Victoria Bulgakova grew up in Mariupol, Ukraine, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 20. In the 80s, girls in then-Soviet Ukraine had to wear uniforms to school, adorned with white collars they had to sew on themselves. Collars were mandatory. The girls could choose the fabric, which had to be white and restricted to specific size parameters. Jewelry and accessories were not allowed.

The collars were beautiful, and even within imposed limits, there was a myriad of possibilities: satin, silk, lace, macramé. However, both the uniform and collar felt confining and suffocating. Putting them back in the closet after school felt like a liberation.

Fast forward many years later, memory associates that same uniform and collar with the most endearing experiences of school years: forming first friendship bonds, having a first romantic crush, pranking teachers and laughing so hard that our bellies hurt when we managed to succeed, receiving a first love note. What used to be something to rebel against became an object of longing and nostalgia.

The Uniform body of work explores this shift in perspective: what is more real, our experience in the present or how we end up remembering it in the future?