The Instagram account exploring the dark side of mundanity

Alina Chaykina is the Moscow-based designer behind fashion-meets-the-mundane (and often downright disturbing) Instagram account, @_dont_watch_this_. She’s also one half of Nina Albu – a clothing brand that’s heavy on hand-tailored 80s-style suiting and vinyl pieces – that she runs with her husband Oleg. 

Chaykina started the account because she didn’t want to “grow numb”. She elaborates, “Information helps us to learn something new. Through my account, I’m able to gain a deeper understanding of my personal tastes which helps me to increase my self-awareness, while improving my curation skills which are crucial to my work.”

Describing her account as a “moodboard based on underground, fetishes and ironic things”, if you already follow @_dont_watch_this_ you’ll know that Chaykina’s posts can range from a PG-13 still of Kelly Kapowski sporting a leather look in Saved By The Bell, to close-up crops of men and women in S&M attire, sadistic Sims 2 bloopers, or even a nun-turned-Scream-extra sat pumping iron in the gym.

“Each of my posts unifies my views on fashion and style,” explains Chaykina. “I also like bright and distinctive characters, so I like it when my content has powerful energy.” Meanwhile, Chaykina’s other interests include “intimacy, wild sexual desires, turbulent feelings, fear, and fearlessness of death and narcissism.”

Chaykina sums up her IG aesthetic as “sexuality, humour and style. For me, it’s important to combine them harmoniously.” But when it comes to Chaykina’s foremost priority, when she’s not focusing on fashion, it’s art. “I want to open an art school. I consider people who fight for art as saints because it is very challenging to influence human perceptions. People don’t always accept new things in this space.”

@_dont_watch_this_