What is missing in Russia for the development of the fashion industry
Text: Olesya Iva and Natalya Kurazhitsa
In Russia they love to complain about fools and roads. Unfortunately, the problem is not only in them and the field of fashion business is no exception. We have compiled a list of five important steps that would help the Russian fashion to rise from its knees and straighten its shoulders.
Governmental support
Alexey Navalny has repeatedly argued that money is spent in Russia speculatively and efficiently, especially when it comes to government structures. Fashion this problem concerns no less than all other areas - for a start, it would be nice to send a part of the immense domestic resources to its development. Take for example the UK, France or the United States. These are countries where the practice of state support is well developed and where there are obviously no such problems with fashion as in Russia. London Fashion Week has been sponsored by the Ministry of Culture more than once, the French Ministry of Economy has a more than competent policy regarding taxes on the luxury segment, and Anna Wintour and Diane von Fürstenberg joke that they have their own man in the government - First Lady Michelle Obama, who can put in a word. Everybody wins here: as the government sponsors the fashion industry, so it gives back the debt and stimulates the growth of the economy. Where do we start? With grants to young designers and small businesses that are practiced throughout the world from Australia to Sweden.
Education
Want to get a fashion education in Russia? This is one of the biggest problems. The maximum that is worth going to universities in our country: the profession of a designer or a seamstress, whose training has been perfected half a century ago, as well as the art of drawing — we really, really, are very well taught. If you are thinking about design education, we advise you to choose one of two ways: either to enter the foreign course of progressive BHSAD and then go to the magistracy in the UK, or immediately go to Omsk, where the best fashion school in Russia is now being formed Fashion Anton Galetsky and Dasha Pryanikova). If you take the scope of fashion journalism or business, so far everyone is learning from their mistakes. To become a certified specialist in this field, you cannot do without studying abroad - the level of education at specialized faculties in Russia is incomparable with their value. Hope was for independent fashion schools like the recently opened ZIL Fashion Factory, but there are also problems here - first of all with the audience, among which there are obviously not enough young people interested.
Strong fashion week
Such a sponsorship event, like Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, can look decent. This is proved by the experience of NYFW, which is also sponsored by the carmaker (we argue that you didn’t even notice it - the Americans are competently working with sponsors), and, with reservations, Kiev Fashion Days, who also try with the support of Mercedes-Benz. Russian Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week due to a number of reasons, alas, causes strong associations with zero ones. There is everything: sales of VIP-badges, a neon-filled hall, dozens of sponsorship booths whose employees strive to stick in new toothpaste as they run past Dima Shabalin or Svetlana Tanakina. But there is no live and healthy approach to fashion. Designers participating MBFWR know how difficult it is to argue with its organizers, make adequate test makeup and transplant the sponsor's mother-in-law from her first row to the second. After the closing of the legendary Cycles & Seasons, all hope was at Aurora Fashion Week, but over time it became clear that for the week that passes much later than the closing of the buyer's season, guests can only be lured by the show of Andrei Artyomov. In the meantime, there are conditions for a cool week: it’s enough to imagine what kind of excitement the shows of Alexander Terekhov, Oleg Ovsiev, Ria Keburia and a dozen other designers would cause in one event.
Trade show
Trade show (trade show) is a specialized exhibition. Collection Première Moscow does not count. The area of this phenomenal exhibition of clothes, about which even the most interested buyers of Russia have not heard, has long been bought by the Germans, and young designers are looking only for the sake of laughter. In the meantime, Russia is a sales market of such a grand scale, and regional buyers so rarely go abroad and so often want to buy normal collections that a competent Russian trade show would not be in misery. Creating a name for him is also simple: you need to collect the best Russian clothing brands in one place and invite international buyers to the show (you don’t have to represent Colette, there are other good stores that are less known). We are waiting for the Capsule or White to come to the Russian arena.
Competition for young designers
The experience of Andam, Hyères and Who Is On Next shows that contests for young designers are very important: many of them are noticed there by fashion critics and buyers. In Russia, at one time there was a Preview (held within the framework of the closed week of Cycles & Seasons), which launched Lesia Paramonova. After his death, there remained the unsinkable "Russian silhouette", which is difficult to watch without pain, as well as the "Admiralty Needle" in St. Petersburg, where new and interesting sometimes occur. There is no more progressive project on the horizon, although it is very easy to make it - this is proven by the Be Next projects in Georgia and Design It in Ukraine. So our young talents, namely Zhenya Kim, Yulia Vorobyeva, Olya Shurygina and their colleagues, will either have to make their way on their own, or non-patriotic to apply for the LVMH Prize. Fortunately, Gazinskaya, October and Pascal proved that there is a chance.
The photo: Flickr.com