Vladimir Ilyin is the owner of the beauty contests Miss Tourism of Russia, Miss Bikini of Russia, the head of the Volga Models modeling agency and the Russian representative on international beauty contests (Miss Globe, Miss Grand International, Miss Tourism of the World, etc.)
How did you start doing this kind of work?
– Back in the early 90s, when they did not even hear about modeling and beauty contests, I headed the Cheboksary Fashion House, where we began to organize fashion shows and opened one of the first model schools in Russia.
And where did the specialists come from?
– Of course, there could not be any specialists at that time, so the first schools were more like dance studios and choreography training.
How did the idea of holding All-Russian projects come about?
– We sent the first winner of the Miss Chuvashia 1996 contest to the Miss Russia 1996 contest, which 16-year-old Alexandra Petrova successfully won, and of course, it was a huge event for our republic and for our agency of the Cheboksary Fashion House. This was followed by a performance at the world’s largest project Miss Universe, although unsuccessfully, but the next international project ended with the victory of Adexandra, where she became Miss Model Intermational 1998. Unfortunately, in 2000, her life was cut short when, on the eve of her 20th birthday, she became an accidental victim of gang violence. But Alexandra managed to popularize the movement of beauty contests so much, and in the same year the first All-Russian beauty contest Miss Volga 2000 took place in Cheboksary, which became an annual and is carried out to this day.
And what projects are you running now and what other successes did your agency have after Alexandra?
– Now our main project is Miss Tourism of Russia, which unites representatives of more than 30 Russian cities and annually in July in Cheboksary the final of this competition is held, the finalists and the winners of which during the next year represent Russia at the world’s largest beauty forums, where they have repeatedly won: Ekaterina Grushanina from Chelyabinsk became the Queen of World Tourism in 2008, who was ahead of participants from 120 countries of the world. Also, the representatives of Ulyanovsk Daria Patkova (2013) and Taliya Aibedullina (2018) won the Miss All Nations competition in China twice. Olga Portnova from Cheboksary became Miss Civilization of the World. Svetlana Khokhlova from Kostroma also won the world contests Miss Tourism Universe, the competition was held in Myanmar in 2018. Taliya Aibedullina won 2 more major beauty contests Miss Global City in China and Miss Tourism World in the Philippines. The representative of Astrakhan, Anna Botova, has many victories and nominations to her credit, on such projects as Miss Bikini World, Miss Globe and others. Beauty from the Volga Models agency Yulia Polyachikhina, after winning Miss Russia 2018, represented our country at the main world competition Miss Universe 2018 in Thailand, where another pupil of the Volga Models agency, Larisa Yan, represented Georgia. I’m not even talking about the many victories and nominations in many other, less well-known beauty contests that are held all over the world. But we have stars not only in the world of fashion and beauty, so our beauty Miss Chuvashia 2009, Miss Volga 2009 Anna Ivanova, now famous singer Hannah.
Yes, this is impressive, we wish you victories in the future.
– I am sure we will take away the main crowns at the largest beauty contests in the world more than once.
Instagram account: Vladimir Ilyin
Instagram account: Miss Tourism
