Irina Nikolaevna Safronova was born on March 10, 1950. She earned a master’s degree at the Leningrad Art and Industrial V. I. Mukhina St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Design in 1972 where she specialized in dress design. Later she worked at the Leningrad House of Dress Modeling before being invited to teach at her alma mater, V. I. Mukhina.

Irina combines teaching with a second career creating costumes for the St. Petersburg Maly Opera and Balley Theater as well as showing her graphic works at exhibitions. Some of her graphic designs have been shown in Germany, Italy, and England.

She is the head of the department for clothing design at the St. Petersburg State University of Technology and Design. She is also a part-time lecturer at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the Theater Department. Each year, her students enter their clothing designs in the Admiralty Needle Competition in St. Petersburg. She is an Honared Artist of Russia.

Irina’s work has been exhibited in St. Petersburg, Finland, Italy, and the United States and is in private collections in those countries.