High Fashion to High School: Ms. Alexandra Bolshakova

By Sean Idris and Ana Chauhan, The Pawprint

Ms. Alexandra Bolshakova is a new art teacher here at DAA. Originally from Russia, but has spent most of her teenage and adult life in London, she has moved to Dubai for a new page in her career. Before her ventures into education, Ms. Bolshakova had worked with prestigious designer brands such as Micheal Kors. 

While she was working in high fashion, she missed being a creative artist. Hence, Ms. Bolshakova started volunteering at a local school in London. “As cheesy as it sounds, I had a moment where I thought this is it… and that sold it for me”. She went back to university and got her teaching degree. She then moved back to Moscow and taught in an international school before joining the DAA family. Specializing in embroidery and illustration, she is running the new Fashion Design and Fashion Illustration electives. 

When asked about why she chose DAA, she credited her decision to the school’s reputation and the large variety of subjects offered. “The structural system within the school is very bespoken and individual to every student and I thought that was very inspiring”.

Ms. Bolshakova’s teaching style is quite unique to each student. “I think of every student as a separate individual with separate sets of needs. So I try to be sort of one on one with my students.” Although there is a task she assigns to her class, she tries to go around and make changes to the work in order to accommodate her students. She also said that she likes challenging her students. “I like to discuss what the root of their idea is and see if we can push it any further. I like to get the absolute top ideas out of my students.”

She believes that being a multicultural individual herself, she’s able to understand what students are going through at an international school. “I definitely can relate, especially to students who have English as a second language”. 

When asked to describe herself, Ms. Bolshakova said, “I’m incredibly into art, of course, I live and breathe it. I like cracking jokes in class and that makes it hard with the masks on because I don’t know if the kids are getting my sense of humor. I also like fairness in this world, I always try to treat people the way I wish to be treated”.