MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Olga Sobolevskaya)
Fashion historians believe that at the root of Russian style is an unabashed love of luxury: furs, gold-cloth, velvet, embroidery with pearls and beads, bold use of colors, like scarlet, white, gold, the color of church domes, and grey, the color of sable.
Meanwhile, Western couturiers admire rustic clothes that help to survive in cold Russian winters: hats with earflaps, sheepskins, felt boots, and motley-colored woolen shawls.
Both men and women in the West wear hats with earflaps, sheepskins and felt boots a-la Russe. The fashion has spread to this country as well: dandies have adopted elements of "peasant" chic into modern Russian style. Yet, most Russian designers prefer international style. And gradually designs by Russian couturiers - there are some 150 fashion houses in Russia - are becoming popular at home, although until recently only members of high society, political and business elite and show business stars bought their clothes. In October 2005, 61% of buyers chose Russian designers, with the majority (73%) paying for quality, rather than the label. Key figures at all high society parties always attend Moscow Haute Couture Weeks and then pose for photographs to be printed in glossy fashion magazines.
Russia's two leading designers are the "patriarch" Slava Zaitsev and his junior colleague Valentin Yudashkin. Zaitsev, the president of the Moscow Fashion House, was the most famous designer in the Soviet Union and holds Russian and international fashion awards. He has used Russian folk motifs in his collections ever since he was young.
Yudashkin prefers the appeal of glamour. Ever since the West acknowledged Russia's fashion industry, it has associated Yudashkin with it. Since the early 1990s he has taken part in Paris Haute Couture Weeks and once astonished his prominent colleagues, Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne, with his Faberge collection. The dresses from that collection were made in the shape of famous Easter eggs by Carl Faberge, the Russian court's jeweler.
Later Yudashkin turned to Russian history, literature, visual arts, architecture and ballet for inspiration. This was reflected in the names of his collections: Catherine the Great, Anna Karenina, Silent Films, Vrubel (an outstanding Russian painter of the 19-20th centuries). Yudashkin was one of the first Russian designers to become a corresponding member of the Paris Haute Couture Syndicate, which placed him on an equal footing with the heavyweights of Western design. Yudashkin dresses are sold in Moscow, Paris, where he has a boutique, Milan and New York. Fashion TV channels in France and the U.S.A. often show his collections. The Louvre's Museum of Costume and the California Fashion Museum have bought several of his pieces.
The Yudashkin fashion house makes a new pret-a-porter collection every season. Among his famous clients are Filipp Kirkorov and Alla Pugacheva, Russian pop superstars, and many club owners.
Presentations of Yudashkin's collections abroad are always stunning - all designs and fabrics, including embroidery and applications, are hand-made. Sometimes his collections look too beautiful and luxurious because the designer lavishly uses expensive fabrics and furs. His clothes were shown at an exhibition of the State Historical Museum in Moscow. Some dresses are made entirely of rhinestones, with shiny sequins and glossy furs.
Igor Chapurin, the Russian Armani, dresses Russia's first lady Lyudmila Putina. He has made several costumes for the Bolshoi Theatre performances. He likes using new techniques, ranging from using gold, beads and corals in unrivalled embroidery to decorating designs with laser perforation, weaving mohair, Angora and cashmere into denim, or cutting fur to imitate different fabrics. The couturier says with pride that Cher has bought one of his double-faced fur jackets: the singer liked the peculiar fur shearing that resembled corduroy. His signature style is laconic and emotionally colored, which earned him popularity in the West earlier than in Russia.
Yelena (Helen)Yarmak, who, incidentally, has a PhD in Mathematics, is a wizard with furs and has been an international fur tycoon since the 1990s. Helen's fantasies have reached Europe and America to break the traditional concepts of furs and fabrics in ways that set foreigners talking about Russian paradoxes again. Yarmak uses the most cutting edge techniques alongside purely Russian traditions. Her heavy Siberian furs look lighter than thistledown. The texture of the gold the designer uses for facing resembles gold-cloth or ancient patina-covered coins. Hollywood stars have been hunting for "transformers," double-faced fur garments, by Helen Yarmak. Since 1999, her boutiques and the show room at Crown Building on the corner of the 5th Avenue and the 57th Street in New York have been frequented by David Copperfield, Jim Carrey, Melanie Griffith and Goldie Hawn. Great Luciano Pavarotti himself has paid tribute to the talent of the Russian designer.
Masha Tsigal is an avant-garde enthusiast. The young designer's style is called "sports fetishism." She claims her jumpsuits, bathing suits, shorts and little dresses made of velvet, silk and jersey can be worn to a restaurant and on festive occasions. She promotes teenage eternity, a "complex-free" lifestyle.
Slava Zaitsev's pupil Sultanna Frantsuzova has set up design bureaus and production areas in Moscow and Hong Kong. Her sexy feminine designs made of satin and chiffon are very popular. The clothes she makes are for romantics. Frantsuzova brought models permeated with Paris chic, elegance and sexuality to the Autumn/Winter 2005/2006 Russian Fashion Week. She opted for unusual combinations of green, black, plum, yellow, pink and blue. And Slava Zaitsev's son Yegor recently shocked the audience with a show in which his models resembled octopuses, harlequins, roses and sunflowers.
Hat-maker Violetta Litvinova transforms her fantasies into plastic and metal, apart from the traditional felt and velour. She also brought a collection of classic knit dresses and suits to the Autumn/Winter 2005/2006 Russian Fashion Week. Irina Yegazarova makes her own fabrics, peculiarly woven. She has a patent on her special YAGA-fabric and successfully sells it to Italy. In addition, there are footwear couturiers in Russia who also make accessories.
And all this rage finds its customers. It is popular to demonstrate wealth in Russia. Both women and men have that weakness. Out of all the luxury products sold in Russia, 10% are made at home.
Russian men's fashion is far less interesting and inventive than women's. "To me, the most striking feature of Russian fashion for men is its lack of intellect," says Alexander Vasilyev, a prominent fashion historian. Dandies prefer models made by Western couturiers. They often dress with more chic than Western fashionmongers. For example, Russian men sometimes wear an exclusive silk shirt under a business suit.
Kitsch is in fashion in Russia now. Unfortunately, it is so widespread that one can rarely see an elegantly dressed woman in the streets now. The International Herald Tribune fashion review has made a sarcastic remark that Russian women often swank around in tasteless furs and bright pink boots, with rhinestones and a thick layer of make-up. Young women imitate fashion models, wearing their hair uncombed and loose, and gaudy accessories. With the spread of globalization fashion is becoming increasingly impersonal, transforming parties into swarms of dressed-up mannequins. Some Russian designers openly copy Western models (which is easy to do without leaving Moscow: leading fashion houses from Europe and the U.S.A. have their boutiques in the Russian capital). Unsurprisingly, Western designers sing praises to Russian models, but prefer not to comment on works by their Russian colleagues.
Do Russian collections make an impression on Western minds and hearts? Unfortunately not. With few exceptions, fashion houses work without a vision or a strategy of their own for the industry's development, and don't tend to consolidate. Their main consideration is how well the clothes sell, not the high art detached from practical issues. There is a reason for that: the majority of Russian fashion houses are either joint-stock companies, or have sold the rights to use their brands, or attract so many funds from outside that they get enslaved by their investors. Most designers confess they make models for affluent clients, whose tastes are not necessarily diverse or exquisite. Often such clients just want their clothes to look expensive.
Like any major city, Moscow wants to become a fashion capital. Fashionmongers' tastes may become more refined over time. Meanwhile, in the reign of glamour, fashion cannot find its individual "face".
