Moscow stylist Gosha Kartsev returns to his Ural village roots
Gosha Kartsev in his home village.
The small settlement of Sabik in the Shalinsky District on the edge of Sverdlovsk Oblast stands by a railway station and is surrounded by forest. With its wooden houses, Sabik is far from the world of high fashion, yet this is where celebrity stylist Gosha Kartsev periodically comes. In the Ural backwoods, the designer visits his two aunts, who always greet their famous nephew with pies and treat him to vegetables from their own garden beds.
Gosha Kartsev«s cousin aunt.
E1.RU tracked down the fashion designer«s relatives and visited them at home.
His aunts say the famous stylist, designer, TV host and blogger is very down-to-earth with family.
«A thuggish guy»
Sabik is a station settlement 130 km from Yekaterinburg.
«Don«t photograph me like this, at least let me change first,» Lyudmila Grigoryevna says upon seeing journalists on her doorstep.
Gosha Kartsev was born in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In 2021 his aunts from Sabik visited him there.
The aunt of the famous stylist only allowed the camera to be turned on after changing out of her housecoat into a colorful blouse and trousers.
Before serving the cucumbers, Lyudmila Grigoryevna washes them in a tub on the plot.
Lyudmila Grigoryevna chooses her own wardrobe. Her famous nephew, who publicly critiques celebrities« looks, never pokes around in his aunts» closets.
Gosha Kartsev has hundreds of thousands of followers, but his aunts are not among them.
«His clothes — they«re not for me. He»ll come over, and his pants — the crotch hangs down, this way and that, like a thuggish guy,» says the stylist«s other aunt, Natalya Grigoryevna. «But all young people are like that, and he»s in that business besides.»
Gosha Kartsev posted a photo from this same spot on his page when visiting relatives in Sabik.
But the aunt has never commented on her nephew Gosha«s style.
Natalya Shcherbakova on her scooter.
«No, what are you saying. He«d say: don»t butt in. We«re old women, we don»t understand anything,» Natalya Grigoryevna laughs.
Gosha Kartsev«s relatives are buried in this cemetery.
Gosha Kartsev«s relatives live in neighboring houses in Sabik: one at the very beginning of the street, the other at the end, near the pond. It was the view of that pond that the stylist posted on his social media when he visited his aunts last summer.
The memorial appeared here thanks to Gosha Kartsev.
«We are cousins of his mother. She lived in Shalinsky District. She was born in Berloga (a former Sverdlovsk settlement, of which only a railway station remains — Ed. note), then lived here in Sabik, and after finishing her studies she left for Kamchatka. Gosha and his sister were already born there,» Lyudmila Grigoryevna says.
Aunt Lyudmila with a petunia given by her nephew.
«We didn«t see him as a child; he first came to us as an adult, huge, round-faced, looks like us — if you shaved my head. He»s bald,» jokes the stylist«s second aunt, Natalya Grigoryevna. «He»s a very sociable guy, interesting and simple. With us he«s completely at ease, always just »my aunties, my dear aunties«.»
The stylist showed himself eating cucumbers from his aunt«s garden bed.
Gosha doesn«t visit the settlement often, his relatives say. During his visits, they gather around a large family table.
See how Natalya Grigoryevna gets around her village.
«He really loves pies. We happily bake and treat him, we make them with fish and cabbage, sweet ones,» Lyudmila Grigoryevna says. «He likes walking around the settlement, he goes to the house where his grandmother lived (now it has other owners, summer residents).»
This year the stylist hasn«t tried the harvest from the village garden beds, but last summer he posted a video on his page of himself crunching on a cucumber from Aunt Lyusya»s greenhouse — and later at a creative industries festival in Yekaterinburg he said he wouldn«t mind starting a vegetable garden himself.
«Why not buy a house here and do what my relatives do — grow cucumbers? I«d handle it splendidly,» the stylist declared. «There»s also a lot of positivity in cucumbers.»
The relatives in Sabik know that Gosha is a TV star and popular blogger, but they don«t like his videos themselves. They don»t follow their nephew«s online life.
«All sorts of Instagram* don«t work here, and for the last three months there»s been no internet at all. We can«t even pay for anything. We get on the commuter train, go to Pervouralsk or Shalya to pay for something,» Natalya Grigoryevna says. «But my daughter follows Gosha. She just tells me: »Mom, Gosha did this, Gosha did that.«»
No simple aunts
The Moscow stylist«s relatives are no pushovers either. Lyudmila Semenova was head of the Sabik administration and ran the settlement for many years until she retired, while Natalya Shcherbakova is perhaps the most famous postwoman in Sverdlovsk Oblast. Villagers love her like family, and she knows everyone by name.
Back in 2010, at a professional skills competition, she won a scooter and has since used it to deliver newspapers and letters.
«In summer I ride it, and in winter, if my husband lets me have the snowmobile, I deliver mail by snowmobile. If he doesn«t, I go on foot,» Natalya Shcherbakova says. «I retired, but four years ago I came back to the post office.»
Natalya Grigoryevna is also a true star in Sabik. She is a soloist in the village ensemble «Ivushki» and performs with her group at festivals, and once even appeared on a federal TV channel.
«I sing and lead, the group used to be big, and we even performed on the show «Eh, Semyonovna», hosted by Marina Golub. Now we«re a trio,» Natalya Grigoryevna says.
«He contributed to the memorial»
When Gosha Kartsev comes to Sabik, his aunts say, he always visits the local cemetery. His mother«s grave is there. Although she lived most of her life in Kamchatka, she was buried in the Ural settlement.
«That«s what she [his mother] wanted, many of her relatives are buried here. When she died, Gosha did everything, organized everything, brought her here by plane,» the stylist»s aunt says.
Natalya Grigoryevna walked us to the village graveyard. It is enclosed by a new fence, and at the gates stands a memorial to those who died during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). Much of this is thanks to her nephew.
«When residents were collecting money, he contributed a substantial sum, covered almost the entire memorial. And he gave money for the fence too. He handed it to me: «Here, take it» — and I write everything down in a notebook, how much and for what,» says Gosha Kartsev«s aunt.
According to Natalya Grigoryevna, their famous relative always responds to their requests, but they don«t abuse it. The nephew already showers his aunts with gifts.
«He brought us lots of flowers, potted houseplants, chrysanthemums, violets, a money tree, I think. He brings cakes, sweets, presents always. But clothes — no, he doesn«t give those, why would we need them?» the stylist»s aunt says.
A few years ago, Filipp Kirkorov learned that his ancestors« graves were at a cemetery in Yekaterinburg. Viktor and Boris Manion were the famous singer»s second cousins twice removed. They were circus performers and appeared together in the ring: one as a white clown, the other as a red clown.
We collect stories of global and Russian stars who were born and raised in Sverdlovsk Oblast in a special section.
* Social network banned in the Russian Federation.
