Cycling in the Season //USA
It needs to be doubly emphasised that Cycles and Seasons isn’t Moscow’s fashion week (there are two others so-called fashion weeks just to add to the confusion. The structure itself goes against the grain of a conventional fashion week, with just one show per day with a few film screenings and installation presentations scattered, making Cycles and Season more of a highly curated fashion festival. With high selection therefore, I suppose the danger is that your expectations are heightened.
Though if I’m honest, with my severe lack of the Russian fashion landscape, I came in blind, knowing only dribs and drabs. Gosha Rubchinsky, a menswear designer/photographer, whose past presentations at Cycles and Seasons dealt with complexities of post-Soviet youthdom clued me in a little to what I could expect at the event. His work spoke of an underbelly or alternative take on Russian fashion, one that I thought might not have existed given that the Russian fashion industry is supposedly in its infancy (this article here and this very detailed report here points out some of the difficulties of why there isn’t a fully functional Russian fashion industry mostly tied up in production problems).
What I’ve found thus far is that the designers that have been chosen for Cycles and Seasons seem to be collectively running away from clichés that admittedly were floating in my head about Russian fashion – bling, boobs and looking like money is dripping off you at every turn. Don’t shoot me, as the cliché still exists in the lobby of my hotel where there’s a Tatler Bar that every night attracts quite the crowd. I came clomping back from the shows with my brothel creepers (GREAT for snow/ice) and I think one woman in her Louboutins in the lobby howled with laughter.
The designers' escape route from that bling of yore has involved the usage of flat shoes, excess of volume, long lengths and also inevitably leads to a fair amount of derivation of existing designers/aesthetics but then again, that’s no bad thing when signatures/voices are still trying to be established. What I’ve seen therefore this week at Cycles and Seasons are seedling ideas, ones that can be developed, honed and refined because they’re all mostly a few seasons old. Like the city itself, some of the work probably has a few layers to peel back (they seem to favour mysterious lighting here at the shows which makes for piss poor pics at my end…) but on first impression, it's not quite the finished product but there's something there that would keep you guessing and intrigued and at the very least represents a new generation of designers that could well establish a domestic or even international customer.
.................................................................................................................................
I've been loving the choice of venues of the shows. There's nothing more soulless than a tent plastered with sponsors and Moscow certainly has a slew of interesting locations to use and we kicked off lavishly at the beginning of the week with Vardoui Nazarian's show at the Central House of Writers.
In a way, Nazarian was flowing with how the rest of the international collections were, with plays on Cristobal Balenciaga-esque lines and volumes in play in her A/W 11-12 collection as well as a twist on the codes of elegant dressing. Texture also a big component and used to emphasise the volumes that Nazarin created. Luxurious cocoons would make entire sense of course for a winter season in Russia but eschewing the natural choice of fur, Nazarian instead turns to knits that have a sort of Celtic-type design relief as well as a shaved faux fur that makes a different sort of gorilla arms from the real deal ones seen everywhere for A/W 11-12.
I was pretty taken with a pair of green leather trousers that stiffened and splayed out at the sides but that's just my penchant with leather used in unexpected ways and when paired with a mustard voluminous jacket, there were colour/texture combo bonus points.
.................................................................................................................................
Lena Vasilyeva's collection wasn't shrouded in darkness or embued with heavy ambiance and was easier fare to decipher. Get warm in chunky knits, flail about prettily in long lengths and then if you're getting hitched, get yourself into a lush dress with layers and layers of pretty tiered organza in a beautifully constructed trailing skirt.
.................................................................................................................................
Someone here told me that there's a certain Russian generation that have a Depeche Mode fixation ("If you didn't like Depeche Mode you were nothing" were his exact words). So I was pleased to get confirmation of that when a mix of 'Enjoy the Silence' ensued at Serguei Teplov's A/W 11-12 show held in a theatre. The word 'silence' might have tied up with the monastic looks that kicked off the collection. Francis of Assisi-chic? Actually I don't want to attach such a chi-chi word to Teplov's clothes which clearly were trying to reach a far and away place where coats flail out with quilted volume as well as revealing what's underneath which was a deliberate contrast point. The host of designers you could draw comparisons to are endless but there was something in the undoing of the clothes, the way that superfluous sleeves fell free and the way the coats opened and flapped about that had something intriguing about Teplov's aesthetic.
Then some banging beats kicked in and up came the lengths and in came the PVC panels which for me took the clothes from monastery to 90s Camden. There was even a black nylon hoodie that I think I could have lived in when I was 14 - I'd need to plaster it with band badges of course.
.................................................................................................................................
Bezous didn't want his picture taken but I did want to illustrate how much of a contrast point between him, the person and his clothes were as he looks like a death metal-lovin' teenager whereas his clothes are about as elegant as they come. The Raf Simons/Jil Sander comparison can't be avoided here but I suppose to try and touch even an iota of Simons is no bad thing in this instance when rigourously articulated lines in the knitwear, sculpted tops, jackets and coats paired with slimline trousers got the crowd whooping like crazy. I'd like to see this Simons-disciple branch further out on his own but then again he is only two seasons in. God damn the lighting at this show though as once again, pics sans flash were cack... I had to resort to snapping backstage in the dark with a flash.
I promise I didn't just rudely put on one of the hats. A friend plonked it on my head and I couldnt resist taking a snap. Gosh, I loves me a show hat... especially one that was an oversized neoprene version of Louis Vuitton's A/W 11-12 nightporter caps...
Though if I’m honest, with my severe lack of the Russian fashion landscape, I came in blind, knowing only dribs and drabs. Gosha Rubchinsky, a menswear designer/photographer, whose past presentations at Cycles and Seasons dealt with complexities of post-Soviet youthdom clued me in a little to what I could expect at the event. His work spoke of an underbelly or alternative take on Russian fashion, one that I thought might not have existed given that the Russian fashion industry is supposedly in its infancy (this article here and this very detailed report here points out some of the difficulties of why there isn’t a fully functional Russian fashion industry mostly tied up in production problems).
What I’ve found thus far is that the designers that have been chosen for Cycles and Seasons seem to be collectively running away from clichés that admittedly were floating in my head about Russian fashion – bling, boobs and looking like money is dripping off you at every turn. Don’t shoot me, as the cliché still exists in the lobby of my hotel where there’s a Tatler Bar that every night attracts quite the crowd. I came clomping back from the shows with my brothel creepers (GREAT for snow/ice) and I think one woman in her Louboutins in the lobby howled with laughter.
The designers' escape route from that bling of yore has involved the usage of flat shoes, excess of volume, long lengths and also inevitably leads to a fair amount of derivation of existing designers/aesthetics but then again, that’s no bad thing when signatures/voices are still trying to be established. What I’ve seen therefore this week at Cycles and Seasons are seedling ideas, ones that can be developed, honed and refined because they’re all mostly a few seasons old. Like the city itself, some of the work probably has a few layers to peel back (they seem to favour mysterious lighting here at the shows which makes for piss poor pics at my end…) but on first impression, it's not quite the finished product but there's something there that would keep you guessing and intrigued and at the very least represents a new generation of designers that could well establish a domestic or even international customer.
.................................................................................................................................
I've been loving the choice of venues of the shows. There's nothing more soulless than a tent plastered with sponsors and Moscow certainly has a slew of interesting locations to use and we kicked off lavishly at the beginning of the week with Vardoui Nazarian's show at the Central House of Writers.
In a way, Nazarian was flowing with how the rest of the international collections were, with plays on Cristobal Balenciaga-esque lines and volumes in play in her A/W 11-12 collection as well as a twist on the codes of elegant dressing. Texture also a big component and used to emphasise the volumes that Nazarin created. Luxurious cocoons would make entire sense of course for a winter season in Russia but eschewing the natural choice of fur, Nazarian instead turns to knits that have a sort of Celtic-type design relief as well as a shaved faux fur that makes a different sort of gorilla arms from the real deal ones seen everywhere for A/W 11-12.
I was pretty taken with a pair of green leather trousers that stiffened and splayed out at the sides but that's just my penchant with leather used in unexpected ways and when paired with a mustard voluminous jacket, there were colour/texture combo bonus points.
.................................................................................................................................
Lena Vasilyeva's collection wasn't shrouded in darkness or embued with heavy ambiance and was easier fare to decipher. Get warm in chunky knits, flail about prettily in long lengths and then if you're getting hitched, get yourself into a lush dress with layers and layers of pretty tiered organza in a beautifully constructed trailing skirt.
.................................................................................................................................
Someone here told me that there's a certain Russian generation that have a Depeche Mode fixation ("If you didn't like Depeche Mode you were nothing" were his exact words). So I was pleased to get confirmation of that when a mix of 'Enjoy the Silence' ensued at Serguei Teplov's A/W 11-12 show held in a theatre. The word 'silence' might have tied up with the monastic looks that kicked off the collection. Francis of Assisi-chic? Actually I don't want to attach such a chi-chi word to Teplov's clothes which clearly were trying to reach a far and away place where coats flail out with quilted volume as well as revealing what's underneath which was a deliberate contrast point. The host of designers you could draw comparisons to are endless but there was something in the undoing of the clothes, the way that superfluous sleeves fell free and the way the coats opened and flapped about that had something intriguing about Teplov's aesthetic.
Then some banging beats kicked in and up came the lengths and in came the PVC panels which for me took the clothes from monastery to 90s Camden. There was even a black nylon hoodie that I think I could have lived in when I was 14 - I'd need to plaster it with band badges of course.
.................................................................................................................................
Bezous didn't want his picture taken but I did want to illustrate how much of a contrast point between him, the person and his clothes were as he looks like a death metal-lovin' teenager whereas his clothes are about as elegant as they come. The Raf Simons/Jil Sander comparison can't be avoided here but I suppose to try and touch even an iota of Simons is no bad thing in this instance when rigourously articulated lines in the knitwear, sculpted tops, jackets and coats paired with slimline trousers got the crowd whooping like crazy. I'd like to see this Simons-disciple branch further out on his own but then again he is only two seasons in. God damn the lighting at this show though as once again, pics sans flash were cack... I had to resort to snapping backstage in the dark with a flash.
I promise I didn't just rudely put on one of the hats. A friend plonked it on my head and I couldnt resist taking a snap. Gosh, I loves me a show hat... especially one that was an oversized neoprene version of Louis Vuitton's A/W 11-12 nightporter caps...
