10 May 2013
The National Gallery of Art in Washington is days away from launching an exhibit that chronicles the Ballets Russes, a collaboration that, through its high caliber of expression and unexpected collaborations, shaped art at the beginning of the 20th century. By blending art, dance, and music, this revolutionary movement gave birth to productions like “The Rite of Spring” and “Firebird,” which are now household names.
Ballets Russes productions combined both Russian and Western forms of dance and toured from 1909-1929. Sergei Diaghilev, the founder and director of the Ballets Russes, brought together innovators in the contemporary art world, managing to bridge the gap between performance art and fine art. Ballet had not included modernity prior to the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev took a classical genre and made it contemporary. The exhibit is fittingly titled “When Art Danced with Music.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ballets russes, diaghilev, exhibition, mollie rifkin
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08 May 2013
Dmitry Loginov, the mastermind behind Arsenicum, has created a dark and ominous Fall collection. This Muscovite’s Fall vision is for the fashion-forward man and the audacious woman. Much different than his Spring collection, his pieces this Fall cross gender lines, where similar looks are crafted for both male and female models. The theme is Cosmos, and the futuristic styling is out of this world. The one thing that sets the sexes apart: the suiting. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: arsenicum, fw 2013, men's, menswear, mollie rifkin
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06 May 2013
The electronic age offers new technologies to drive the world of design. Ukrainian fashion designers Masha Reva and Ksenia Schnaider certainly got the memo. They’ve used platforms in digital media to create and transfer photoshopped prints onto fabrics, and to engineer printed motifs. Due to their digitized graphics, both Spring collections have been quite a success, and are now available in the US!
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Tags: anthom, ksenia shnaider, masha reva, mollie rifkin, ss 2013, ukrainian
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02 May 2013
Imperial Russia is the muse for many a Fall fashion collection this year. She tells a story of grandeur, in which wealth was expressed materially, and privy only to those close to the Tsar. In conjuring up the rich cultural narrative that is interwoven throughout the Eastern European heritage, European designers have utilized velvet and fur to bring to life garments they read about in Tolstoy’s novels. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: fw 2013, mollie rifkin, nyfw, ralph lauren, russian empire, zang toi
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30 April 2013
Russia had many difficult moments during the past two centuries: wars, economic and social issues, but there was never shortage of creative people trying to express themselves through clothes they make and wear. “Fashion as the Mirror of History: 200 Years of Russian Fashion“, on view from May 17 to October 8, aims to explore Russia’s flamboyant past through the prism of fashion.
“Trends cannot be calculated and predicted. Fashion is the mirror of our times, it reflects what’s around us. Designers create fashion but ultimately they are people just like us”, says Alexandre Vassiliev, a renowned fashion historian, collector and book author. 200 dresses and 400 accessories from Mr Vassiliev’s vast collection will be shown for the first time as a joint project with the Museum of Moscow alongside the museum’s own pieces, which makes this exhibition one of the largest of its kind. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: alexandre vassiliev, exhibition, moscow
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