The man behind the curtains of Moscow catwalks

Q: Let’s make the point of the situation: how is Russian fashion performing today?

A: Much better than 5 years ago. We started Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia (known as Russian Fashion Week before 2011) in 2000 with just 20 designers, it was hard to find the right designers because although we had a lot in Moscow, most of them were not ‘good enough' for our standards. Nowadays as you can see quality has improved.

Q: Do you have any selection criteria?

A: Yes, of course. We are looking for fresh, original, well-tailored creations, for designers that have a structure and the possibility to sell. Every season we receive an abundance of requests, so we must be selective, as we want to have the best Russian designers here.

Q: Will you ever consider incorporating more foreign designers?

A: We’ve always had a lot of designers from abroad showing here: among them Vivienne Westwood, Catherine Malandrino, Frankie Morello, Iceberg – but our focus is on Russian designers, you will not come here to see Italian designers, but to see something new and original. Anyway we have the room for international designers entering Russian market. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia is a gateway to local market, you can meet here distributors, clients, media.

 Q: Have you been attending any of the shows so far? Do you have any favorites among them?

A: I am trying. I have a busy schedule in these days, so it’s quite difficult to attend every show. I have a lot of favorite designers showing here: I am personally friends with Slava Zaitsev and I like Tatyana Parfionova’s style.

Q: I have been to the great majority of the shows and I have not seen many key editors of your local Russian press, do you know why? Is Russian press supporting local designers or not?

A: Some mags requested 12-15 accreditations for editorial team. If the editor in chief does not appear its assistant fashion editor may come. Unfortunately Moscow is not like Milan or New York. Talented Russian designer should work harder to be seen in some local glossy magazines than his French colleague. This is a matter of perception. Some Russian editors are too busy travelling around parties of advertisers to follow same national designers’ creations. Some roots are from 10-15 years ago when the perception was that Russians can not create fashion, it was a sort of Soviet heritage. But two-three generations of Russian designers are changed since that time. You see so many talented original collections this season in Moscow but for some party-goers this is not a point of interest. I spoke to my colleagues in other countries: it seems that Russia is not original. It is said that glossies in Spain are not very supportive too for local emerging designers. It is pity because I am pretty sure that it is very important to support local talents despite the fact that they are not advertisers yet. Moscow situation is changed in last few seasons.  Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia is very effective in working with local media including glossy magazines. Today InStyle Russia and Vogue Russia pay a lot of attention to locals. Conde Nast in Russia is much more open to Russian fashion now than it was five-seven years ago. Need to say that new generation of Russian fashion designers is more talented today. Anyway last season we had over 1500 journalists accredited.

A: Russian fashion has been advanced after the crisis. We got so many newcomers that we had to launch a few programs supporting emerging designers. Russian designers have greater chance to participate Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia for free than any youngster on your markets. I travelled a lot, we have strategic partnerships with the National Chamber for Italian Fashion (CNMI) and with IMG Fashion. We learned some ideas from N-U-DE program on Milano Moda Donna. We extended it in Moscow covering more talents in Russia than any national association does in Paris or London. There is another issue. Situation in Moscow is not like in Milano or New York, most people are afraid to make first steps, they are just waiting for André Leon Talley to proclaim something to be "cool", and then they will agree. It is a matter of experience. A few years ago Russian fashion bloggers were only following some opinion leaders being afraid to express their vision. Now they pay more attention to emerging fashion because they understand it better. Actually Godfrey Deeny from FWD still knows more about Russian fashion than some Moscow fashion writers but it changes now. We try to educate local fashionistas bringing cutting edge designers to Moscow. 10 years ago I invited extremely trendy Americans to participate Russian Fashion Week (predecessor of MBFW Russia).There were As Four, Heatherette, Rachel Comey in Moscow. Now it is time to look after Russians around the world. This season we hosted hot Russian designers from London – Vilshenko, Timur Kim with Fyodor Golan. Previous season we staged Von Vonni from NY, another fashion genius with Russian roots. For me it is very important to showcase best Russian-born fashion here, on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.

A: Of course I am really proud of Russians getting in the spotlight in Milano or Paris as Vika Gazinskaya or Uliana Sergienko does. But for most of Russian designers all the business is here, in Russia. The apparel turnover is estimated in 70 million Euros per year in Russia, 40-50% of which is legal, the rest is shaded. Every brand from Milan wants to enter this market, but for us this is a domestic market, easy to handle. As I said before we produce Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia as a hub for Russian-language fashion. If Sergei Grinko is interested in entering the Russian market we will be glad to stage his show. We have sponsors who are interested in supporting new designers, it is less interesting to help someone who is already well established. In example, Dasha Gauser was supported, we scouted her in Ekaterinburg and invited her to Moscow, we go around Russia and scout. It is very easy to apply and participate to our fashion week, everybody can do that through our website www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.ru and then we call them back and see if they are professionals, if they have sales, continuity etc… some designers are paying, while some others are supported by our sponsors.

Q: I have heard rumors that the other fashion week of Moscow, Volvo Fashion Week, is shutting down. Do you feel like you won a battle?

A: Not really. RFW and following MBFW Russia has always been the number one event with worldwide exposure. Moscow had a lot of so called fashion weeks happening every season, some years there were up to 5 events in one season, all are called 'fashion week'. Volvo FW was visible last seasons because it was opposing to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. When two car makers come to the fashion market everyone becomes curious. Russia is a land of huge ambitions. I would be not surprised if Kia will enter fashion playground in Moscow in future. This is the same as we discussed before: lack of education and professionalism. Mercedes-Benz is exploring fashion around the world for 15 years, there are MB Fashion Weeks in New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, etc. This is important communication platform but in Russia brands think that this is very easy to start using this platform. The key is that Mercedes-Benz supporting only well developed events with strong idea and excellent production. Before Mercedes-Benz joined Russian Fashion Week I produced  6 seasons in the tents on Red Square and Gorky Park. It could be compared only to Bryant Park option before. The scale of the RFW event was really big, not as local designers. Now it is even bigger, in Manege, and collections are better. My personal perception is that there will always be a lot of events in Moscow. Some Russian marketing executives are quite virgin trying to explore own path instead of levering up its international experience. But sometimes ambitions are good. There are a lot of designers so it makes sense to have many events, even if they are not as international as ours. We present 70 designers in a season, that’s quite a lot. 90 % of good Russian designers are showing on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia, other events are quite local or sponsor-oriented. Another point is a city. 99% of all media are concentrated in Moscow, if you want to succeed as a designer, you have to be in Moscow.

Q: So, don’t you think in 10 years you will be the only one?

A: No, you see, also in New York you have many events in addition to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Lincoln Center. The same is here, we have many designers and they can’t be all in Manege, so it’s fine if they find other ways to show their stuff. Almost every city in Russia has a fashion week. We cooperate with them to scout new talents. Theres is another idea behind the fashion weeks run. It is a time to launch a sort of virtual fashion week with no ties to location. Internet provides a lot of opportunities. For example, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia puts a lot of efforts in developing web communications. We were making live streaming broadcast of all shows in internet for a few years. This season we reached 500.000 unique views in 5 days of the event. Our live player was on Vogue.ru, Livejournal.com, Cosmo.ru, Msn.com and 20 more web-sites. Broadcasting coverage was 15 millions of potential users around the world. This is huge exposure. It really drives some designers' sales. Some Russian designers go to customers through internet so this medium really supports them. 10 years ago fashion show was exposed only for selected audience – buyers, press, clients. Now big brand's fashion show scores millions views through internet, lively or not. Are they all buyers and press? No. Also fashion editor does not need to attend every show he is interested of. Any fashion show will be delivered on editor's desktop in the same time it happens somewhere. Technology is quite advanced now. It may change the idea of the collection. Now it still should be one season in advance. Tomorrow the designer will mix up the fashion show to sell some stuff right from the catwalk. This is amazing time, it changes customer's behaviour for sure.