Shopping for a dinky pair of Marc Jacobs shoes may not be the first thing on many people’s minds right now, but that is why Russian Vogue has organized “Fashion’s Night Out,” an attempt to attract stay-away Moscow shopaholics back into designer shops.

Moscow’s eager boutiques will be offering up love, kindness plus, perhaps, a welcoming push in the back to get you into their shop come Thursday.

The night is “meant to create a feeling of confidence among fashion consumers in these days of economic difficulties,” said Aliona Doletskaya, editor-in-chief of Vogue Russia. “For many years, women would go shopping for pleasure, something that has temporarily declined during the crisis. We want them to experience this delight once again.”

Champagne will flow for guests who can win extravagant lottery prizes, mingle with some of Russia’s and the world’s best designers and get advice from Vogue stylists. All the big brand name stores on Stoleshnikov Pereulok — Cartier, Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Dior to Furla, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Marc Jacobs — will be open until 12 a.m. or 2 a.m. Each store will showcase the season’s highlights, handpicked by Vogue editors.

As part of the event, TsUM department store will devote all of its sixth floor to Russian designers for two weeks. Tony Ward, Nicholas Kirkwood and Roland Mouret are among the designers who will be at various stores. Kirkwood will autograph his customers’ newly purchased shoes if they so wish.

Among the top lottery prizes on the night are a stay at the Salvatore Ferragamo family hotel Lungarno in Florence, a brand-new Pekaboo Selleria bag by Fendi and a signature Burberry trench coat. The prizes are on offer at each separate brand’s store.

Fashion’s Night Out was thought up by US Vogue editor Anna Wintour and will take place in cities around the world including Paris, New York, Beijing, Berlin, Tokyo and London.

One of the goals of the night is to attract the Russian government’s attention to fashion, said designer Alena Akhmadullina, whose collection will be showcased at TsUM.

It can “help revive and boost the Russian design industry, which lacks the professional experience because it is so young,” she said, adding that the industry did not have the marketing and PR skills to “turn Russian fashion brands into a business and bring them to the world market.”

“Only now is the Russian fashion market seeing considerable financial investments, before that investors’ main priorities were gas, oil and metal industries, and not light industry,” she said.

Tickets for the event were included in this month’s Vogue, AD and GQ magazines, but Doletskaya said that good customers will not be turned away without a ticket. Champagne will be given out at Furla, Denis Simachev, Piaget, Chaumet and Celine among others.
See http://vogue.ru/promotions/fashion/090730-8949.aspx for more details.