His designs made use of traditional Russian motifs. (file)
Russian news agencies reported that Vyacheslav “Slava” Zaitsev, the man behind world-famous Soviet fashion, often adorned with colorful Russian folklore motifs, died on Sunday.
Born in 1938 to a working-class family, Zaitsev’s first international recognition came in 1963, when the French Paris Match magazine wrote about his collection of overalls for women workers, according to a note posted on his fashion house’s website. .
The RIA news agency reported that the collection’s bright, flowery jackets and skirts were rejected by the experimental clothing factory Zaitsev worked for.
In the 1960s the French press nicknamed him the “Red Dior”.
In 1965, he began working as artistic director of the experimental All-Union House of Fashion Models in Moscow, and some of his designs, which often implemented flowery traditional Russian patterns, were exhibited in the West.
In 1969, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a show of women’s clothing based on Zaitsev’s sketches. After the show, Zaitsev received offers to open stores in the West, which were rejected by the Soviet authorities.
In 1979, Zaitsev left the All-Union House of Models for a small studio, which by 1982 had turned into the Slava Zaitsev Moscow Fashion House, becoming the first Soviet designer to be allowed to put a label on his clothes.
Zaitsev’s Russian clients were music stars, actors, socialites and politicians.
The patronage of Raisa Gorbacheva, the wife of the last Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, increased his international fame in the 1980s.
He also considered Lyudmila, the ex-wife of President Vladimir Putin, as his client.
“I was incredibly lucky to have decided at the very beginning of my conscious life, thank God, what I should do, who I should be,” Zaitsev wrote in a note on his website. “Thank God, I found the meaning of life in the highest art of clothing, the art of painting and graphics, photography … in life, seeking harmony and perfection through poetry.”
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