At first glance, Russia today is clearly out of fashion and for a number of reasons, rather political ones, we seem to be outsiders. Meanwhile, for some, we are trendsetters.
At first glance, Russia today is clearly out of fashion and for a number of reasons, rather political, we seem to be outsiders, meanwhile … meanwhile, for some we are even trendsetters … Not so long ago, a foreign guest flew to Moscow again, to bribe Russian clothes for his wardrobe. Buy from us? And for this you need to fly … Yes. And the only two stores that our original girl visits are … work clothes stores. This time, from the absurd assortment, she liked the suit of a gas welder. I confess that for the first time in my life I saw these clothes close up in all the details of rough condoness: a protective coarse fabric that a spark from welding does not burn through, wide straps, a lot of pockets for tools, something like Caucasian gasses on the chest, a bandolier for welding sleeves and other working jumble . And he weighed well.
The only thing missing was a refractory mask for electric welding.
So, it was in this costume (worn, however, over a magnificent cashmere sweater) that our guest went to the Bolshoi Theater, to the ballet stalls and, given her catchy appearance and chic, was a great success.
The search for the Russian style did not end there.
Now together we began to look for a vest, which she had been dreaming of for several years, but here’s a paradox – there are no real vests in the “Babylons” there. In Moscow, too, only imitations of genuine vests were available, striped thin shirts for the beach, but a real vest is a sailor’s robe. Long sleeves longer than the arm so that they can be rolled up, thick woolen fabric of special manufacture, wide rather than narrow rachitic stripes across the facade in order to see a sailor in a storm, and other attributes of authenticity.
I rejected the three vests she bought: not that, it’s a fake, a farce, and I showed my old – alas, in places with tears – a branded vest. The guest felt the fabric. Hmm, here it is, the quality of the military textile industry of Ivanovo tailoring. So in the years of youth, using the pinch method, we distinguished branded jeans at the flea market, blue Levi’s with the correct label, from a local homemade gun … In short, fly away the day after tomorrow, but no vest.
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- How do we really feel about fashion?
But it is not for nothing that it is said: what a woman wants, God wants it.
Nothing will stop a woman who flies to Moscow to bribe Russian clothes; in complete desperation, she rushed to Tverskaya to a chic captain in a cap and stated her request in decent Russian: I need a te-l-nyash-ku. Amazed by such an extravagant request, the officer of the riverboat took the lady to the river port of Khimki, where she was taken by boat to a floating facility such as a barge, where she was given one copy of a brand-new vest as a gift in the sailor’s cockpit. Chose the smallest size for Jung.
She is?
I felt the thing and immediately felt the class!
Yes.
The next day, the guest flew to Europe, having a gas welder’s suit in her suitcase (plus something else made of rubber in the form of a raincoat with a hood and an apron made of matting), she solemnly put on a vest on the road, although the sleeves had to be seriously twisted – they were two female hands. But firm!
What am I getting at? And to the fact that we inaccurately position ourselves in the global fashion market. All the victories of Milanese, Parisian and London couturiers on the podiums of Europe were born from the foam of Aphrodite, this artsy inspired beauty embodies the spirit of comfort, but the aesthetics of overalls are practically unknown there. Meanwhile, a Russian shoe or boot should have a valve with a clasp for a knife, let it be Swiss, let it be.
Yesterday I wandered for a long time in the Manezh at the exhibition by Peter Greenway and Saskia Boddeke “The Golden Age of the Russian Avant-Garde”. This is where the Russian militaristic chic of propaganda and social utopia reigned. All the heroes of this luxurious visual performance (young actors) were dressed by Greenaway in the manner of our aesthetic pressure: Kandinsky in a defiant scarlet tie with a huge knot, Lilya Brik with bare shoulders with straps in the tunic of the muse and in the makeup of a cocaine addict, Meyerhold in the airfield commissar’s cap ( well, a complete waste!), Tatlin in a brutal white coarse-knit sweater and a white scarf, Mayakovsky in a hat and a scarlet twist around his neck, and finally, the main chord of the multimedia installation: a snow-white fox – a collar with a black muzzle of a fox – in the hands of Lyubov Popova … On At the presentation of the exhibition, Greenway said: “We wanted to recreate the momentum that the art of the Russian avant-garde gave to the Western world.”
Here it is, the most accurate word – impulse!
We export impulses, that’s what a foreign guest was looking for in a workwear shop – she was looking for freedom from conventions, a gas welder’s uniform for a theater premiere.