Moscow’s Eminent Fashion Moment

Dior before the New Look, Yamamoto before Paris, Manolo Blahnik before Carrie Bradshaw. Fashion history is built on grand before-and-after moments that change everything in a designer’s career or global sense of style. The creativity and hard work that lead up to the breakthrough often gets overlooked. Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia featured several designers on the precipice of international success. It is exciting to witness their rising star. Artem Shumov and Yuri Pitenin are highly recognized names on the Moscow fashion circuit, despite having arrived from St. Petersburg. They craft clothes unaffected by the ubiquitous trends, yet with implied global ambitions. The eponymous Artem Shumov brand and the Saint Tokyo line by Pitenin feel remarkably fresh in capturing the zeitgeist of contemporary Russia (and beyond). Along with the bad boy du jour Gosha Rubchinskyi, they yield collections with strong, memorable narratives that generate cult following. Russia, with its tumulus history and rich cultural heritage, is an unexplored treasure trove of inspiration for any fashion designer. Shumov referenced an extraordinary moment in Russian history, when on the cusp of the October Revolution in 1917 the ordinary workers, service members and youth were caught in the middle of the national conflict. Read more at Forbes.