Models Vyacheslav Zaitsev spoke about the life of his Fashion House in the nineties

On Wednesday, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich could be seen at the Russian Silhouette event, where he is always received as the dearest and most honored guest. He was in high spirits, commenting on what he saw…

In the first place, of course, is the sadness of loss. The world where we were under his wing collapsed. There comes an understanding that part of life next to a genius leaves an indelible imprint on the heart, sets a high level of demands on oneself.

Memories of working with the master of Soviet, Russian, world fashion were shared with us by his actors of past years. These are Boris Grishin, now the executive director of the All-Russian Athletics Federation, and Ekaterina Rogova, the leading model of the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion House for many years.

– Boris, what did you personally take away from communication with Vyacheslav Mikhailovich? What unique experience did you get?

– For the first time I was in the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion House in February 1992, walking along Mira Avenue. Perestroika ended in the country, and the so-called nineties began.

The mood was the same as in the country, a little depressive and gloomy, ahead of complete uncertainty and uncertainty about the future. And I saw a beautiful building and went into the salon on the first floor, I was struck by the white color of the walls and the colorful and festive design of the Fashion House salon, which was in striking contrast with the dullness and everyday life of Moscow.

It would be great to work here, I thought, but this is impossible, just the dreams of a simple Moscow student … But, as they say, be afraid of your desires, they tend to come true. And a month later I was an actor in the Zaitsev Fashion Theater.

It is now in the country that the number of various modeling agencies and fashion houses is growing by leaps and bounds, and then the name of Vyacheslav Zaitsev and his Fashion House were a serious state brand.

Today, novice models often come to castings in expensive cars and live in the elite villages of the Moscow region, and we, the models of the nineties, were simple guys and girls who lived in residential areas …

Zaitsev was incredibly hardworking, very demanding of himself in his work, and he asked us to treat work the same way – with full dedication.

When hiring, of course, external data was important, but the inner world of the model had to match the external image. For a long time, deceitful, vile and duplicitous people did not work for Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. Those who showed signs of “star disease” did not stay long.

Even when he was feeling unwell or in a bad mood, outwardly no one noticed it – his work always came first. We all learned from him life optimism, respect for people, the desire for constant self-improvement. Not to mention the sense of style, tact, cultural inoculation of beauty. We have learned to understand beauty, to feel the beauty and depth of the world.

The role of Vyacheslav Zaitsev in the history of world, Soviet and Russian fashion has already been duly appreciated by society and specialists. For us, the Fashion House was a very homely and cozy world, where we felt easy and comfortable, and managed to become a small part of the history of the genius Red Dior.

– Ekaterina, you have been in the Fashion House since the age of 16, you have gone from an agency model to a catwalk teacher, fashion theater director and director of a modeling agency. On March 2, you took part in the anniversary show of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. Tell us how was the maestro’s day? What was he like at work?

– When I came to the theater, I could not recover from emotions. Imagine, an outcast girl from Lyubertsy, long, thin, absolutely not corresponding to the usual life criteria of a beautiful girl, ended up in a flower garden of her own kind.

The boys are the most beautiful boys in the country. They were seen in all the videos, commercials … and now they are all next to me. And the girls?! Queens! Unapproachable, graceful, majestic… And now I come to such a team!

The boss, and we all called him that among ourselves, takes my hand, leads me to the dressing room and says: “This is Katya, she will be your foreman!” I will never forget this turn of women’s heads in my direction and the appreciative gaze.

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich left, and I remained standing in the middle, surrounded by many mirrors. Because of this, it seemed that there were not 12 fashion models around me, but 122. I was ready to dissolve and disappear …

I don’t know why he trusted me so much. Always, any task … I then asked him: “You wanted to get rid of me, were you waiting for me to give up somewhere ?!” And he just laughed in response.

A man of amazing intuition and such overwhelming energy that he seemed to be everywhere. At a rehearsal, at a fitting, in your office – everywhere at the same time! You come to dinner, and there he is again, and even comment on your being in the dining room: “Eating again!” Therefore, we tried not to sit too long at the table, and many of us still have this habit – this is how the chef brought us up.

He liked to take on any business: when he came to the shooting, he set the light himself, did the makeup for the models, showed the poses, built the composition of the frame, reincarnating every second from one image to another. He never doubted what he was doing, he confidently took on any work in his beloved Fashion House.

And the samples! Vyacheslav Mikhailovich and the whole workshop were always present. All the workers were in white coats, as if in an operating room. Everyone stood with pins, some with chalk, some with scissors, ready to give the master what he needed with lightning speed. He noticed every detail. I could easily take scissors and cut off the bodice or skirt right on you, or cut off the sleeve, because the shoulder did not sit down, obliging me to redo everything. Always worried about quality and comfort. A thing should not only be beautiful, so that you can only stand in it. She must live! Therefore, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich always asked the model for an opinion, which surprised, but captivated.

In the summer, the winter collection was sewn off. There was no air conditioning, the windows were wide open, the fan did not help. The fitting could last for several hours, after which you simply slid down to the floor in a fainting state.

– You have taken part in many collections of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich since 1993: these are “Dreams”, “Memories of the Future”, “Awakening”, “Plague”, “Temptation”, “How Young We Will Be”, “Event”, “Leafing through the pages of memory”, “Insight”, “Secrets of Harmony”, “Dedication”. Is there a favorite among them?

– It is almost impossible to choose any collection from all. Each collection was filled with love for a woman. In each collection, the female image was read and reproduced by the master in different ways.

We reincarnated in images from a pure, virgin nymph to a stately, majestic, impudent goddess. Under each collection lined up certain scenery, which could change throughout the show. And for us it is such a joy of reincarnation – to try on a new role, image and not repeat itself at the same time – that was aerobatics! The need to feel the artistic era, to convey emotions to the viewer – all this delighted. It wasn’t just a runway show. It was the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion Theater!…

– Tell us about the Fashion Theater – what is it in general, what is the specificity of such a theater? How could you even get there?

– The theater of fashion is a separate story. It was family! We didn’t have random patterns. It was a certain composition of people (usually 10 girls and 10 boys) who had to come to work every day.

In the theater of fashion, the girls were at least 179 cm, and the boys were at least 188 cm. Our day began with a warm-up and moved on to the rehearsal of the play. Yes, it was a performance. After all, any collection implied a show according to a certain theatrical scenario.

In the costumes of the master, we were the heroes of different artistic eras, telling stories with their help. Each exit of a group of models on the podium had its own semantic load, where one mise-en-scene was replaced by another. At the same time, we were able to improvise, not only at rehearsals, but also at the very show of the collection. Often this brought humor, added dynamics to the action. Some exits had a clear geometric and rhythmic pattern, while in others we were free to do what we wanted, relying, of course, on the master’s plan.

At rehearsals, we had a certain form in which we worked. Once these were suits from the previous collections of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, which later changed to T-shirts with the maestro’s signature stroke. We worked as a permanent staff for years, we are friends to this day, and all this is thanks to Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. It was possible to get into the theater by passing the selection under the sharp gaze of the chef himself.

… I was lucky enough to be present at such a selection many times. Just crowds of people walked in an endless stream! Girls in the morning, boys in the afternoon. There was a queue of people from the fashion house to the Prospekt Mira metro station.

On the Internet you can find photos of these queues. It was always surprising how, just by looking at a person, he immediately gave an assessment of whether he was suitable or not. I just saw the color of the applicant’s hair, and he was already making his verdict and fixing his eyes on the next one. He didn’t just look at the height and the face. He could accurately estimate the volume of the girl, so that he easily exposed all the liars, to their greatest regret. With his scanning gaze, he could see everything in a second.

And how delicately he refused! If the height was small (in the ad it was indicated from 170 cm, and the girls came much shorter), he asked everyone to grow up and be sure to come next time, and then he would take them.

It is clear that this will never happen, but the person left with the confidence that he would definitely have been taken if it were not for his height. If the girl was very corpulent, he asked to lose some weight. And there it didn’t take much … And at the same time he would immediately say: “What a beautiful, interesting face! And you yourself are delicious, like a bun.

And everyone smiled, it was affectionate. Well, if the girl didn’t fit at all, which was obvious, he said that the ankle was too wide … But no one was offended. He greeted everyone like an old friend. Well, the most persistent, to whom the refusal could not be explained in any way, he asked to be transferred to the reserve.

He always said: “There are no ugly women, there are lazy women.” What was meant by this: not caring for herself, unkempt hair, not made up, slovenly dressed. Also his favorite phrase: “To seem accessible, but to be inaccessible – this is the height of the art of being a woman!”

… Many, many years have already passed, I already have children, I have not worked as a model for a long time. The royal crown has long been removed and gathering dust in the nightstand. One December 31, I’m cutting a salad in the kitchen, all in the pre-holiday fuss. And suddenly I receive an SMS with congratulations from Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, where, among other words: “Katyusha, thank you for the beauty of your soul.”

Out of surprise, I froze until the very New Year with beets in my hands! Where, from what nooks and crannies of memory did he remember me? I’m one of the hundreds of fashion models whose time is long gone. That’s what he was, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. And I also met my husband at the Fashion House, and one of our daughters also studied at his modeling school …

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich was very fond of dancing. And he did it, like everything else, exceptionally well! After a show at a dinner in a restaurant, he would take me and waltz around. My task was not to step on the master’s foot. This was really scary! Now it’s scary to be left without him, without our beloved Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, or, as we could also call him in our own way among ourselves, without Glory ….

Read the material “The tragedy of Vyacheslav Zaitsev: his own son never said “I’m sorry” to him.