Old world luxury at Moscow Fashion Week

Old world luxury reminiscent of the tsars opened the city's first fashion week of the year, held in Gostiny Dvor, a revamped 19th century exhibit hall near the Kremlin.

Pale-faced models displayed flowing cream and black dresses from the turn of the century under high-collared fur coats to an audience of hundreds of people, which included few members of the international press or foreign buyers.

"Russian fashion has been given back to us, it's arrived," said designer Valentin Yudashkin after his show.

Moscow mayor of 15 years Yuri Luzhkov took his place on the first row and enthusiastically applauded the celebrated designer, who has shops in western Europe and was recently commissioned by generals to dress the Russian military.

"We are a rich country, and that's why we have rich fashion," Luzhkov said after giving Yudashkin a large bouquet of flowers.

Other designers went beyond tsarist fashion to evoke the feeling of pre-Bolshevik Russia.

Deep blue flowers on black backgrounds similar to traditional Russian lacquered boxes dominated at Slava Zaitsev's show, a 69-year old designer who used to dress the Soviet elite.

Male models had their faces covered by flowing fox stretching from large Russian winter hats and wore embroidered gold overcoats with green fur collars.

"We're scared of taking our fashion abroad, that it will be unpleasant, but we're a huge country with a long history of beauty," Zaitsev said after the show, which also showed headscarved women and men with trousers tucked into boots, conjuring up the look of Cossacks, or tsarist cavalrymen.

Ballerinas, an idyllic Russian winter setting and an ode to French queen Marie-Antoinette also featured at the week.

"We were isolated from the world (during Soviet times)," said Tatyana Mikhalkova, the wife of Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov and president of Russian Silhouette, a charity she set up to give funding to young Russian designers.

"People now like to dress from another time, like the time of (Empress) Catherine the Great," said Mikhalkova, who counts future first lady and public Russian fashion supporter Svetlana Medvedeva in her close circle of friends.

Soviet style
Russian fashion, like other facets of the country's art, is gaining popularity and spreading in interest as Russia undergoes its longest economic boom in more than a generation, fuelled by high oil prices.

But Moscow Fashion Week, which was set up 15 years ago to compete with other fashion footholds Milan and Paris, fell short of the international glamour such cities receive.

Almost all shows were held in the same hall, few Russian and no foreign celebrities made an appearance.

Two Russian designers who have gained popularity in the West were markedly absent from the shows.

Girlfriend of billionaire and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, Daria Zhukova, did not come to the week, although she was invited. Her designs, under the label Kova and T, have recently been spotted on Hollywood stars.

Denis Simachev, who creates clean-cut sailor outfits and has his head office in Luxembourg, also declined his invite, his spokesman Vadim Chernyshev said.

"The best way to sell a collection is in Milan. Good clothes should be known on a quality stage," said Chernyshev. Simachev was the first Russian designer to debut on the coveted Milan catwalk seven years ago.

Moscow Fashion Week, though it attracts little international interest, had around 120,000 attendees this year.