MOSCOW, 19 Nov. In Russia, the red carpet of any award is always a parade of frilly outfits. Stars strive to show who is the brightest, but not every image is marked by taste and style. Fashion historian Anatol Vovk in an exclusive interview analyzed the clothes of the artists and spoke about the domestic fashion industry. 
Struggling towards improvement: what's up with fashion on the Russian scene
— How do you generally assess what is happening on our stage in terms of style and fashion? — wonderful! Although the era when ladies and men believed that the best part of the image is not the mind, but the bare navel, unfortunately, is engraved in history.
Today, there are some attempts to improve the situation, because the Internet is more present, and you can see what the stars are wearing. Some artists like to look at the West, and even borrow images.
Not everyone wants to spend money on original things, so they simply copy styles and colors, complementing all this with cheap accessories. Looks worse than forty. As my aunt, who worked in the circus for many years, used to say: «The more bullshit, the more hippie.» Apparently, they are guided by this principle.
— Now for the personalities. Which of our stars always looks stylish?
— Of course, Alexander Rogov. He knows very well what styling is, dresses very well and looks perfect.
— Is he, as they say, in trend or has he found his own style and masterfully uses it?
— Is he fashionable . And there are very few such people in our country.
Images and features: whom Vovk called stylish on stage
—Which of the girls can you cite as an example?
— If we talk about stylish, then this is Polina Gagarina. She was dressed by Igor Chapurin, Alexander Terekhov. She has good stylists who think over her very interesting images. The singer also loves Dior, and the outfits really suit her.
Do not forget that style and fashion are not always thinness. Eva Polna, for example, has a long-established style. She has a phenomenal collection of hats. And I want to know the names of those who created these hats.
— Are there stylish men?
— Sergey Lazarev dresses well in the classics. He successfully selects a wardrobe for his children — it is not pretentious, which is important.
I like the way Dima Bilan looks. But here it must be said that it is not fashionable, namely stylish. The singer rather works on what has already been created — the influence of the 2000s is still visible. Because he found a comfortable image. -width=»600″ data-crop-height=»421″ data-source-sid=»rian_photo» title=»Dima Bilan's anniversary concert» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1348″ decoding=» async» />
So it was in Soviet times. Edita Piekha, for example, chose hoodie dresses and roses for herself. Lyudmila Zykina had a very recognizable image. And Valentina Tolkunova has a string of pearls in her hair.
Recognizability is a kind of path to stability.
— You have listed the Soviet stars, which at one time gave a certain impetus: they wanted to be copied, they were style icons on the stage. Are there those today who will be imitated?
— Hard to say. Designers can be inspired by the fashion of the zero or 90s. Sometimes it happens that after watching, for example, a clip, an artist comes up with a collection. Someone will see Olga Buzova's video and create something.
The main fashionista of the country: analysis of the image of Philip Kirkorov
— Of course, in an interview about fashion you can’t not to talk about Philip Kirkorov. What do you say?
— He is the bearer of fashion for me. You can say and think whatever you want about it. People like Kirkorov or Yana Rudkovskaya bring fashion to the country. If they want to make museums named after themselves, I'll be the first to go look, because there is a whole retrospective of haute couture collections.
Philip is very fond of the brands Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Philipp Plein, Dolce & Gabbana.
For example, in the clip «Novels» — amazing pieces of haute couture D&G. They can cost hundreds of thousands of euros because they are hand-embroidered.
But in life and on stage it looks different. My friend Arsen Airapetov, who styled it for many years, removed the feathers and the Brazilian carnival from the image. On stage, Philip sometimes performs in them, but this is more of a retrospective, a reference to himself in other years.
In life, he is as bright as on stage, but Kirkorov is one of the few in our country who always thinks about the dress code and dresses appropriately for this or that event.
They wear it in Europe, but they don't buy it here: about Russian designers
— What do you think about young artists wearing tracksuits and in general what they usually wear on the street?
No way. But I want to note that the red carpet is not a show of fashionable outfits, but a parade of propriety. If our stars looked at Russian brands, I would be much happier in assessing their images. I have been saying for a long time: we have a huge number of designers. For example, I have a lot of eyeglass frames from Vladimir masters.
You can list for a long time. For example, «Krestetskaya line», which is now reviving the bygone skill. Tatyana Kotegova makes amazing dresses. Tatyana Parfenova, Stas Lopatkin use embroidery in their collections. People come to him from London — and our stars are looking for what to bring from the West.
Artists go to Europe for a hoodie with five letters of the brand, which costs 70-80 thousand, but they don’t want to buy it from masters from St. Petersburg with embroidery, it costs less and will look more appropriate. At the same time, they would support a domestic manufacturer.
American rappers go for their chains and oversized stuff, and ours imitates it. But copying an image will not automatically bring you the fame, talent, and success of the source. ratio=»0.794722545595654″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»477″ data-source-sid=»rian_photo» title=»American rapper, producer, actor Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (Snoop Dogg) and singer Timati at the premiere of the film Odnoklassniki.ru: Invite good luck» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1526″ decoding=»async» />
— Stereotype. Russian designers allegedly have nothing to choose from…
— You can't say that. You have no idea how beautiful things are sewn. And our designers are in great demand when they go to the West. For example, Lotta Volkova. Or the creative director of Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia, is Georgian, but still born in the USSR. A lot of Russians work in fashion, because ours can create a concept. But its implementation requires investments.
See what local brands are in your city and buy what you like from them. If our stars buy clothes of Russian designers instead of temporarily renting them for advertising, the situation will change. data-crop-ratio=»1.44482421875″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»867″ data-source-sid=»» title=»Model Alek Vek and Designer Demna Gvasalia» class=»m -vertical lazyload» lazy=»1″ />
By the way, about the price. For example, you need to go to the red carpet. How much does an image from a Russian designer cost on average?
— From ten thousand rubles. And most importantly, you will look good. There are many brands in Russia that reflect our flavor.
Of course, there are expensive domestic brands — they use hand embroidery, even with pearls. But even a haute couture dress in France will cost several tens of thousands of euros.
St. Petersburg can be called the shoe capital of Russia because there are many designers in this field. The price for a stylish beautiful leather pair is from eight thousand. Moreover, you will be offered to choose from 30 varieties of leather and 20 possible models. And these will be shoes especially for you, not Balenciaga sneakers for 80-90 thousand rubles.
I'm not saying that you need to stop wearing foreign brands. But do not think that all good things come from abroad. The time of Yugoslav walls and Czechoslovak boots has passed. We do good things too!
The full interview is on the Showbiz Romance podcast here.
A novel about showbizRussian artists want to show themselves as the brightest, most beautiful and successful. Often they simply copy the clothes of famous brands or images of Western artists. Fashion historian Anatol Vovk explained that style is in the Russian showbiz.