Irina Belotelkin - Fashion Design

Fashion Design

Irina excelled in several design fields.

Following fashion design school in New York City, and her move to San Francisco Irina opened, in 1945, her first studio-salon, as a millinery designer: EraBelle Hat Shop. For her shop's logo she used her fencing mask and a pair of foils.

She created 118 headdresses for the Headdress Ball at the San Francisco Museum of Art. Her hats were recognized in San Francisco (where they were frequently remarked by Herb Caen) and beyond. She also created a special collection of miniature hats.

She later shifted to American haute couture. She became San Francisco's most notable couturier, designing gowns, outfits, and coats under the label Irina Roublon, with her own maison at San Francisco's Union Square.

Among other accomplishments, in 1953 she was invited to Milan, and designed the costumes for the La Scala production of Puccini's opera La Fanciulla del West.

Her 1955 Holiday Collection show at her Stockton studio featured 43 selections, one executed by Gellenghi, Florence, Italy. She later moved the atelier to 260 Sutter St.

She dressed many of the city's grande dames, including Ann Getty Light, Katherine Trefethen, Barbara Morgan Eisele, Kathryn Crosby, Maud Hill Schroll, Princess Natasha Romanoff, etc. Herb Caen often referred to her as Chanel of the West Coast.]]

The August 20, 1961, Saturday Evening Post describes her decade-long effort, as part of the San Francisco chapter of Fashion Group International (FGI), with Jane Winthrop, in the San Francisco Mental Health Fashion Therapy Program which aimed to give fashion therapy to the mentally ill. These activities involved the patients in both staging and presenting fashion, and in showing them how to dress fashionably. The doctors commented on the improvement of their patients. Irina introduced, in 1961, the blue print of Fashion Therapy to the Paris Fashion Group.

In 1963 Irina was the Advisor for Fashion Lift, a tour of US Fashion Industry of European Couturiers.

Among the rare quality images are those by renowned photographer David Lees (1918–2004), of Irina and Irina Roublon gowns and outfits in Florence, Italy, in the years 1951–1955.