The best thing that happened at Aurora Fashion Week
Text: Natalya Kurazhitsa
In September, the key fashion weeks were held in London, New York, Milan and Paris. Now it is the turn of Russia. Last weekend, the tenth anniversary Aurora Fashion Week took place. We visited St. Petersburg and selected 6 of the most remarkable collections of the spring-summer 2015 season from among those shown.
ZDDZ London Show
One of the main events at the St. Petersburg Fashion Week can be called the ZDDZ London show. In September, brand designer Dasha Selyanova already showed her collection at Fashion Week in New York at the VFiles Made Fashion show. On the Quiet Life show in St. Petersburg, the same tops and leggings made of reflective fabric, dresses and sweatshirts with the slogans All I Want Is Quiet Life, Platinum and Open As Usual were presented. This is, of course, a commercially-weighted step: DKNY, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Hood by Air and Alexander Wang have been successfully selling things with slogans and inscriptions for several seasons in a row. At the show in New York, voluminous parks, shorts and thick cotton shirts were combined with running sneakers, and in St. Petersburg with the presentation of the show stylist Rita Zubatova - with shales and nylon golfs. Light futurism, sport, aesthetics of the 90s, bra-tops and shorts, more like men's swimming trunks, - everything that street fashion offers today was on the show. Perhaps, Dasha Selyanova is one of those rare cases when the Russian designer is fully aware of "what they wear now."
Artem Shumov show
Androgynous cheekbone boys with a parted part in emphatically laconic, slightly feminine clothes are actually the prerogative of J.W. Anderson. It seems that now St. Petersburg's Artem Shumov is stepping onto the territory of the Irish Anderson. At the show of the next season, the designer showed simple things from natural fabrics of neutral tones, but with designs. The collection was based on hits from the field of women's fashion: pajamas, dress-shirts, embroidery with natural pearls. Shumov comments on his design finds in a romantic way: "I wanted to show an open heart, so I used a bronze pearl in each model as its symbol."
Show Litkovskaya
Lilya Litkovska is one of those who made journalists talk about Ukrainian designers as a phenomenon. A supporter of minimalism, she explores the aesthetics of uniforms and often beats the male silhouette in her collections. At the Litkovskaya Spring-Summer 2015 show, fitted jackets with a massive shoulder line and wide trousers side by side with feminine dresses on thin straps and asymmetrical skirts, as if turned inside out. The Vertigo collection has been pleased with a variety of fabrics: from fine dressing silk to a classic cage, cotton jersey and flowing viscose to fabrics with a cool technological shine, polished cotton and complex synthetic materials. Litkovskaya herself says that the inspiration for the collection was the work of Francis Bacon and Alfred Hitchcock, but only a person with very abstract thinking can see it.
Arctic Explorer Presentation
The daughter of a polar explorer, Ksenia Chilingarova, created the Russian version of Canada Goose products, a brand that specializes in winter parks with enhanced heat resistance. Her Arctic Explorer down jackets are designed for temperatures down to minus 45 degrees, which at a glance outside the window makes them an especially attractive acquisition. We did not manage to check the frost resistance of the Arctic Explorer outerwear at the presentation, but in terms of external indicators it is definitely not inferior to its Canadian counterpart. The models sat for fifteen minutes and stood in frozen poses, so there was plenty of time to see the parks in detail, as well as sweatshirts and vest.
Saint-Tokyo show
The founder of the Saint-Tokyo brand, Yuri Pittenin, showed himself excellently. He decided to separate himself from the national show “New Names in Design - 2014” and performed solo. The designer spent a significant part of his youth in Japan - hence the name of the brand. Eastern culture and the Japanese language influenced his creative thinking: Yuri claims that in his collections he demonstrates the clash of Europe and Asia. Models at the Saint-Tokyo show walked along the catwalk at lightning speed and to the perilous music. Such serious faces with powerful piercings in the nose are more likely to be met at the Berlin Berghine techno club than on the top floor of the DLT, where the tenth Aurora Fashion Week was held. The collection is made in the spirit of the times: again bras-tops, loud inscriptions "DON'T", futurism and prints in Indian style. By the way, prints on natural silk were developed by St. Petersburg illustrator Katya Khot.
Presentation of the Maison Kitsuné
Completed Fashion Week presentation of the spring-summer collection Maison Kitsuné. The founders of the French street brand Zhildas Loaek and Masaya Kuroki - frequent guests in Russia - did not refuse to join the anniversary Aurora Fashion Week. During the presentation of the collection Effortless French models posed against the backdrop of giant postcards depicting Parisian sights. Herringbone pantsuit, vest with MK abbreviation, school dress with a collar, bomber jacket with a tropical print, jeans with cuffs - the French did not show anything new, but it is in such clothes that you want to go every day. The soundtrack to the presentation was the new mix of Kitsuné "Kitsuné Trip Mode" label by Jerry Butera.