Russian Fashion Week
Miguel Francis
Russian Fashion Week featured some of the most talented designers from Russia and elsewhere, and was a grand event at World Trade Centre Crown Plaza in mid-October. It is hard to remember that the fertilisation of Russian fashion only dates from the fall of the Soviet System in 1991, and the lurch from grim stricture to glorious excess is too recent to have stabilised.
The audience were very much the same as in 2009, as regular fashionistas will know, so networking was more consolidation than exploration. But the designers’ creativity has moved on and up. One of the favourites was Elena Suprun, her creations are beyond words. A breathtaking battery of unique models exploded into the first part of the show, composed of mainly Russian celebrity divas, successful TV hosts like the wife of Michael Shatz, and Tatyana Lazareva herself in a stunning dress redolent of the Moulin Rouge. Ageism evaporated in the face of fashion that transcended the years. The whole extravaganza was accompanied by a live, lissom and lithe ladies’ band singing, playing the piano, drums and the accordion performing a mix of timeless French and Russian tunes.
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The RFW has many partners, each showing their wares and together adding spice to the event. This year’s sponsors included DHL, Megafon and Tsarskaya Golden Vodka and Persona, where one could respectively deliver the goods, hear the world, taste the Tsars’ own vodkas and enjoy a top of the fashion scale hair styling. There was even a Playhouse Club booth, spinning off some provocative lingerie. The rooms are filled with different types of scents from the most expensive perfumes available, as befitted the extrafashionable audience. One could smell the luxury in the air. Innovative fabrics, abstract styles, new ideas, good vodka and exclusive perfumes, all ready to be shipped home with DHL, what more could one ask for? The only minus to this year’s event was the beautiful audience, which was indeed really beautiful but also rather beautifully stuck-up, maybe it’s that time of the year. Networking wasn’t as fun as last year’s. Watch out for the next Russian Fashion Week, as if you’re Russian you’re in fashion.
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