Vyacheslav Zaitsev found himself on the verge of ruin. Vyacheslav Zaitsev: a normal person in my place would have died long ago - Which dress is better to choose - with a neckline, a cutout at the back, a thigh-high slit

Vyacheslav Zaitsev is a Soviet and Russian fashion designer who rightfully holds the lead in Soviet and Russian fashion. Vyacheslav Zaitsev, without having a corresponding industry, managed to create the very concepts of “high fashion” and “fashion design” in the Soviet Union. Today Zaitsev is perceived as Great master of worldwide significance. But something else is surprising - Western designers and couturiers saw a unique talent in Slava Zaitsev 30 years before their compatriots did.

Childhood and youth

Vyacheslav was born in Ivanovo. It is unknown whether the atmosphere of the city of brides influenced the decision future star create for women fashionable clothes, but with the direction of the future professional activity the young man made up his mind quickly. The profession of a designer has imposed a romantic flair on the life of Vyacheslav Zaitsev, but it is impossible to call a simple biography of the fashion designer.

Vyacheslav Zaitsev was born into a poor family. The boy knew that his parents were forced into marriage, “by accident,” and that his mother was unhappy in her marriage. The boy’s childhood was during the war years, and the life of the future designer became even worse. My father went to the front, was captured, escaped and reached Berlin, and after the war he ended up in a camp as a former prisoner of war.

There was no food in the family, mother and son picked berries in the forest. When Vyacheslav and his mother were visiting their father, the family was robbed, the woman was taken to the hospital, and the boy began begging and singing outside the store to get food.

Nevertheless, Vyacheslav went to school, traveled to collective farms with the school group and sang, helping teachers draw posters. After graduating from seven-year school, he entered the Ivanovo Chemical-Technological College, where he studied to become a textile artist.

Then - moving to Moscow and student years at the famous Moscow Textile Institute. According to the assignment, Vyacheslav Zaitsev was sent to the town of Babushkin near Moscow, where the experimental technical garment factory of the Moscow Regional Economic Council was located. There, a young man created his first collection - workwear for working women rural areas, which was practical and comfortable, but at the same time feminine. Of course, the collection did not pass the inspection of the Soviet methodological department.

This line of workwear attracted the attention of the Western press to the aspiring couturier. The collection was published by the French magazine Paris Match, and representatives and, later talking with a colleague from Moscow, unanimously recognized Vyacheslav Zaitsev as their equal. And although until the end of the 80s the Soviet designer was unable to leave the country, in Europe Zaitsev has long been considered one of the world's leading designers.

Fashion and design

At the factory in Babushkino, Vyacheslav Zaitsev managed to prove himself more than convincingly, regularly offering new solutions in clothing design. As a result, he was invited to Kuznetsky Most, where the famous All-Union House of Models was located. Vyacheslav Zaitsev worked there for 13 years and collaborated with the best fashion models, including Leka Mironova and Mila Romanovskaya.

Vyacheslav Zaitsev and his son EgorThe first result of Vyacheslav Zaitsev’s work at the House of Models was the “Russian Series” collection, created based on folk motifs. It also included the “Russia” dress, demonstrated by Zbarskaya at World Festival fashion and received the Grand Prix. After this dress, the Western press calls Zaitsev nothing less than “Red Dior”.

There were many other successful developments, but by the mid-70s, Vyacheslav Zaitsev was extremely dissatisfied with the work. He is depressing that, due to the principles of the Soviet system, sketches reach the factory too late, and by the time the consumer sees the product in the store, it is already hopelessly outdated. Vyacheslav comes to the conclusion that the work of a fashion designer in the USSR is ineffective and meaningless, and eventually quits.

After the Fashion House, the designer works at a custom tailoring factory for the Fashion House, and later moves to this very House, where he becomes artistic director. It was there that, starting in 1982, Vyacheslav Zaitsev created his world-famous author's collections. The fashion designer is distinguished by constant search style and giving the shapes and lines of clothing your own unique touch.

In 1992, Vyacheslav Zaitsev created his own “Fashion Laboratory”, a design academy at the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion House, and five years later the talent forge also had an official website.

Among the most recent images created by Zaitsev, especially memorable to the public, are a luxurious evening dress made of cream lace and a snow-white dress, as if straight out of the painting “The Swan Princess.” Both outfits were demonstrated by Mrs. Russia Alisa Krylova at Fashion Week in Moscow.

Along with fashion, painting and drawing play a significant role in the work of Vyacheslav Zaitsev. His paintings have nothing to do with clothing design. They convey the author’s emotions and feelings, even his philosophical perception of life. Vyacheslav's works are decorative and always bright and original.

Solo exhibitions artwork Vyacheslav Zaitsev was held several times in cities of the United States, Belgium, France, and Estonia. Five of his paintings, both pictorial and graphic, are permanently exhibited in the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery, and several paintings from the series “How Young We Will Be” can be seen in the Museum of the History of Moscow.

Another side of the work of the famous fashion designer is stage costume for theater and stage. Vyacheslav Zaitsev designed clothes for the Satire Theater, Moscow Art Theater, Mossovet Theater, Sovremennik and many others. Most often, he was invited to add unusualness and uniqueness to the standard styles of classical plays.

Moreover, not only domestic directors wanted to collaborate with the famous fashion designer. He also performed commissions for several Broadway theaters. Most famous production, where the actors come out in outfits from Zaitsev, is the musical “Sophisticated Ladies”.

He also made couturier costumes for cinema, pop stars, and athletes. It was Zaitsev who “dressed” the Soviet sports delegation at the Moscow Olympics-80. He also developed the appearance of the show group “Na-Na” and the rock group “Integral”.

But Zaitsev did not limit himself to clothes alone. For example, for the play “ The Cherry Orchard", which was staged on German and Hungarian stages, Vyacheslav, in addition to costumes, designed stage posters and other decorations.

Personal life

At the age of 24, the still aspiring and little-known couturier married a girl from a wealthy and high-ranking family. The chosen one's name was Marina. The girls I knew were shocked that Marina chose Vyacheslav Zaitsev rather than the famous diplomat or pilot, who constantly courted the wealthy heiress. The Zaitsev couple lived together for three years and gave birth to a son, Yegor, who, by the way, would later follow in his father’s footsteps.

The designer learned that his wife was leaving after returning from Hungary, where he created costumes for the film. I divorced my wife strong impression on Vyacheslav, since the designer sincerely treated Marina and loved ex-wife more for a long time after a breakup. The fashion designer also sought the right to see his son. At first, the child did not know that his mother was not giving Vyacheslav the opportunity to meet him, and believed that his father had abandoned him and was worried about this.

Problems in the family crippled the designer. Vyacheslav even began to experience depression because of this. One of the employees of the House of Models named Inna, who had long been in love with the fashion designer, helped to get out of this state.

The lovers lived for some time in a civil marriage, after which they separated. But when Zaitsev was in a serious car accident and was in the hospital for a long time, Inna looked after him and helped him in every possible way. Vyacheslav Zaitsev spent nine days in intensive care, then spent six months on rehabilitation.

The designer was seriously injured in a car accident, the worst was on his right leg, the doctors have already begun to mentally prepare Vyacheslav and talk to the patient about amputating his leg.

According to the designer, this terrible period Vyacheslav Zaitsev even managed to come to terms with the thought of losing his leg. The fashion designer came up with a new fashionable image for himself that would fit the new state: Vyacheslav Zaitsev imagined himself walking along the Kuznetsky Bridge in a black hat, black glasses, a white shirt and with a cane. But at the same time, Zaitsev did not stop training and rehabilitation, and forbade himself to give up. As a result, doctors still saved the fashion designer’s leg.

Later, Vyacheslav and Inna tried to renew their relationship, but the new union lasted only a year, and this time the separation was final. Vyacheslav Zaitsev did not try to start a family anymore.

Vyacheslav Zaitsev now

On March 2, 2016, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich celebrated his 78th birthday. After the party, the couturier admitted to reporters that he had been suffering for several years now. serious illness– Parkinson's disease.

Due to illness, the designer developed problems with his joints. Doctors even insisted on a titanium prosthesis. On the eve of the holiday, the designer underwent surgery on the knee joint and underwent a rehabilitation course in Karlovy Vary.

Health problems do not interfere with the designer’s creativity. In 2017, Vyacheslav Zaitsev traditionally opened the show for the spring-summer 2018 season at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. The collection of Slava Zaitsev came out in scarlet colors and in retro shock style. The designer rethought Dior's classic silhouettes, diluting French trends with kitsch a la Russe: kokoshniks, Pavlovo Posad shawls, folk ornaments.

Achievements

• 1980 – Knight of the Order of the Badge of Honor
• 1983 – winner of the “Veteran of Labor” medal
• 1991 - Honored Artist of the RSFSR
• 1992-1996 - professor of the department of clothing modeling of the faculty applied arts Moscow state university service
• 1993 - creator and head of the jury of the annual Textile Salon competition
• 1994 - creator and head of the jury of the annual competition of professional fashion designers named after Nadezhda Lamanova
• 1994 - creator and head of the jury of the annual competition of children's fashion theaters "Golden Needle"
• 1994 - creator and head of the jury of the permanent competition of young fashion designers and costume designers “Exercise”
• 1995 - creator, artistic director and chairman of the jury of the annual competition " Velvet seasons in Sochi"
• 1996 - laureate State Prize Russian Federation
• 1998 – Knight of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree
• 2003 – laureate of the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art
• 2006 - folk artist Russian Federation
• 2007 - Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts
• 2009, 2010 - twice laureate of the Russian Government Prize

Due to financial difficulties, fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev has already delayed the salaries of his employees for three months.

Difficult times began in the life of the famous couturier Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Due to the crisis, he may lose his production. And if Vyacheslav Mikhailovich himself is still suffering financial difficulties, then his employees do not want to do this. Almost every month his employees leave Zaitsev.

Conversations about the difficult situation of Vyacheslav Zaitsev began several months ago. But Vyacheslav Mikhailovich tried not to talk about it. Until the last moment he hoped that he would be able to cope with the difficulties that had befallen him. Now the fashion designer admitted: he sees no way out.

– Because of the crisis it became less people who buy clothes,” the couturier admits. - We are having problems with wages for staff. Everything is very serious. I, as a director, do not know how to resolve the situation. It became very difficult to live and work.

According to Zaitsev, the delay wages in his fashion house is three months. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich cannot say for sure when he will be able to pay his employees, because he has no free money for a long time.

“I don’t know what to do,” complains Zaitsev. - I don’t see any way out. People come up to me and ask: “Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, where is the money?” I answer everyone the same way: “As soon as the outfits are sold or the rent is paid, the accountant will list everything.” Unfortunately, I cannot provide a stable salary right now. Some people suggest that I turn to sponsors for help. But I don't do that. I think it's useless.

Over the past few weeks, Zaitsev has lost four people who did not tolerate delayed wages. But he considered them one of the best in his production.

– The technologist quit, very good craftsmen from the experimental workshop,” continues the famous fashion designer. – Of course, I’m worried. These are the people I raised. They know my style perfectly. I’m not looking for a replacement for them yet, because there is a danger that others will leave. They are invited to work in prestigious places. Where there is a stable salary. That's why I understand them. And we have very high taxes, for example for land! Five million must be paid, can you imagine? This is a lot of money, we don’t earn that much!

Zaitsev does not want to take out loans, since in this case he could end up in a debt trap. Couturier hopes for help from the government, but in the meantime he is trying to somehow provide his enterprise with income. For example, if earlier he presented mainly things for women of model appearance, now he plans to make several collections for young people and plus-size ladies. Zaitsev promises: new clothes won't be too expensive. The fashion designer hopes that with the help of such measures he will be able to pay off his debts. Also, in the very near future, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich wants to organize a grand sale of existing clothes.

“Our fashion house will be thirty-five years old in June,” says Zaitsev. – And we are planning to organize a big show and sale for the anniversary. Inexpensive and very beautiful things can be bought at low prices. I hope that such measures will help us cope with the crisis.

Due to production problems, Vyacheslav Zaitsev will be left without a summer holiday. However, the couturier is not at all worried about this. He assures me that he’s not used to lying around on the beach.

“I’ll go to Paris very soon for three days,” says Zaitsev. – I fly there every month. Many years ago I bought myself a small apartment in the capital of France. Now we have to go there and pay for utilities. It comes out to about four hundred euros a month – not much in my opinion. And I’m on vacation here, in Russia. I have a house in a village in the Moscow region. It stands right in the forest. Seven acres of land, a beautiful garden, great air, a river nearby! That's enough for me. Sometimes I go abroad to contemplate the beauty of the world around me. Then I transfer it to canvases. It turns out interesting!

The famous fashion designer spoke about main woman In my life

When we hear the word “fashion”, many of us have a clear association: Vyacheslav ZAYTSEV. It seems he has always been there. Energetic, slightly shocking and invariably bright. In our country, Zaitsev’s clothes were as cool as CARDIN’s. Girls wanting to become fashion models lined up in long lines outside the famous Fashion House in Moscow. The history of this forge beautiful life began on June 19, 1982 - exactly 35 years ago. On an anniversary, it is customary to remember the past and make plans. This is what we are talking about with the designer in the legendary building on Mira Avenue.

I was preparing to see mannequins on the walls - well, what else should the office of a famous couturier look like, but I came across an exercise bike installed in the middle of the room. The maestro stops pedaling, easily jumps off the seat, rushes towards us with the photographer and, pleased with the effect produced, laughs.

I feel great! - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich reports. - I don’t walk, I run, I enjoy life like a child. The body at 79 years old is, of course, tired and worn out. A normal person in my place would not have survived. How many talented people things broke down around me, many smoked, drank themselves to death, and disappeared. But I thank God for his generosity and patience.

In order not to fall, you must constantly pedal, the maestro is sure

- So you’re not planning on retiring?

Rest is an unaffordable luxury. I live 70 kilometers from Moscow. Every day I get up at 4.20. You have to leave at 5.20, otherwise you might end up stuck in traffic for two hours. But wasting so much time is unacceptable for me.

- Where do you get your strength from?

Finding time for my lungs physical activity. I’m walking around my estate, digging around with flowers, in the garden. I eat modestly, without frills. I love cabbage soup, borscht, mushroom noodles, chicken soups, porridges, meat or vegetable cutlets, juices. I love fish. I cook by myself or by friends who come to visit me. This helps to withstand the frantic rhythm - creative process never stops.

Padded jacket collection

- Today you are a fashion guru, but this was not always the case. Let's remember how it all began.

I had to go through a lot. I was accused of not creating the right image Soviet woman, because I didn’t draw model girls with open faces, looking to the future, but with sadly bowed heads. At the Moscow Textile Institute there were always problems with teachers - on exams they gave me either an A or a D. Nevertheless, for three years I received a Lenin scholarship. But before defending his thesis, he quarreled with the dean, refusing his consultations. What I was punished for was that they changed the topic of my work, and instead of creating outfits for an ice ballet, I had to draw a business suit.

After studying, I was assigned to the Experimental Technical Sewing Factory of the Moscow Regional Economic Council in the city of Babushkin - now this is a district of the capital. There I was tasked with creating special clothing for rural workers. I tried to bring variety to everyday work, studied the traditions of Russian costume. Back then there was nothing interesting at all: the stores had gray coats with a piece of fur on the shoulder and dull suits. I tried to fight these “sarcophagi” by personal example: I sewed myself a coat in the style of the images Holbein - German artist Renaissance. It was a shortened model made of black overcoat fabric - wide arched shoulders, neck without a collar. A very creative thing.

Meanwhile, at the factory, I was entrusted with developing a collection of padded jackets. Seeing my colored sheepskin coats and quilted jackets made of bright linen, skirts made from Pavlovo Posad shawls, and even yellow and red felt boots painted with gouache, the members of the artistic council were horrified.

- Labor collective supported you?

Where there! I was released from my position as artistic director of the experimental group, and a comradely trial was held. Due to the nervous shock, I even temporarily lost my sight. But it was then that French journalists offered to do an interview with me. " Paris Match“published an article in which I highly appreciated my proposals for a range of work clothes. After this, felt boots came into fashion abroad. It was April 1963. For the first time in the world they started talking about a Russian clothing designer. By that time I had moved to work at the Model House on Kuznetsky Most. But he soon became restricted from traveling abroad and came under KGB surveillance. It happened that I was waiting for a foreign delegation, but suddenly I got stuck in the elevator, and the guests were told that I was sick. Such intrigues were built.

Organic tomatoes grow in a greenhouse on the site

Three holes - two seams

- They say you didn’t really like “government” wives and daughters. Why?

This is not my circle. Most of them were incredibly snobbish. But I cannot be a slave - I choose my clients myself. Communication with Viktor Petrovna Brezhnev, daughter Kosygina, wife Shevardnadze, relations with Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva. Here Ekaterina Furtseva she always said: “Slavochka, you know better than me. Why would I advise you? A person must trust me.

-Have you tried to join the party?

Tried three times! The first time I came to the district committee in a gray striped suit with a lilac bow-scarf instead of a tie, I heard: “Young man, this is not a circus or dancing for you.” The second time he appeared in a black three-piece suit. “This is not a theater here!” - they told me and again turned me away until I got an appointment with the secretary of the party committee. I was persistent. I wanted to influence the situation and not let dullness make decisions for me.

- You were over forty when you decided to change everything.

Over 16 years of work in light industry I have never seen anyone wear the models I designed. All of them, upon entering production, were castrated to the “three holes - two seams” standard. And then the idea came to go to a simple studio. Helped turn it into a fashion house Evgeny Mikhailovich Tyazhelnikov. He headed the ideology department of the CPSU Central Committee and introduced me to the then Minister of Consumer Services Ivan Dudenkov. He said: “Glory, if you finish it, the building will be yours.” It took three years to bring the premises on Mira Avenue to perfection. Having opened it, he became artistic director. When I realized that the Fashion House was being shamelessly stolen, I organized re-election of the director. The second one is the same story. Then he took this position himself. This exhausting work took up a lot of useful time. But I was responsible for everything myself.

Brother served ten years

- Creative people It is customary to ask about the muse. Who inspires you?

Mother. Kindness, decency, warmth, generosity, sacrifice, love for nature, people - I looked for these qualities in the women I met along the way. And I didn’t find it. Mom remained the main thing in my life. I didn't see much of her as a child. She worked from six in the morning until one in the morning, she was a cleaner and laundress. At seven years old I did all the housework myself. We lived in a tiny room with a bed and a suitcase instead of a chair, and we were also robbed. When my mother went to the hospital, I almost died of hunger. I started singing to saleswomen in stores. For this they gave me pieces of cookies and sweets, which I sold at the market. I used the money to buy bread and bring it to my mother.

- Do you remember your father?

I was three years old when he went to the front. My mother didn’t love my father, she was going to marry another man, but that’s how it happened. During the war, my father was captured, escaped, and reached Berlin. But everyone who was captured was imprisoned as traitors to the Motherland. When the train with prisoners of war arrived in Kharkov before being sent to the North, we also arrived there. My father sat on the ground behind barbed wire among thousands of exhausted people. Mom shouted something to him, he answered, after which the guards drove us away. Then the prisoners were taken along the stage, and we returned to Ivanovo. I only met my father when I was 20 years old. We were Kokurins, they bore my mother's last name. The parents formalized the relationship when the father returned from the camps. I never got close to him. After his mother’s death, he quickly found another woman, but asked me not to leave him. I took care of him until the end.

I had an older brother, Volodya, a cheerful, lively guy. After the war, in the company of other guys, he stole a bicycle, for which he ended up in a colony. He went out and got caught again. Then the brother stood up for his friend and beat the policeman. In total, he served ten years. And when I was freed, I couldn’t find myself. Got a job at a factory. I tried to help him, but he drank everything away.

Quit drugs

- Tell us about your wife - Yegor’s mother.

Marishka studied with me at the Textile Institute, but a year older. Beautiful, thin, with huge brown eyes and gorgeous curly hair. Moreover, she is smart, erudite, and has good taste. We got married in 1959, and Egor was born a year later.

We lived with Marisha for nine years. But her mother - my mother-in-law - for some reason decided that I married Marina because of the apartment. To her I was a poor washerwoman's son - they considered themselves birds of a higher flight. Family relationships were tense all the time until they separated us and kicked me out of the house.

- How did you get kicked out?

I came from Hungary, where I was making costumes for the film, and found out that they had found a replacement for me. Yegor was nine years old at the time. They didn't let me near him. My son thought that I had abandoned him, and for a long time he could not forgive this. And then he had another dad - a circus director. True, he was expelled quite quickly.

- How long have you not communicated with Yegor?

Until he turned 14. Our first secret meeting took place in some alley. Slowly communication resumed. Fortunately, everything is in the past. Contact with Marishka has been restored, I attend her holidays, she attends my shows.

- You had another marriage, didn’t you?

Second wife Inna is a knitwear artist. We worked together, it turned out that she had been waiting for me for many years and had no doubt that after the divorce I would marry her. Like a tsunami, she hit me with her love. We lived in a civil marriage for two years, but then separated.

- But Inna was there when you had a car accident.

When this happened, I had just turned 33. I spent nine days in intensive care, then walked on crutches for six months. Inna looked after me. But I soon realized that this was not my person at all.

Before the accident, I considered myself extremely childish. And then I managed to give up painkillers, essentially drugs. Because I saw: the man who was lying in the room with me, under their influence, jumped out of the window. I consciously checked myself then. And it turned out that I can be courageous. Although at first, when they told me that they would cut off right leg, I even resigned myself, I came up with an idea new image. I imagined how I would walk along the Kuznetsky Bridge in a black hat, white shirt, black glasses and with a stick. But I trained the hell out of my head because I knew I had to live. The consequences of the accident are still felt today. I had surgery on my knee joints and now I run even faster!

- Can we talk about the Zaitsev dynasty in the fashion world?

Son Egor is my first assistant, now he is my deputy general director Fashion houses. Also obsessed with work. Granddaughter Marusya is 23 years old. Since childhood, he has been drawing beautifully and reading serious literature. She studied at an animation school, did karate, and knows French. She graduated from the Fashion Laboratory at the Fashion House and walked the catwalk as a model. She participated several times with her collections in Russian Fashion Week. And now I’m interested in film directing. But I hope she returns to her profession. Perhaps in some new capacity. The second granddaughter, Nastya, is also growing up. Draws, sculpts - also a talent. These are my favorite people. So, I hope that the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion House will celebrate more than one anniversary.

Notes on cuffs

"A person should not litter appearance environment, although often we do not take this into account at all and wear what we are comfortable in.”

“The classic suit is the basis of a fashionable wardrobe. You can string any mood onto it, playing with the texture of the fabric, cut, and accessories.”

“A woman’s wardrobe must have a straight and narrow skirt, because jeans devalue and discolor a woman.”

“However, the jeans themselves are a brilliant idea. Black and blue. But with lace, rags and holes - I can’t accept that.”

Photo from personal archive Vyacheslav ZAYTSEV

It has been talked about for a long time that 79-year-old fashion designer Slava Zaitsev has health problems. It was reported, in particular, that the fashion designer moves with a stick and speaks with difficulty. There were persistent rumors that the couturier also suffered from Parkinson's disease.

ON THIS TOPIC

However, the fashion designer himself tries to stay cheerful. “I don’t complain about my health - why complain about it. My legs were recently repaired, and now I can stand normally, my knees are like new. I had serious operations. At the age of 33, I had an accident: they cut me out of the car with an autogenous gun and hit my knee. Everything was broken there , I suffered for a long time, and then I fell from the second floor of my studio and completely injured my knee. Therefore, I had to undergo surgery, the second one took place in January of this year,” Woman`s Day quotes Vyacheslav Zaitsev.

The designer is optimistic about the future. IN next year Zaitsev will turn 80 years old. In honor of the round anniversary, he intends to release new collection clothes.

However, Vyacheslav devotes a lot of time not only to work, but also to leisure. The eminent couturier is quite calmly digging in the ground on his own estate. “My mother taught me to garden. I grow cucumbers and tomatoes. I have two greenhouses about five meters long: one only for tomatoes, one only for cucumbers. And onions and other greens grow on the street. The harvest of tomatoes and cucumbers is rich: pickles from the past I still have a few years left. I also make juice from cherries and thorns. And I’m interested in flowers. I have a lot of hydrangeas and lilies, I really love the orchid family, and I water them all myself,” Vyacheslav Zaitsev boasted.