Hold on to your Ushunkas- it's Fashion Week in Russia
March 30th 2008 03:10
I swear to you, it's purely coincidental that so many of my blogs have been about Russia, I just seem to find topics to report on in the land of the Great Bear with greater ease than in other places. So now that I've cleared that possible bias up, let's move along to the topic of Russia's young designers and the spotlight that'll be on them commencing from the 30th of March (i.e. today).
As always when reporting on Russia, I'd like to give you a link to Russia Today's presentation of the story in text form. click.. Once the page opens, you can select to watch the video if you don't wish to read the 2 paragraph summary of the story.
Want photos of what's on display? Check out the official gallery. It currently shows the 2006/2007 collection but give it a day so that the gallery can be updated... I mean, this year's fashion week only started a few hours ago.
This year the designers are embracing the youth movement. It's not considered cool to be anti-establishment just for the sake of it, and pro-government designers have created casual T's with political slogans that are set to sell for $30 a pop. Russian culture, also, will feature on the runways, with traditional embroidery and materials being used in used in updated models that channel Russian heritage. It's all about a growing middle class with President elect Dmitry Medvedev stating he wants 60% of the Russian population to be in the 'middle class' bracket within 10 years. This means our peers in the world's largest nation are growing up with an expanding economy, foreign investment and globalisation. They are influenced by the rest of the planet and looking to influence the rest of the planet. What that translates to is big bucks for Russian fashion as this is seen as an industry that can be exploited and a way of promoting Russia to the world.
Not wanting to be ethnocentric however, Ukrainian and Georgian designers are also present and thus given a change to bask in the spotlight, but the organisers have set a 20% quota for foreign collections. It's all well and good to be nice and give others a leg up to the world stage, but the main purpose of this glamorous week long convention is to showcase Russia's catwalk talent in terms of creative Gen Yers and as a reference point for Russian Gen Y buyers.
As always when reporting on Russia, I'd like to give you a link to Russia Today's presentation of the story in text form. click.. Once the page opens, you can select to watch the video if you don't wish to read the 2 paragraph summary of the story.
Want photos of what's on display? Check out the official gallery. It currently shows the 2006/2007 collection but give it a day so that the gallery can be updated... I mean, this year's fashion week only started a few hours ago.
This year the designers are embracing the youth movement. It's not considered cool to be anti-establishment just for the sake of it, and pro-government designers have created casual T's with political slogans that are set to sell for $30 a pop. Russian culture, also, will feature on the runways, with traditional embroidery and materials being used in used in updated models that channel Russian heritage. It's all about a growing middle class with President elect Dmitry Medvedev stating he wants 60% of the Russian population to be in the 'middle class' bracket within 10 years. This means our peers in the world's largest nation are growing up with an expanding economy, foreign investment and globalisation. They are influenced by the rest of the planet and looking to influence the rest of the planet. What that translates to is big bucks for Russian fashion as this is seen as an industry that can be exploited and a way of promoting Russia to the world.
Not wanting to be ethnocentric however, Ukrainian and Georgian designers are also present and thus given a change to bask in the spotlight, but the organisers have set a 20% quota for foreign collections. It's all well and good to be nice and give others a leg up to the world stage, but the main purpose of this glamorous week long convention is to showcase Russia's catwalk talent in terms of creative Gen Yers and as a reference point for Russian Gen Y buyers.
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