Television Dressing Room: A Brunch About What Happens Off Camera

People say there’s no arguing about taste. Apparently, they’ve never read the comments under a morning show. The dress, hairstyle, lipstick colour, skirt length and even the way the host holds her cup are discussed so heatedly, you’d think the fate of the country depended on them. But viewers don’t see how the look comes together before the broadcast, or how the people on the other side of the screen feel as they read all those comments.

On 21 November, we’re inviting you into our kitchen—and this time, it will be a real one. We’ll meet at the Miele showroom. While a chef prepares brunch for us in front of the guests, we’ll reveal the recipes behind another kind of kitchen: television.

I’m hosting this brunch together with Svetlana Agureeva, stylist at ETV+. Svetlana dresses the channel’s hosts and guests and works on film projects and music videos. We’ve worked side by side at the same TV channel for a long time, and when viewers think an outfit is a failure, we get told off together. Few people realise how much work a television stylist does. They handle several projects at once, all of which go on air every weekday. Take just two morning programmes with two hosts each, and one evening programme: that means five new outfits every day, adding up to more than a hundred a month. A stylist doesn’t have a shop of their own, so every one of those pieces has to be found somewhere.

At brunch, we’ll talk about:

• Where stylists find all those outfits when not every shop lends clothes, how they negotiate with brands, and whether hosts really are given clothes as gifts.
• Why clothes look so different on camera than they do in the mirror, and what to wear if you’ve been invited on television: which colours, patterns and fabrics work on camera, and which are best avoided.
• What happens in the minute before a broadcast, and what hosts usually keep to themselves.
• What viewers write to us about our appearance and outfits, how we read it, and how we learn to separate useful criticism from someone else’s bad mood.
• Which television secrets of style and presentation can help you on stage or at an important meeting.

Brunch host and organiser: Jelena Solomina, ETV+ television host, speech coach and founder of the public-speaking studio «Спикер на пике».

I’ve collected plenty of behind-the-scenes stories over the years I’ve spent on air, and at this brunch I’ll share the ones that usually stay between us and the production crew.

🍳 The ticket price includes brunch, prepared by a chef right in front of you in the kitchen of the Miele showroom.
🎁 Every guest will receive gifts from the event partners, and, as is our good tradition, there will be prize draws at the end.

Ticket price: €49. Places are limited, so it’s best to book yours in advance.

The project «Мне есть что сказать» is a space for honest conversations, support and the chance to hear yourself. We have something to say. What about you?