The best collections of fashion designers at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Russian Fashion Weeks MBFWR and VFW Russian Fashion Vic

I was about eight years old when I first came across the fashion channel on cable television. Now I can hardly remember the name. It seems Yof. The channel was French, I didn’t understand anything at all, but I watched it anyway. Because the shows of the most fashionable houses on the planet were played without interruption on Ёf.

I studied the latest fashion trends with fanaticism (oh, this fashion!) and watched the participants of the show with even greater delight. I thought these people were celestials! And those who walk the catwalk with a stone face, and those who sit in the hall and whisper with someone with an important look, and sometimes mark something with their Parker in a notebook made of python skin.

Collection Vika Smolyanitskaya

Many years later, I myself was among the same "celestials." Moscow. Arena. February 44 (well, because it is very cold, even though it is March!). Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia autumn-winter 2016/17.

Oksana Fedorova, Natalia Ionova, Vika Smolyanitskaya, Alexandra Vanyushina, Oleg Ovsiev, Igor Gulyaev… After visiting several shows, I was both delighted and disappointed at the same time. No, most of the collections were just amazing. No wonder the people applauded and shouted: "Bravo!" This rarely happens here. But the sensations were still somehow blurry. Either because there was no crowding at the entrance to the building, or I didn’t like pushing in the wardrobe, bar and hall for shows ...

A lot of people came. What can you say? Only… “Move over, girl. More, please! Magazines and handbags on your knees!” - it's not me to you, it's the assistants who spoke to the guests of one of the shows. In such a rude, nasty voice. Perched, in general, in a corner.

Collection of Alena Akhmadulina

Photo mercedesbenzfashionweek.ru

There is Valery with Prigogine, there is Aurora, there is Yana Churikova, and there is a guy in a tracksuit. In the other corner, there are designers and journalists from major publications, and on the contrary, a girl in a terrible red dress embroidered with sequins and her friend in a leopard. "The ladies were getting ready!" journalists joke. They haven't seen the company in sunglasses yet! Who are these people by the way...

A lot of people came. Superfluous! Is that what I used to think? For whom do designers arrange their shows?

First, for large buyers. Such experts who are guided by new products and trends and select items for sale for stores. Secondly, for journalists. Well, so that as many buyers as possible see these very things. And thirdly, probably for rich daddy's daughters who will become VIP clients of these designers.

And then sneakers, sports jackets and a leopard ...

It is well known that you can go to the show only with invitation cards from designers, organizers and fashion houses. It is theoretically impossible to buy tickets. But if you set a goal, you can find a loophole in the form of a friend who, from the master's shoulder, will give you an extra invitation or hold you as his employee.

What's wrong with that? After all, what is the purpose of the mysterious and bewitching fashion industry? To the beauty of the soul!

“So let people be enlightened!” you say.

“Mysterious and bewitching,” I repeat.

Perhaps that is why millions of girls around the world are buying up glossy magazines, exploring fashion sites and storming stores in order to be a little more beautiful, and at the same time, at least a little, but join this magical world of art, which only the elite enter. The same celestials that I dreamed about in the second grade.

And if everyone can “touch” – talk, take an autograph, make “yourself” – with Igor Gulyaev, Donatella Versace or Karl Lagerfeld, how long will this world attract and intrigue in the age of the Internet? 15 minutes?

This fall, from 21 to 25 October, Moscow is holding Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2015 (spring-summer). Collections of more than 70 designers from Russia, Ukraine, China, Turkey and other countries will be presented to the attention of the capital's adherents of the fashion industry. The editors of the portal "ZagraNitsa" decided to prepare for one of the main events of the fall and found out what surprises await Muscovites in the new fashion season

Reference

For the past 15 years, the agency-owner "Artifact" has been holding a series of seasonal shows of talented designers called. During the existence of the Fashion Week, Moscow has seen and opened to the world many new brands and designers.

The event changed its name several times: from a local brand - the Russian Ready-to-Wear Week - to the national Russian Fashion Week, and in 2011 to the global brand Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.

Previously, Fashion Week shows did not have a permanent venue, they were held in such well-known places as the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val, in tents on Vasilyevsky Spusk and at the World Trade Center. But for several seasons now, an enviable constancy has been shown in the choice of venue, and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2015 will not be an exception and will also be held in the central Manege.

Photo: insignia-lb.com

season 31

Among the participants of the Fashion Week there are many successful designers and brands, such as Alena Akhmadullina, VIVA VOX, Tony Ward Couture, Yasya Minochkina (Ukraine), Julia Nikolaeva, Laroom, PIROSMANI BY JENYA MALYGINA, IGOR GULYAEV, MASTERPEACE, Julia Dalakian, Yez by Yegor Zaitsev, Goga Nikabadze, DIMANEU.

Many of them have already become famous not only in domestic arenas, but throughout the world.

One of the most anticipated shows of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Moscow will be the show of a Georgian woman Rii Keburii, which pleasantly surprised the audience in 2013 with its symmetrical dresses with ruffled inserts and headdresses with beads and stones.

Photo: static.vogue.ru Photo: static.vogue.ru Photo: static.vogue.ru

Every year, foreign designers also present their collections within the framework of MBFW Russia.

MBFW China headliner Tiger Zhang will come to Moscow to show his brand's spring-summer 2016 collection NE TIGER.

The slogan of the NE TIGER brand is "connecting past and present, integrating Chinese and Western traditions." The brand's goal is to revive the traditional Chinese culture of making clothes without abandoning its own original style.

Photo: fashion.chinese-luxury.com

From the debutants in the 31st season, who are supported by the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Vic Moscow 2015, you can see such Georgian designers as TAKO MEKVABIDZE And Eka Balanchivadze. One of the favorite leitmotifs of the latest designer's work is improvisation with textures and geometric prints.

Tako Mekvabidze. Photo: tbilisifashionweek.com Photo: mekvabidze.com Photo: wordpress.com

And the young members Vika Smolyanitskaya, Outlaw Moscow and Ksenia Knyazeva, who showed their collections last season in the form of presentations, this time will present their collections on the podium of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Vic 2015.

The premiere collections will be shown by novice fashion designers as part of numerous group shows, competitions and presentations of capsule collections in showrooms.

Outlaw Moscow.
Vika Smolyanitskaya. Photo: mercedesbenzfashionweek.ru

The brand debutant is considered the intrigue of the new season ESVE which is shrouded in mystery. No one knows whose name is hidden behind these four letters. Whether it's a man or a woman, a group of designers or just one person, ESVE are convinced: "The only thing that matters is the collection, it tells everything."

Photo:

VERY FASHIONABLE

If you have not read the news for the past two years and have been basking in patriotic suspended animation, we inform you that a severe crisis has come in the country. Remember how Normandy Camembert gradually disappeared from restaurants? That's about when it all started. And if you could not keep track of the elegiac dynamics of Brent oil prices, then you must follow the friend tape. In the winter of 2016, many preferred the native expanses of Rosa Khutor () to the ruinous slopes of St. Moritz, stopped giving champagne dinners and moved to the actual dumplings in Stoleshnikovo. It suddenly became fashionable to post selfies against the backdrop of the Crimean landscapes, and go to the banks of the Neva for a romantic weekend. Only a handful of Chanel and Alexander Wang-packed regulars will now be able to afford a trip to Western fashion weekends. The forced trend towards patriotism has led to the official golden age of domestic designers in Russia. All appearances and passwords are in our guide to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.

STORY

Russian Fashion Week has been held in Moscow for 15 years. During this time, a Mercedes-Benz luxury prefix was added to the ascetic Russian Fashion Week, and the entire project moved to the Manege.

Any designer who has passed the qualifying competition can get into the main MBFW show schedule. Those wishing to participate are divided into four groups: legendary, celebrity, new and trash.

legends- individuals who should be called not designers, but fashion designers. For example, Vyacheslav Zaitsev (hurry up to enjoy while the empire he created is still controlled by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich himself) or even. These two hold shows on preferential terms, because they work at a cosmic level for the domestic textile industry.

Celebrities- like the singer Keti Topuria from A'Studio or the television modist and authority Alexander Rogov. They automatically get into the shortlist, as they promote the event in the media with their names alone.

Beginners- talented pioneers, timidly putting up fifteen models for selection, tailored to their own and sprinkled with their own blood and sweat. This spring, among them are SORRY, I "M NOT, already known to the Moscow public, as well as KSENIASERAYA, Leka, VIPERS, Portnoy Beso, MUUS Lena Maksimova, SALLE DE MODE.

Thrash- a crowd of self-confident figures of near-fashion with one crooked coat in a lookbook. Digging out among dozens of worthy candidates is as hard as finding at least one stylish bow on Olga Buzova's Instagram, that is, almost unrealistic.

But the organizers are not only proud of their Russian citizens: it is fundamentally wrong to consider the Week as a local cabal. On the metropolitan site, the collection was represented, for example, by the Englishwoman Jenny Packham - Kate Middleton and Angelina Jolie flaunt in her dresses. Designers Matthew Williamson and even Vivienne Westwood personally shined at the Week. American Vogue published a review of the most interesting shows of last spring, and overseas fashion bloggers do not stop comparing the Moscow Manege with the American Lincoln Center, where New York Fashion Week takes place.

MUST-SEE

Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Maestro, the hallmark of MBFW - and that's not all. From the first ladies to the colorless heroines of the "Fashionable Sentence" - Vyacheslav dressed everyone. Shows are usually delayed, so be patient and properly recharge your personal iPhone - a gadget with a 10-20% charge will not live up to half of the show.

Yulia Dalakyan. From year to year, he demonstrates adequate women's clothing that can really be worn. Be sure to come to the show - if not for inspiration, then for the sake of photography in an embrace with regular guests Sergei Zverev or Konstantin Andrikopoulos (depending on mood).

Alena Akhmadullina. Fairy-tale Alyonushka arranges, perhaps, the most spectacular shows at MBFW, and it's not just about well-chosen models. A giant rook in the middle of the podium - isn't that an argument? There are much fewer invitations than those who want to come, so leave a request in advance at the Nikolskaya boutique.

Creators from the hills of Georgia. A powerful Transcaucasian presence is a sign of the last few seasons. You could say it's already a tradition. Representatives of the most stylish state of the Near East during the Week consistently demonstrate to Muscovites from the heels of international collections.

WHO IS COMING

Star Guard. Every more or less successful designer has trump comrades. The winners of the “Golden Gramophone” come to one to shine, the second has a #frontrow filled with actors of the domestic arthouse, fashion editors of the Internet media lick on the clothes of the third. The first ranks are created for all these guardsmen.

Fashion party. The bodies of street style queens, artists and class B party-goers appear from time to time in gossip columns (but only on websites), and faces sometimes end up on Tima Kolesnikov’s Instagram (in the background behind Alexei “Kisa” and beautiful highballs). They come at the invitation of a familiar designer. They run to the show without taking off the parks, so that immediately after the show they run away to the next event.

Fancy perches. Aspiring journalists, hip-hatted teenagers, YouTube freaks, and humanities students in homemade edgy outfits. Invitations to the show were either won through a contest on Instagram or picked up at the exit from the Manege. They come two hours before the show, make circles around the pavilion, languish in lines for free styling, broadcast everything that happens on Periscope.

Special guests, that is, especially valuable guests. Real buyers of designer works are the financial guarantor of future shows. Deservedly received invitations for years of wearing embroidered coats from ____ (substitute the name of any Russian designer).

Alupka-1962. Women of post-Balzac age in outerwear, who go to shows from morning to evening. The most grateful MBFW viewers watched all the shows attentively, although they do not remember a single designer by name. They will kindly tell you where to get an invite to the after-party (where only they eventually come).

BUSINESS PROGRAM

Designers are not businessmen. If a person understands both silks and the intricacies of competent product placement, then these are two different people. No matter how much Fonvizinsky Mitrofanushka tries to combine the cutting of the latest copy of the Vetements sweatshirt with the negotiations at the Central Department Store, nothing sensible comes out of this: you need to look for a manager. But for aspiring designers who PR themselves, MBFW came up with a business program. Here you can finally look beyond your own nose with a fashionable earring from Evgenia Linovich in your right nostril: listen to useful lectures, and simply make yourself known.

The main event of the business program of this season is the Fashion Futurum international conference, where 30 industry leaders will discuss changes in the fashion world at a round table. Among them are representatives of Milan Fashion Week, Polimoda Dean Danilo Venturi and editors of leading fashion magazines from Italy.

Moscow is a city of great opportunities! A lot is really possible here, and the fashion industry is a prime example of this. I no longer know a city where so many events called fashion week would take place at the same time. Unfortunately, quantity, in this case, is by no means an indicator of quality. Often this is a demonstration of show-offs - sometimes expensive, sometimes exaggerated. Fortunately, this season there are only two main fashion weeks in Moscow - Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia (MBFWR) and Volvo Fashion Week Moscow (VFW). They passed in October, with a difference of a week and in the neighborhood. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has moved to the Manege, which is literally a hundred steps from Gostiny Dvor, the permanent site of Volvo Fashion Week. Some joke that until the screenings take place in the Kremlin, the organizers will not calm down.

However, these eleven fashion days could be reduced to six. That is, up to one full week, where only real professionals would be presented, without interruptions for the dubious creations of yesterday's models and pop stars, dancing with tambourines on the catwalks and other madness that we, unfortunately, are forced to watch every season. Journalists and bloggers loyal to their work and Russian fashion have truly angelic patience and faith in success, huge and unshakable!

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia starts in 2002 when it was still called Russian Fashion Week. Having acquired a significant title partner in 2011 and standing on a par with the world's leading fashion weeks, MBFWR has changed markedly. The press service has become more polite, the schedule of screenings and additional events is more interesting, and the venue is more comfortable.

The move to Manezh was an important step forward, making this event comfortable for designers, for the press, and for guests. The organizers only need to eliminate their "signature" crush in front of the entrance to the podium area, which sooner or later will result in accidents and lawsuits.

Opening of the exhibition "Glory to Russian Fashion"

This season, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week celebrated its 25th anniversary season. The beginning of the week was preceded by the opening of the retrospective exhibition "Glory of Russian Fashion", dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Slava Zaitsev Fashion House and the 50th anniversary of the work of Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who left the fashion week in Gostiny Dvor a few years ago and is now the headliner of MBFWR. His show traditionally opens the Week.

Final exit at the Vyacheslav Zaitsev show

The show schedule for the spring-summer 2013 season was impressive - already proven professionals, promising young designers and several foreign names.

This season, the collections of Svetlana Tegin, Dasha Gauser, Oleg Biryukov, Leonid Alekseev, Yegor Zaitsev, Marusya Zaitseva, the duet of Anna and Alexei Borodulin (Borodulin’s) have become worthy representatives of Russia on the fashion scene this season.

Show by Oleg Biryukov

Marusya Zaitseva's show was recognized as one of the best at MBFWR

Borodulin's collections are a tribute to the rich history of Russia. This season, Anna and Alexei were inspired by the unique frescoes of the icon painter Dionysius. The collection received a huge amount of positive feedback, including on the other side of the ocean. After this show, the design duo was invited to Miami Fashion Week.

An important point in the policy of MBFWR is the support of young designers, including in the presentation format. Every day, two designers have the opportunity to present their work to guests and journalists.

For some, this gives great opportunities, for example, the debutant of this season, Maria Golubeva, last season limited herself to a presentation and by the time of her debut she already had laudatory publications and the necessary connections.

Show by Maria Golubeva

Traditionally, eminent foreign houses became the guests-participants of the fashion week – this time Oswald Boateng and Giles Deacon from Great Britain demonstrated their collections, the Italian brand Pal Zilieri and the designer of the Thai royal family Somchai Kaetong (Kai).

Final appearance at the Ozwald Boateng show

Of course, not without a fly in the ointment. Despite the strictness of the selection of participants, those whose collections do not correspond to the format of the Week are still included in the schedule. Fortunately for MBFWR, this is rather an exception. Currently, this event is the leader.

Volvo Fashion Week in Moscow is rooted in the nineties, when it was called High Fashion Week in Moscow and was held at the Rossiya State Central Concert Hall. The new time demanded changes, and since 2004 the event has been more private and professional in nature, and takes place in Gostiny Dvor. True, this is where the constancy ends, the week also changed its name and sponsors several times, but a few years ago the organizers enlisted the support of Volvo, so now the giants are fighting on two fronts - fashionable and automotive.

Not without regret, I note that the last few seasons the event is losing ground, and the organizers and participants are increasingly criticized. Leading designers disappear from the schedule, for example, Natasha Drigant, Kirill Gasilin, Natalya Kolykhalova and others did NOT show their collections on the catwalks of the Gostiny this season. Some of my colleagues note that this time valuable shows could fit in one day.
The week has opened with a traditional fashion show by Valentin Yudashkin, but this is already more of a tradition than a fashion. Over the next five days, we had a chance to see a fashion show from forty designers, but the list of leaders is much shorter - Dmitry Loginov, Victoria Andreyanova, Kira Plastinina, Daria Razumikhina, Lena Vasilyeva, Alena Akhmadullina and Alexander Arngoldt.

The brightest and most stylish show of Volvo Fashion Week - Dmitry Loginov, Arsenicum Nikon Fashion

Fashion show by Victoria Andreyanova

Final exit at the show of Daria Razumikhina

Final exit at Alena Akhmadullina's fashion show

Final appearance at the Arngoldt show

Once again, I want to note that in Russia there are talented and professional designers who are able to create collections and fashion shows at the world level. Unfortunately, they do not always have the necessary material base, but I want to believe that in the future investors will show more interest in our fashion industry.