The gorgeous Gucci collection shown at Milan Fashion Week was dedicated to the old fashion russian style. Frida Giannini represented her last collection for fall/winter 08/09 for very first time, she shocked once again the critic.
Her models invaded the Gucci catwalk as a band of sexy Cossacks in folklore-printed tunics, heavy metal hip-belts, skin-tight jeans bristling with studs and riding boots, embellished with long, leather thongs.
If, at times, they looked more like early 1970’s Rolling Stones’ girlfriends, this was exactly what Giannini intended.
Her aim was to combine the bohemian mood of Paris at the turn of the century when Russian émigrés transformed the arts and theatrical scene, with the kind of ‘boho chic’ in vogue when The Stones recorded ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The russian style comes back, it was on the top some seasons ago with the well known conception of Russian winter .
The look of the Gucci collection was slick, chick, sexy, instantly marketable – and bound to cause a frantic flurry of look-a likes in the British high street.
The Cossack tunics came in precious silk, each one printed with a different graphic or paisley inspired by Russian, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan textiles and tapestries. When they were not worn with tight jeans, they worked equally well as mini-smocks.
They gleamed with gilded metal embroideries on shoulders, necklines and hems.
Hussar-style military jackets came in cashmere, fur and brocade, rich with gold buttons, fringing, decorations and ornamental embroideries, Cossack-style vests in Mongolian goat and sheepskin, equally adorned or kilim-coats in an eclectic pattern of silk and velvet patchwork.
For evening, the mood was equally boho, with long, paisley silk dresses wrapped with metal and coin-decorated scarves and silk jersey column-gowns tethered with tribal, jeweled chokers, collars and halters which rounded the collection off perfectly. The new look of russian gipsy will be the hit of the next season,that’s for sure.
