A fabulous vision: what the designers showed at the fifth Moscow Fashion Week

The fifth Moscow Fashion Week ended in the capital on September 2. The screenings took place on the Floating Bridge and the Kitaygorodskaya Wall, as well as at VDNKh, Bolotnaya Square and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The collections were presented by Russian and foreign designers. In total, there were more than a hundred shows in the program, and fairy-tale heroes, knights and ballerinas paraded on the catwalks. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

They made up fairy tales

Moscow Fashion Week celebrated its anniversary. From August 28 to September 2, it was held in the capital for the fifth time. From the familiar walls of the Manege, where the screenings took place last time, the event moved into urban spaces, which became a natural and spectacular addition to the show. RUBAN models paraded along gravel paths past majestic trees in the Leo Tolstoy Museum estate to the accompaniment of birdsong. Participants of the Alexander Arutyunov brand show — in the rays of the setting sun against the background of the Kremlin on the Floating Bridge.

The Alena Akhmadullina brand hosted guests on the Kitaygorodskaya Wall. The show became one of the main events of the final day of the fifth Moscow Fashion Week. Sofia Ernst, Yuri Kolokolnikov and Wilma Kutaviciute are in the front rows, Elena Letuchaya and Svetlana Bondarchuk are on the podium. And Alyona Akhmadullina is here — the author and narrator of her own "Meta-tale." This is the name given to the collection dedicated to the brand's 25th anniversary, which simultaneously explores the legacy of the fashion house and looks to the future. It includes dresses made of feathers, voluminous tops and bomber jackets, and asymmetrical items. A special place was occupied by the marine theme, which could be read in the scattering of pearls on dresses and textured fabrics resembling waves.

"I remember a fantastic dress made of feathers, dark with red, and I hope that I will be able to take something from the collection with me to Paris Fashion Week," stylist and TV presenter Lina Dembikova, who was among the audience of the show, shared her plans with Izvestia. — Alena Akhmadullina's fashion house has a long-established strong DNA. You can string the artist's work on it and you don't have to chase after any burning trends. At the same time, both the marine aesthetics and the textured fabrics that we saw today are relevant.

As per the notes

On the same day, a Masterpeace brand show took place at the walls of the Old English Courtyard on Varvarka. While the guests were taking their seats, girls were waiting on the backstage, as if they had stepped out of a book, in traditional Russian dresses and kokoshniks. They were the ones who launched the action, the choir of the Mossovet Theater was responsible for the musical introduction. The actors performed fragments from the play "Marriage", after which the main part unfolded on the podium — the actual show.

The collection was named "A Boho Fairy Tale", once again hinting that the genre, which has firmly captured the minds of cinematographers, is spreading more and more influence on fashion. The line combines the characteristic elements of the 1970s style, as well as designer Evgenia Linovich's thoughts on returning to roots and traditions. The color palette consists of shades of kiln clay, forest moss, fresh milk and midnight sky (as stated in the description of the collection).

"This is a statement about inner freedom, about the desire not to chase trends, but to listen to our higher selves, and about traditions that give us a reason to gather together and exchange energy," Evgenia Linovich explained to Izvestia.

Another almost theatrical action unfolded on another day at the Floating Bridge — as part of Fashion Week, images of the AI opera Mandragora were shown there, which premiered on the Mariinsky stage on the occasion of Tchaikovsky's 185th birthday. Under the live performance of the Peter Dranga DYP orchestra symphony orchestra, the heroes appeared in front of the audience in kokoshniks, invented by a neural network, reinterpreted shirts with traditional ornaments and chain mail.

The chivalrous aesthetic is reflected in the collections of several brands. Models appeared on the Kuchugova catwalk from Moscow not only in accessories in the form of a chainmail hood, but also literally in armor from head to toe. Brazilian Artemisi, accustomed to a more gentle sun, stripped his knights. In the reinterpretation, the armor turned into a mini dress and a skirt with a top. The creators, however, tried to combine all this with ideas about the fashion of the future by introducing futuristic shapes and details. It was reported that the collection was created under the influence of Tarkovsky's works.

Another trend (not new, but apparently still relevant) Moscow Fashion Week — balletcore. Murmansk-based brand Gapanovich, which has long won over the metropolitan public, presented the Premonition of the Ball collection at the Parking Gallery, which is not devoid of theatricality either in action (guests saw a dance performance led by Viktor Kramer) or in images (tutu skirts, pointe shoes, gaiters, playful multi-layered collars).

In total, more than a hundred shows took place during the Moscow Fashion Week. In addition to Russian designers and the aforementioned Brazilians, brands from Armenia, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, China, Turkey and South Africa took part in them.