Fashion Week Sees Russian Designers Dominate

Long-legged men and women will slip in and out of their clothes as fast as they can close to the Kremlin, as Moscow Fashion Week takes over Gostiny Dvor and dozens of designers from Russia and abroad show off next year's spring and summer collections.

Oksana Onipko / MT

This year's theme is "The Monarchy of Fashion in Moscow," and visitors can see the whole gamut of local designers from veterans such as Valentin Yudashkin and Igor Chapurin, who will open and close the week, to up-and-coming designers like Max Chernitsov and Antonina Shapovalova, who has designed pro-Putin bikinis for the Kremlin-backed youth group Nashi.

There was no word on who was queen, king or even a simple baron, 227th in line to the throne, in this Moscow fashion monarchy. Among the other Russian designers on display are Alexander Terekhov -- who trained under Yves Saint Laurent and has had shows in New York -- Alexander Arngoldt, Elena Teplitskaya and Sergey Sysoyev.

Italian designers Emilio Pucci and Emanuel Ungaro will present their collections, and French fashion and style guru Ito Morabito will also attend.

Actress Denise Richards was set to be flown in for the opening party at Kalina Bar late Wednesday. The restaurant Next Door, meanwhile, was set to hold a special kind of catwalk show, using puppets wearing Italian-designed shoes.

As befits haute couture, exclusivity is much prized, and the clapping audience that will appear on television is made up of only the specially invited.

For MT

Non-VIPs are denied access to the catwalks and can only browse the designer clothes at the showroom in Gostiny Dvor, where if they listen carefully they can hear the "tap tap" of the models further inside the building. Unfortunately, visitors will not be able to buy anything because of state regulations, which apparently allow fashion shows but not purchases in a state-owned building.

If you want to check out the models, or even designers and their togs, then the fashion week venues are Kalina Bar and Soho Rooms. The closing party on Oct. 28 will take place at Soho Rooms. Face control is said to be slightly harsher than that outside the emperor's box at the Colosseum in ancient Rome.

World Fashion Channel will be broadcasting all week from Moscow for the couch-potato designer fan.

Moscow Fashion Week runs through Oct. 27 at Gostiny Dvor, 3 Varvarka Ul. M. Kitai Gorod. www.fashionweek.ru + 7(495) 698 1259.