002, entitled Stolen Memories, a story of time and place inspired by childhood recollections of Georgia, includes school uniforms, rose prints from old wallpaper, and dressing up in old Grandma’s clothes. The sisters say it is the atmosphere of their old home that evoked their passion for design, as well as Russian culture and literature, old movies with Audrie Hepburn and their grandmother’s perfect sense of style.

Identical by appearance, the sisters separate in design process. Naka’s interest is in cut and Tata’s is in surface decoration. Formally speaking, haute couture is Tamara`s specialty, while Natasha focuses on ready-to-wear garments. That doesn’t mean that Tata-Naka is a shapeless mixture of models lacking any specific theme. The girls start with general concept giving it different interpretations. Their next collection is in the shops now reworking the image of a doll on tees and dresses with pieces of vintage fabrics in applique.