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Moscow on the fashion map: between periphery and centre

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Abstract

This essay considers Moscow’s simultaneously peripheral and central position on the global fashion map. It is predicated on a study of imaginary Russian geographies presented in Vogue and other fashion media, advertisements and promotional activities by important fashion brands, as well as the promotional texts and visuals of several new Russian fashion designers. While these different players all contribute to shaping the imagery of Russian fashion today, their agendas and aesthetics differ. This essay identifies three main approaches within the field of the symbolic production of Russian fashion. Western fashion designers and fashion media mainly rely on Russian imperial sartorial heritage in their orientalizing approach to Russian fashion. Secondly, Russian Vogue perpetuates Moscow’s peripheral international fashion position either by passively transmitting derivative Western representations of Russianness, or by reconstructing its own high-fashion versions of traditional Russian decorative style. Finally, several young Russian fashion designers deconstruct both traditional Russian and socialist iconography, in a fundamentally new development for the country’s fashion scene.

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Notes

  1. Founded in 1954, Comité Colbert is a trade association for French luxury products that organizes promotional activities for its member companies. It has seventy members in ten industry sectors. For references concerning the event ‘Moscow encounters French style’ see www.comitecolbert.org (accessed 10 Sept 2009).

  2. Indeed, in the previous year that market had grown by 60 percent, bringing sales in Russia to 600 million euros for Colbert companies, which covered the country’s immense territory with 302 points of sale, mostly in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. Forty chief executive officers (CEOs) of leading French luxury companies that travelled to Moscow held meetings with their retail partners and high-ranking Russian trade officials (Ibid.).

  3. Ibid.

  4. (2008, September 9). Louis Vuitton celebrates an updated and broadened shop opening. In GUM http://www.gum.ru/en/news/id/171/ (accessed 9 Sept 2009).

  5. For an overview, see Polhemus and Procter (1978).

  6. The Western and Russian media covered Gaultier’s haute couture fashion show with great interest, especially because Ukrainian First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko was seated in the front row. See, for example, Alexander, H. (2005, July 9). Inspired Gaultier creates a fairytale from the steppes. The Daily Telegraph, p. 15; Bowles, H. (2005, October). Gaultier: Folklore romance. Vogue, New York, p. 192; Willard, A. (2005, July 15). Fashion guru inspired by Russia. The Moscow Times, p. 7.

  7. Moreover, Gaultier’s evening gowns, with prices starting from $10,000, had names such as ‘balalajka’ and ‘matrëška’.

  8. Reinventing itself each season, fashion borrows cuts, patterns, and colour schemes from its past. Fashion “[requires] quotation to rewrite its own history” (Lehmann 2000, 308).

  9. Marras quoted in Blanks, T. (2009, March 11). Kenzo. In Style.com http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2009RTW-KENZO/ (accessed 16 Mar 2009).

  10. Bowles, H. (2005, October). Gaultier: Folklore romance. Vogue, New York, p. 192.

  11. Di Lello, A. (2005, October). Balletti russi. Elle, Milan, pp. 166–172.

  12. Muir, L. (2005, October). Russian revolution. Vogue, London, pp. 202–204.

  13. On the House of Kitmir see Vassiliev (2000).

  14. For an overview, see Benton, C., et al. (Eds.) (2003). Art deco, 1910–1939. London: V&A Publications.

  15. In the period 2007–2010, luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, and Etro, branched out from Moscow and St. Petersburg and began to open stores all over the former Soviet Union in cities such as Ekaterinburg, Sochi, Samara, Rostov-na-Donu, Baku, and Astana.

  16. Karl Lagerfeld, who designs the Chanel collections, presented both his short film and the fashion show Paris-Moscow at the Ranelagh Theatre in Paris on 3 December 2008, as the original plan to show it in Moscow was abandoned due to the looming global economic crisis. A CD of that film accompanies Lagerfeld’s book Chanel’s Russian connection (2009).

  17. West, N. (2005, November 12). Tsars in their eyes. Telegraph Magazine, pp. 8–9.

  18. Blanks, T. (2009, March 11). Kenzo. In Style.com http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2009RTW-KENZO/ (accessed 16 Mar 2009).

  19. Testino, M. (photographer), & Roitfeld, C. (stylist) (2006, October). Poupées russes. Vogue, Paris, pp. 254–267.

  20. Roversi, P. (photographer), & Gentilucci, A. (stylist) (1998, September). Poupées russes. Vogue, Milan, pp. 498–509.

  21. See, for example, an image from that collection in (2003, September). Zri v koren’!. L′ Officiel, Moscow, p. 313.

  22. See, for example, a review by Suzy Menkes (2009, February 22). Christopher Kane’s constructivism. In The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/style/22iht-rkane.4.20353699.html (accessed 16 Feb 2011).

  23. Vlasov, F. (2000, November). Voentorg. Vogue, Moscow, p. 30.

  24. (2001, September). Šapki, šljapy. Vogue, Moscow, p. 210.

  25. Mikhailovskaja, O. (1999, February). Ljubov’ k geometrii. Vogue, Moscow, pp. 64–65.

  26. (2009a, September). Sel’skaja nov’. Vogue, Moscow, pp. 118–119.

  27. Reveriego, M. (photographer), & Phillips, A. (stylist) (2007, December). Russkaja pravda. Vogue, Moscow, pp. 406–419.

  28. See, for example, the description of a jewel-encrusted kokošnik that Princess Nadine Wonlar-Lansky offers in her memoir (1937).

  29. (2009b, September). Spasibo za kampaniju. Vogue, Moscow, p. 154.

  30. Simačëv, D. About. In Denis Simačëv http://www.denissimachev.com/content/tm.html (accessed 16 Feb 2011).

  31. Quoted in Greene, L. (2008, August 26). The Russians are coming! Why the fashion pack can’t get enough of our former Soviet friends. In Mail Online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1048839/The-Russians-coming-Why-fashion-pack-Soviet-friends.html (accessed 10 Sept 2008).

  32. On this collection, see Menkes, S. (2008, October 6). Miu Miu: An apron for a new age. In The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/style/06iht-rmiu.4.16731002.html (accessed 19 Feb 2011).

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  1. London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, London, UK

    Djurdja Bartlett

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Bartlett, D. Moscow on the fashion map: between periphery and centre. Stud East Eur Thought 63, 111–121 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-011-9138-y

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