Andrey Artyomov is the designer behind Walk of Shame (WOS), using the tongue-in-cheek name to reflect the brand’s playful and youthful aesthetic, combining feminine dresses with elements of the male wardrobe while retaining a post-Soviet aesthetic that has popularised the label in global fashion circles.
Born in Ufa, Russia, Artyomov studied fashion design in university and then scored an internship at L’Officiel Russia, eventually becoming an editor at the magazine and working at Tatler and Dazed & Confused Russia. He founded Walk of Shame in 2011. It was the first ever collection that Opening Ceremony’s Carol Song ordered without seeing or touching. Today, the brand’s stockists include Browns, Galeries Lafayette and Tom Greyhound.
Artyomov describes the WOS woman as walking with her boyfriend’s jacket thrown over a cocktail dress. The vision is clear when seen in practice: translucent dresses, men's jackets, ruffled hair and intentionally dishevelled makeup. Artyomov is known for his slip dresses, often doused in glitter, or simply with just the right slinkiness.
The designer showed his Spring/Summer 2018 collection at New York Fashion Week for the first time with a presentation at The Hole gallery downtown; he has since also shown in Paris for the Autumn/Winter 2019 season. With the release of the brand’s Resort 2020 collection, Artyomov officially reduced the name of the brand to the acronym WOS.
