Glorka on the beach in Santa Monica wearing Glorka™ attire and Winged Ones pendants.
When Glorka enters her at-home showroom, a pandemic-inspired pursuit that has since become her most sacred space, she is immediately at-ease. Surrounded by her creations, she feels a sense of purpose. She is not just any ordinary clothing designer. Glorka is one of the few LA-based design visionaries that specializes in creating high-frequency ceremonial attire.
For those outside the ceremonial space, the words may strike as somewhat of an enigma. They actually refer to a versatile style of clothing intended to support conscious lifestyles — from the spiritual practices of meditation and yoga to festival culture.
Her brand, Glorka™ is not only characterized by the look and purpose of its designs. It’s also characterized by how they are created. Each crafting session begins with an uplifting ritual of prayer and intention-setting, and her brand’s vision is devoted to ethical production. This is why she strives to ensure each piece is either upcycled or made with natural fibers, and handcrafted by fair wage seamstresses.
“My initial desire for this collection is to raise positive vibrations,” Glorka says. “When you know you have created something of pure energy, that energy can expand. The more people wear this clothing, the more we spread those vibrations for the collective.”
From Hobby to Higher Vision
When you admire the expert stitching and unbelievable creativity of Glorka’s designs, you might be left with the impression that only a professionally-trained designer could achieve these results. For Glorka, however, it’s pure intuition and passion that brought her to success.
In fact, Glorka’s introduction to clothing design came out of a desire to create festival attire for herself.
“When I moved to the US from Russia 15 years ago, I was introduced to festival culture, yoga, meditation, and Buddhist practices,” Glorka reflects. “So what I really wanted was to create some freedom pants to support my lifestyle, something I could wear to yoga retreats and to events like Burning Man.”
To this day, Glorka credits Burning Man as the experience that opened up her creativity channel. She started to gradually expand her personal collection, and it wasn’t long before her one-of-a-kind designs were being noticed by friends.
“I started frequenting New York fabric stores and searching for unique fabrics and prints to make pants with,” she recalls. “I would give it to my friends for their birthdays because each piece was different. Eventually, all my friends were rocking these awesome pants. I genuinely wanted people to be comfortable, but also expressive.”
It wasn’t long until friends of friends began making requests too.
Glorka in her at-home workshop showcasing some of her personal ceremonial attire creations.
During an excursion to Burning Man through the desert, Glorka came across a woman selling costumes on the roadside. She stopped off with her partner, who was sporting a pair of her custom-made pants, to peruse the designs.
“She immediately started complimenting his pants and asking him where he got them, and he told her that I was the one that actually made them. I remember she turned to me and said: ‘If you ever want to make a business out of these designs, I’ll be your first client.’”
This remark came at a pivotal time in Glorka’s life, right as she was considering her future and her livelihood. Though she never considered clothing design her ultimate aspiration, she knew that helping others reach and retain their spiritual potential was.
“I was searching for something more meaningful to do in life and then I thought to myself, ‘Five years from now, will I ever get bored of encouraging people to pursue a healthier lifestyle?’ And I realized, there’s no way I could ever get bored of that. I could achieve that through my designs.”
Made with Well-Being in Mind
As soon as Glorka returned from that trip to Burning Man, she got down to work. She created six pairs of pants and had a friend model them for her Facebook page. Then, she announced that she was officially launching her brand, Glorka™.
Over time, her community kept growing. Her desire to expand her brand eventually led to her decision to move to Los Angeles.
The California lifestyle influenced her designs for the better, as the laid-back West Coast vibe led to visions of flowy kaftans and airy kimonos. It also inspired her to dive deeper into her own spiritual work. Knowing that the fashion industry was one of the top polluters in the world and one of the primary exploiters of cheap labor, she vowed to change the course for her own brand.
As a long time follower of Mata Amritanandamayi, also known as Amma (a Hindu spiritual leader and humanitarian), Glorka began to apply the principles of humanitarianism to her own work.
“Amma was giving a talk where the premise was basically: ‘You don’t have to wait to start helping people.’ It was so simple but it inspired me. I became interested in efforts related to empowering women in India, teaching them how to sew and make clothes in exchange for a fair wage.”
Glorka partnered with AMMACHI Labs, part of Amma’s non-profit organization Embracing the World, with a mission to provide educational skill-training to women in remote villages. She created some simple designs and made her way to India to teach the women in a rural village how to make them come to life.
Glorka at the Mata Amritanandamayi Skill Training Center in India as part of her advocacy for fair-wage production.
While she taught them how to craft and create, they taught her how to infuse her work with intention.
“Every crafting session would open with prayer, sitting in a circle, and lighting incense,” Glorka reminisces. “I noticed how different the energy becomes when all of us would sit before we began discussing stitches and the work. That beautiful energy cleanses and purifies the space. It creates a different vibration, a different frequency.”
It was as a result of this experience that Glorka birthed the concept of high-frequency attire.
“When a garment is handmade, the energy that flows through the hands and into the garment is transferred,” Glorka explains. “And when the person making it feels pride and joy in their work, the wearer feels it. I always tell people, ‘If you have two people who are going to bake a pie with the same recipe, but one is made by someone who bakes it with love, that pie will taste better.’”
Glorka™ Meets Dance of Liberation™
A few years ago, Glorka had one of her first big commissions from the Conscious Dance community known as 5Rhythms, a movement therapy founded by Gabrielle Roth. As a member of the Conscious Dance community and facilitator of my own personal practice, Dance of Liberation™, I was a devotee and frequently engaged with the latest ventures from 5Rhythms.
It was one day when I was scrolling their site that I came across the breathtaking harem pants Glorka had designed for them and thought to myself: “I need to meet her.”
Over the recent months, this dream has finally come true in a collaboration between Glorka™ and my own Dance of Liberation™ practice and lifestyle. With Glorka’s visionary designs, we have launched a line of all-white wraps and harem pants intended to accompany the Conscious Dance practice and associated teachings of my immersive ceremonial programs.
“White is very purifying, which is why it’s the color of choice,” Glorka explains. “It provides clarity, and like with all my designs, I wanted to keep it simple, celestial, and ethereal.”
Though most of Glorka’s designs are all-white, she also carefully selects her fabrics based on the uniqueness of the prints and their feel against the skin. She intentionally chooses ultra-soft fabrics that will provide comfort to their wearers on their spiritual journey.
“That’s how I came up with the concept for my first kaftan. I kept thinking to myself how nice it would be to have something soft and elegant to wrap around myself while meditating.”
The theme of clarity and purity in Glorka’s designs also translates to the specialized Winged Ones pendant she has chosen to offer alongside them. These sacred power objects are my own visionary creations, spawned as companions to my East Gate online program and Eagle Medicine teachings. Glorka has selected the Clear Quartz stone to offer in her own store, as a testament to the same motif of purity and clarity to all of her works.
Left: Dance of Liberation™ ceremonial attire by Glorka™ / Right: Winged Ones pendants in Clear Quartz.
Upon embarking on this collaborative quest, Glorka and I approached it with the same ceremony we do all of our work. Though we both perform sacred rituals before sending out our individual products into the world — she with her attire and me with my jewelry line — we felt it critical to join forces with the introduction of this joint venture.
In a ceremony complete with prayer, meditation, and my trademark cacao, we infused these new offerings with blessings of health, prosperity, and joy — all of which they intend to bring to their wearers.
A Call to Conscious Living
Nine months after the start of the pandemic, my and Glorka’s desires to create something that brings about positive collective change have cemented even further. From my station in Costa Rica and Glorka’s at-home workshop in Los Angeles, we have conceived something of higher vision.
And we haven’t given up on the importance of ceremony. Even in her at-home workshop, Glorka continues to light sage, play medicine songs, and nurture a divine environment for her creations.
Her dedication to exclusive, always-evolving, one-of-a-kind designs also continues to shine through.
“My friend once pointed out that every piece is like an initiation piece. It’s a constant rebirth of new energy, a unique expression of our souls. We’re all one consciousness, but we’re also an individual representation of that consciousness, which is why it is so nice to create one-of-a-kind pieces to allow each of us to activate our unique expression.”
Glorka’s commitment to helping people embrace their individuality is apparent in her creations for my Dance of Liberation™ line, with each piece featuring exceptional accents that introduce a different message of healing, hope, and happiness.
“Shipping these pieces around the world really makes it feel like we expand the reach of those vibrations,” Glorka says. “It’s like sending little sparks of love around the globe. That’s what truly gives me joy. It’s not just spreading love, it’s supporting the spiritual work people are doing on their own. It inspires the wearer to have the discipline to continue that spiritual work and healing. This is the only way we can get to a point of contentment, happiness, and peace.”
To shop the Dance of Liberation™ ceremonial attire collection, designed by Glorka Wear™, visit our online shop.
Looking for a unique gift? Our Winged Ones pendants in Clear Quartz are out now on https://glorka.com/. Available offerings include the Visionary, SunDancer, and the Sacred Set.
Each Winged Ones pendant comes with online access to our East Gate activation program, as well as a journal companion called The Guidepost. This experience offers two guided meditations, lessons on altar creation, and a personalized stone education by Parashakti.
Parashakti’s shamanic healing work is born of more than two decades of experience facilitating workshops, trainings, and retreats around the world, in Los Angeles, New York, Mexico, Bali, Guatemala, Indonesia, Israel, and Greece. As a lifelong dancer, her path as a healer followed a severe injury – a period of what is often called shamanic dismantling, after which her mission shifted towards healing. Over the last 20 years, Parashakti has developed the Seven Foundations and the Dance of Liberation™, as maps for her spiritual practice, living and breathing these foundations in daily ritual. Dance of Liberation™ has been practiced by over 10,000 dancers around the globe. It’s was born of a mission to help people experience ecstasy – without taking it.
Above all, Parashakti is dedicated to serving community and creating a sacred container where people feel safe enough to experience their deepest essences, honor their voices, and shine their brightest light. Join her on the Dance floor: www.parashakti.org