Vyacheslav Zaitsev

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Zaitsev (Вячеслав Михайлович Зайцев; 2 March 1938 – 30 April 2023) was a Russian fashion designer, painter, graphic artist, and theatrical costume designer.

He was considered to be one of the most prominent fashion designers of the Soviet Union, and had been compared to Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.

Zaitsev was born on 2 March 1938 in Ivanovo to Mikhail Yakovlevich Zaitsev and Maria Ivanovna Zaitseva.

His father was a victim of the repressions of Joseph Stalin and was incarcerated in one of Stalin's camps, and his mother was a cleaner and laundress.

From 1945 to 1952, he studied at Secondary School № 22 in Ivanovo.

As his father was deemed by the State to be an enemy of the people, Zaitsev was denied the opportunity to study at an industrial academy, a theatrical school, and a pilot training school.

In 1952, he began his studies in the Faculty of Applied Arts at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Ivanovo, and during this time he became interested in manufacturing and received the credentials to become a textile artist.

He graduated, with honours, from the university in 1956.

After realising that working with textiles was his dream, he moved to Moscow in 1956, and commenced studies at the Moscow Textile Institute, from which he graduated in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in painting and designing.

Whilst he was studying at the Institute, he married Marina Vladimirovna Zaitseva in 1959, and fathered a son, Yegor Vyacheslavovich Zaitsev, in 1960.

During the Soviet era, clothing was dominated by Zaitsev and Valentin Yudashkin, and he was compared to other world-renowned fashion designers such as Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, Zaitsev was seen as being able to compete with Western designers; however, under the communist regime, the only country outside of the USSR where Zaitsev was able to work was Czechoslovakia.

Alexandre Vassiliev, a Russian-born, Paris-based fashion historian and designer, stated that "[i]f he had had a chance to show his collections abroad he would have been most possibly a world-famed brand."

Zaitsev first came to prominence in the 1960s, when he was featured in the magazine Paris Match and dubbed the "Red Dior" by the French media.

In March 1962, he began work as the artistic director of experimental technical garment factory Mosoblsovnarkhoza, where he oversaw production of women's clothing for retail stores in Moscow and the surrounding region.

Zaitsev came to attention in 1963 when he designed a chic version of the telogreika, Pavlovsky Posad shawl-inspired skirts and multi-coloured valenki for kolkhoz workers.

Whilst his creations were lauded by the authorities for "sparkling with all colours of the rainbow", his collection was not approved for production by the Methodical Council.

In February 1963, Paris Match became the first foreign media outlet to profile Zaitsev, and rated his collection highly.

In March 1965, Zaitsev became the chief designer at the All-Union Fashion House (Dom modeley) on Kuznetsky Most.

In April 1965 Pierre Cardin, Marc Bohan (then with Dior), and Guy Laroche visited Moscow and became familiar with Zaitsev's works, although Zaitsev was not present, and was covered in an article of Paris Match.

Pierre Cardin called Zaitsev an "equal among equals", and the French press dubbed him the "Red Dior".

Between 1965 and 1968, Zaitsev's works, known as "the Russian series", were displayed abroad.

Zaitsev resigned from the All-Union Fashion House in 1978, and began to work out of a small studio.

His mother, with whom he had a great affinity, died in the same year, and after her death he took up writing poetry.

Zaitsev designed a collection of costumes for the Soviet team for the 1980 Summer Olympics which were held in Moscow, for which he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

He authored two books in 1980, Such Changeable Fashion (Такая изменчивая мода) and This Multifaceted World of Fashion (Этот многоликий мир моды), which were republished in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia in 1983.

By the mid-1980s, Dom Mody employed 600 civil servants and was required to produce some 2 million roubles' worth of clothing each year.

Raisa Gorbachyova wore Zaitsev creations when she made what The New York Times described as a "perestroika splash" in the 1980s.

Due to the patronage of the Soviet First Lady, he gained a reputation as one of the world's hottest fashion designers, and became an international celebrity and a household name in Russia.

The New York Times reported that by the 1980s, he became disillusioned with the Party.

Zaitsev told the newspaper that at mandatory party meetings he "began to defend the right to be free, as it says in the Communist charter. They constantly tried to distract me, not to let me get in. I'd be stuck in the elevator or I'd be sent off to some other event."

This disillusionment led to Zaitsev quitting the party in the late 1980s.

In 1982 he transformed his studio into the "Slava Zaitsev Moscow Fashion House" («Московский Дом Моды Вячеслава Зайцева»), also known as Dom Mody, becoming the first Soviet couturier who was permitted by the Soviet government to label his own clothing.

In 1984 it was reported that Dom Mody had served 10,000 customers, and prices ranged from US$170 to US$260 for prêt-à-porter dresses, and up to US$1,000 for haute couture gowns.

Zaitsev met with Thierry Mugler in 1985 in Moscow, and the French couturier photographed Zaitsev's fashions for an article in Paris Match.

Zaitsev fashions were displayed at Expo '85 in Tsukuba, Japan, although it was not until 1986 that he was able to visit a capitalist country when he displayed some of his works in the Soviet pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Zaitsev affirmed his belief in the Soviet Union and the future of communism, including the communist ideals of a workers' paradise.

Zaitsev often complained to the Soviet authorities about the lack of essential materials for his craft, and The New York Times noted in 1988 that he "until recently" had been forced to use dressmaker's mannequins from World War II.

By the 1990s, he had designed outfits for Russian politicians and foreign celebrities.

His style was influenced by traditional Russian and Slavic designs, featuring shawls and quilted jackets, and several of his designs were intended for "larger" women.

The Hermitage Museum has an extensive collection of his designs on exhibition.