Moscow Fashion Week avoids tradition
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Girls clutching diamond-studded mobile phones and Versace-suited men in land cruisers show Muscovites love their glamour, but the city's fashion week was markedly different from its European counterparts.
Unlike established fashion footholds Milan, Paris or London, Moscow Fashion Week strayed from the traditional, featuring designs by the 14 year-old daughter of a multi-millionaire and models who broke with catwalk ritual by smiling at the audience.
Housed in Gostiny Dvor, an elegant revamped 19th century exhibit hall near the Kremlin, over 70 designers -- all Russian but two -- presented their spring-summer collections to Moscow's elite and famous during the event, which ended Tuesday.
Smiling models strutted down the catwalk at the city's 14th fashion week, something almost never seen in fashion, and some even danced.
"We went through 70 years of being forced to wear what we were told to, not what we liked. Now, every woman can try create her own style, way of being," Russian-Italian designer, Natalya Picariello, told Reuters before her show.
Kira Plastinina, daughter of the CEO at a large Russian dairy holding and designer at age 14, had girls in plastic shorts and electric pinks.
Other collections were showcased by way of mini-theatrical presentations, strengthening the week's unregulated feel.
Male and female models danced to Russian love songs, flirted with each other and did mock-poses for the audience at Slava Zaitsev's show, Russia's foremost designer who used to dress the Soviet elite. Continued...
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