So far this season's menswear shows have proven that, rather than risking at experimenting with some unknown formula, many designers are playing it safe. Miuccia Prada has for example remixed herself as seen in yesterday's post; Gosha Rubchinskiy is still intent on collaborating with other companies and brands to produce a functional design uniform for the global "ASBO generation" – pardon – for contemporary young men.
Rubchinskiy has been on a tour of Russia in the last year, a choice linked to the fact that the country will be hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He therefore showcased his designs a year ago in Kaliningrad and then in June he moved his show to St. Petersburg.
The young designer started a collaboration with Adidas in Kaliningrad, while in St. Petersburg he launched a partnership with Burberry that was inspired by youth culture and the legacy of British football in Russia. In the third city where he stopped – Yekaterinburg – he continued both these collaborations.
Staged at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (Yeltsin's daughter – Tatyana Yumasheva – also attended), the show took place on a runway featuring an artwork by Erik Bulatov that felt slightly reminiscent of sections of the Pet Shop Boys' video for "Go West", with blue skies and white clouds and the word "Svoboda" (freedom, in Russian).
The catwalk opened with remixed versions of the Burberry classic trench and duffel coats. Then two different Burberry check vintage patterns were recombined in the one shirt (in the same way we saw in yesterday's post Miuccia recollaging her archival prints in her new designs…); these garments were also matched with shoes and hats with the iconic checks.
The choice was not casual: Burberry was among the first Western brands to reach Russia in the '90s and was also favoured by Boris Yeltsin, as proved by some of the pictures preserved at the Presidential Center where the show took place.
Then Rubchinskiy proceeded to do what he does best – tracksuits for chavs and neds, mainly inspired by his own experiences of growing up in post-Soviet '90s Russia and falling in love with the logos and brands of the West. The trademark Adidas-meets-Гоша Рубчинский football-inspired T-shirts and sweatshirts were obviously there, but the young designer added some tailored variations turning an Adidas top into a jacket. His obsession for the brand was also symbolised by a young model with his hair shaved like the Adidas iconic three-striped logo.
The third part of the runway was instead inspired by uniforms: also in this case Rubchinskiy deconstructed and reassembled some of his designs, he combined two different camouflage patterns in one garment for example, then sectioned an olive green cropped bomber and a jacket with an elongated hem and restitched them together.
The theme of the collage was also reproduced in the patchwork denims, the result of a collaboration with Levi's (there was a third collaboration that regarded the accessories – see the Dr. Martens shoes).
The very final items on the runways revolved around the punk (or Kraftwerk) black and red palette and featured the works of artist Erik Bulatov, including the slogan "A friend suddenly turns to foe" (very apt for our times) and one jumper that spelt "Brat" in Cyrillic alphabet, a reference to Aleksei Balabanov's eponymous film (a sort of Russian "Trainspotting"). A sleeveless top featured instead a modern symbol of peace, a combination of the American, Russian and Japanese flags.
This imaginary flag was inspired by two ideas: the designer feels that by watching the news you get a view of the world at war, while, by scrolling down your Instagram feed, you get a sense of unity and peace. Rubchinskiy seems indeed to think that, no matter what the global leaders may think or do, young people are united in peace, and his designs are therefore to be interpreted as a uniform for this generation of people (mind you, the Japanese flag at the moment rather than being a political reference seems more a tribute to his fans and consumers in Japan…).
The performance ended with all the models singing "Goodbye America", a song by local rock band Nautilus Pompilius that was also featured in Balabanov's movie "Brat".
There are quite a few intriguing points about Rubchinskiy: first and foremost the fact that he has managed to find plenty of fans and buyers without introducing on the scene anything new (if you had had a time machine and had transported a Glaswegian ned from 2002 to Gosha's A/W 18 runway, nobody would have spotted anything incongruous) or particularly rebellious (the armbands on some of the shirts in the collection pointed at Soviet civil wardens).
Russia has a long history of artists, photographers, graphic and textile designers, so you wonder why Rubchinskiy doesn't delve a bit more into the wide and vast background of his home country to create more original collaged pieces rather than the umpteenth Adidas tracksuit.
Besides, despite his messages of unity in the collaged flags and despite he designs for young people who should be leading the revolution, Rubchinskiy doesn't seem to have any genuine anti-establishment messages against any political leaders.
In a nutshell his designs are just clothes, maybe they are cool and trendy streetwear garments, a neat uniform for a young generation who seems keener on queuing outside designer shops to get their fix of streetwear luxury than in protesting against anything. Mind you, there is something that may play in his favour: the young age of Rubchinskiy's models may win him a slot on the Pitti Bimbo runway, but, before then, Ken Loach may call him to do the costumes for his next film featuring disenfranchised neds.
Difficult to see where Rubchinskiy will be heading next: his plan may be successful for the time being, but, once you strip down his collections of the multiple collaborations he's so fond of, he doesn't seem to have a strong vision for the future.
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