Anastasiia Lukinskaia is a fearless, multifaceted creative whose drive and curiosity have shaped a remarkable career across fashion, film, and content creation. From an early age, she explored diverse disciplines, dance, gymnastics, art, snowboarding, and vlogging, building a broad skill set and a strong work ethic. At eight, she began producing YouTube videos, evolving from doll unboxings to travel vlogs and independent fashion shows, mastering every stage of production along the way.
Her artistic instincts extended to performance, where she led costume and design for immersive drama projects, learning to balance creativity, professionalism, and teamwork under pressure. By 21, Anastasiia had already worked in four professional fields, earned two degrees, assisted designers at New York Fashion Week, collaborated with brands like MasterCard, and Philips, and won a fashion design competition that resulted in product development for a top-tier U.S. company.
Driven, disciplined, and endlessly curious, Anastasiia transforms every challenge into opportunity, proving that talent paired with determination can achieve extraordinary results.
Anastasiia was recently selected to create a line of fashion wear for Amtrak, the federally chartered, for-profit company that provides intercity passenger rail services in the United States.
Welcome to Blackbird News, Anastasiia Lukinskaia Talks Fashion for Amtrak! Congratulations on being selected as the fashion designer for the recent Amtrak project. Can you tell us what it is all about?
Hi, yes! Amtrak was looking for a creative new way to introduce its audience to the long-awaited new Gen Acela train presentation. With the upcoming New York Fashion Week, the idea of making fashion forward statement appeared. Amtrak announced recruitment for young designer to come up with idea of a perfect match. We had the initial meeting where the instructions were explained, and then we had 2.5 weeks to get together a presentation of multiple design ideas for ready-to-wear pieces and couture. We had our final presentation for Amtrak and production teams, as a result of which only 7 of us were chosen to actually produce the pieces in less than a month.
How were you selected out of everyone that pitched for the opportunity in the fashion industry?
Amtrak has been working on a new train model for years just to make it faster. There were multiple delays, and it was a much-awaited event in the transportation niche. They wanted to present the new generation of trains with a new generation of the company’s spirit that they wanted to share with the public through a new official merchandise collection. My role was to communicate a new level of speed, comfort, and service through the design of a signature “trak” suit.
How did you start the process?
Since the brief for this project was very technical and practically oriented, I decided to start my work by making a survey withing people of different ages who have experience of traveling. I collected the information on what people seek the most in their clothes when they are getting dressed for a long trip.
Did you change your ideas from first conception?
I didn’t actually end up changing my ideas that much — I chose to include all of them in the presentation to show a broader variety. Interestingly, the design that ultimately won and will be produced as Amtrak’s official merchandise was the very first idea I sketched on the same day I returned from the initial briefing meeting. Ironically, I was planning to scrap it completely, but due to a lack of time to create another version, it stayed – and ended up becoming the winning design. I did not make any changes to the original design ideas but definitely made some tweaks in the construction to make the fit as comfortable as possible.
How do you feel it went?
It went perfectly! Initially, I was struggling to find the right fabric for my ready-to-wear winning piece, so I started off making my couture piece, which took an insane amount of time. I had to basically create new fabric for it myself, which is very time-consuming. And after seeing the results of what came out from my initial idea in my couture work, I was alongside other couple participants pretty confident that my piece would win the couture category. However, I really wanted to see my design being professionally produced on such scale and people actually using the features that I interpreted into my construction. So, the moment I hears my name being pronounced for the main prize I was extremely happy.
How do you feel it will be received?
It was received extremely well, which I could not be happier about. Amtrak’s CDO and CCO were especially enthusiastic about the built-in sleep mask feature and even said they couldn’t wait to get one for themselves. In addition, major media outlets and social platforms – including ABC, The Washington Times, and The New York Times, among others – showed strong interest in the story, interviewing and even featuring me in a live TV appearance. The public has also been asking about the track’s release date, which further confirms to me that it was received very well.
That’s only less than half a year’s worth of experience, I managed to compete with established designers with personal brands and Fashion weeks behind their backs and also win the competition. I spent endless hours in the studio redoing the same mistakes over and over again before I got THE perfect result.
Can you share any fun facts?
Actually, yes! I made custom zipper pullers in the shape of the Amtrak logo. My friend in Russia created a digital model for it, which we had to ‘invent’ in a way that was both durable and practical enough for use on an actual garment so Amtrak could consider it for production. Once the design was ready, however, no studio wanted to produce it because the quantity was too small. After weeks of reaching out to different studios, contacting people at FIT and Parsons, and searching for anyone with access to a 3D printing machine or jewelry studio, I finally found a public library that was able to 3D print my design in just 20 minutes – and charged me only 50 cents. The only drawback was that this library was a three-hour train ride away from my area.
I’d say it was well worth going the extra mile! How can people follow your journey as a fashion designer?
Most people connect with me via Instagram @anastasya_lukinskaya.
