26 Friday

Friday, January 26, 2017 Lifestyle | Features

Russia’s most famous fashion designer Slava Zaitsev poses during an interview Designer Slava Zaitsev (right) presents one of his creation. at his fashion house in Moscow. — AFP photos ‘Soviet Dior’ vows to keep Russian fashion colorful

t almost 80, Russia’s most famous initially was barred from attending a bright and contrasted with the greyness Zaitsev was initially refused permission night and works with the latest software fashion designer Slava Zaitsev is top-flight university because his father, of Soviet everyday life, where an indi- to leave the Soviet Union and his first to create new patterns for his materials Afar from finished fighting “the taken captive by the Nazis during World vidual should not differ from the rest of collections were shown abroad without Zaitsev counts several Russian movie greyness of everyday life” with the rich War II, was, like other former prisoners- society,” he said. But the collection him. “I did not understand. What sort of stars, singers and the ex-wife of Presi- colors of designs inspired by his home- of-war, labeled an “enemy of the peo- nonetheless attracted international at- state secret could I pass on to my for- dent Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila, among land’s folk costumes. Dubbed the “So- ple” by the suspicious regime of Joseph tention. In 1963, French magazine Paris eign colleagues? Thank God this era is his clients. viet Christian Dior” in the 1960s by the Stalin and sentenced to 10 years in a Match became the first Western media long gone,” he said. Zaitsev, who turns Last November, he presented his French press, the designer achieved labor camp. Zaitsev studied at a 80 in March, remembered his first spring/summer 2018 collection in global success with bright dresses vocational college until the age of trips abroad where “everything Moscow for which he used new textile adorned with the flower patterns found 18 and then went on to the unglam- was different,” including the way technology to create materials inspired on traditional Russian shawls. Despite orous Moscow Textile Institute. No greyness, people dressed: “no greyness, no by the shawls of Pavlovsky Posad, a this, Zaitsev wore a simple black suit for “During my studies, I lived with a sadness and no cliches.” small town east of Moscow. The second an interview with AFP at his 10-storey family whose children I looked no sadness part of his collection pays homage to “House of Fashion” in central Moscow. after. The apartment was tiny and I Dressing Putin’s ex-wife the New Look of 1940s Dior, with retro The designer looked back at his slept on the floor under the table,” and no cliches Zaitsev said he finds happi- high fashion designs in velvet and silk eventful career, from a modest child- he recalled. ness “working with people every During his career, Zaitsev produced hood in Ivanovo, a town of 400,000 day” in creating designs for his more than 1,000 designs. Under KGB surveillance individual clients, rather than for “I can dress a whole Red Square pa- In 1962, Zaitsev’s first collection catwalk shows. Between 2007 rade with my clothes,” he joked. Asked of clothes-a uniform for female workers outlet to describe Zaitsev as a pioneer and 2009, he presented a popular tele- what fashion advice he would give to the that featured skirts with the flower pat- of Soviet fashion. vision show called “The Verdict of Fash- modern woman, the designer said they terns of traditional Russian shawls and Watched closely by the KGB be- ion,” in which stylists dressed should “throw their ripped jeans and multicolored boots-was rejected by So- cause of his contacts with Western de- participants in the latest street looks. At trainers in the bin” and put on skirts and viet authorities. “The colors were too signers and his flamboyant character, 79, he says he only sleeps five hours a high heels. — AFP

Russia’s most famous fashion designer Slava Zaitsev speaks during an interview on November 23, 2017 at his fashion house in Moscow. people to the north east of the capital, to the catwalks of Paris, New York and Tokyo. “When I was a child, my mother taught me embroidery so I wouldn’t roam the streets without pur- pose. In the evenings I would pick flowers with girls on Lenin Avenue to draw them and recreate them in em- broidery. That’s how I began my ad- venture in art,” said Zaitsev. Born into a poor family with a A woman stands next to creations of Russia’s most famous fashion designer Slava Slava Zaitsev (right) presents one of his creation during an interview. mother who worked as a cleaner, Zaitsev Zaitsev at the fashion house.