Young Russian Designer Dreams Of Creating Homegrown Style

"Moscow -- it is one of the most expensive cities in the world," said Igor Chapurin, serving coffee in the ordinary kitchen of his communal apartment, stuffed with Russian kitsch and one extremely fat cat.


Yet for Chapurin, 29, an up-and-coming fashion designer, Russia's capital city is the place where dreams are made. While he doesn't have a big manufacturing operation or a fancy dom mody, or house of fashion, Chapurin is nonetheless developing a reputation among the country's political and cultural elite.


In Moscow, Chapurin has found a large clientele ready and willing to pay the designer to create exclusive haute-couture fashion starting at $1,500 and up, and has developed a reputation that is launching him into international circles in the world of high fashion.


Unlike his contemporaries, Chapurin is not one to put on unprofessional, late-night, avant-garde fashion shows at Moscow nightclubs complete with disco -- shows that don't solely concentrate on the fashion. Instead, he has focused his energies and resources into one large, annual production, usually shown in a high-caliber venue like the Metropol Hotel in a performance with high-quality lighting that spotlights the clothes and costs up to $45,000.


The results of his efforts to present his clothes at high-quality shows seem to be gaining him some attention. He has appeared in the Russian editions of Harper's Bazaar and Elle, and he was written up in the U.S.-based Women's Wear Daily, a newspaper dedicated to the clothing industry.


He's also developed a reputation through word-of-mouth for his high-quality, exclusive designs.


"The Russian elite want to buy from Russian designers," he says, dropping names of clients from entertainment and television circles, like Alla Pugachyova's daughter, Kristina Orabakaitye. "Before, everyone thought that foreign things were better. Foreign creations were beautiful. But when people see that Russian fashion is beautiful, [they] will return to it."


Helping them return to Russian-made design seems to be Chapurin's mission. With taffeta from Italy and Indian silk, the young designer is determined to make top-quality goods out of the world's finest materials and then sell them to a Russian, and international, clientele.


Chapurin defends his use of imported fabrics, saying designers around the world use the best materials so why should Russians be any different. Besides, Russia does not have a textile industry that can support high fashion, he said.


His most-recent success has been attracting the attention of a fellow native -- the Russian-born Italian Princess Irina Galitsina -- who has long been in exile in Italy.


Galitsina, 80, fled Russia with her family during the October Revolution and later made a name for herself in the 1950s and 1960s, dressing women -- from U.S. film star Elizabeth Taylor to Jacqueline Kennedy -- in fashionable high-end pantsuits.


At one point in the 1970s, "Princess Galitsina" had her name on everything from flatware to cosmetics in the Italian fashion world.


She chose Chapurin as the creative director to revive her line after she saw a cassette of his 1995 fashion show at the Metropol Hotel.


"She is very dynamic and is very clear thinking," says Chapurin of the octogenarian, who has found a similarity in his style and that of her younger years. Now the two are working together to develop a premiere line of haute couture, from dresses to shoes, to be available in the fall.


These days, the young designer often finds himself en route between Milan and Moscow working with Galitsina and preparing for a fall fashion show of his collection in Russia.


But the young designer is undaunted by the task of reviving Russian fashion both on his home soil and abroad. He welcomes the opportunity to be a creative force behind Italian fashion.


"All people at one time studied and did a line for another designer," says Chapurin, mentioning names such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior. "It is a way to learn."


Yet he is existential in his approach to business, to fashion and to life and concedes he is most happy in the process of creating.


"I am from a family where everybody, including my grandfather, worked in the textile industry. My grandfather was the director of a linen factory. My parents worked with cotton. So I have no choice but to follow in this way," Chapurin said. "My parents did it in state offices, now I do it privately."


Growing up in that environment, it was natural for Chapurin to want to be involved in the clothing industry. He began his career by designing dresses for Russian contestants in Miss Universe beauty pageants. When word spread of these dress designs, Chapurin widened his clientele to include television personalities.


Chapurin will present his 1998 collection in Russia in this fall.


"All the world knows Russian ballet and the Bolshoi and Marc Chagall ... in the arts. But for fashion, Russia has never done it, which is nonsense as fashion is unique," he said.


They are big dreams, coming from humble beginnings, but following a quality approach, success has been great so far. For Chapurin and Russian fashion, only time -- a few months -- will tell.