Departure from the life of Russian fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin is a great loss for our sport. The maestro created a collection of clothes for the Russian Olympic team in Lillehammer and Atlanta, dressed the men's and women's football teams in 1999 at the World Cup. Finally, his hand is seen wearing several prominent figure skaters' costumes. Sport recalls Yudashkin's most iconic works.
Grandfather Valentine was a tailor, which to a large extent predetermined the fate of the boy. Since childhood, he was surrounded by patterns, fabrics and sewing accessories. When the love for drawing was multiplied by this, the ideal of the future profession turned out. Yudashkin is one of the few lucky ones who achieved exactly what he dreamed of.
The only man on the course, he graduated from the faculty of costume design. Undergraduate practice took place with Vyacheslav Zaitsev — a subtle sad and ironic parallel, given that both died two days apart and achieved great recognition both in Russia and in the world.
Valentin Yudashkin got into figure skating in 2014 right before the Sochi Olympics. When it became known that Evgeni Plushenko would skate in the team tournament, his coach Alexei Mishin turned to the recognized couturier for a unique costume. Yudashkin was then in Milan and right there he began to work on sketches.
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“I see quite a lot of people with a strong character, they surround me almost daily, but with Zhenya (Plushenko) everything is completely different. This is a very rare combination of an absolutely cold, icy mind and a hot heart. Everything is inside, everything is in itself … And his in no case should the costume become my self-expression — this is not a fashion show, «said Valentin in an interview.
With this attitude, the result met expectations: the costume turned out to be very strict. Nothing extra. Music, the face of Evgeni Plushenko, his hands, character and line, as in a ballet, should have come first in the perception.
