A Russian Revolution

For Olga Vilshenko, family, heritage and humility are at the heart of her eponymous line. She guides alice franklin through her autumn/winter 2017 collection, an exploration of the folkloric and the fantastical that you won’t want to miss.

PASSING UNDER the vaulted archways of Somerset House in London; crossing Place Vendôme in the City of Light; stepping out on the sidewalks of New York City; sweeping through historical piazzas in Milan: there’s a new breed of street-style star that’s been turning heads and camera lenses at the big shows over the last few seasons. Just who is this modernday nymph, navigating the globe with every outfit snapped and papped, then pored over online where wannabe taste makers squawk praise and condemnation in the same breath? She is not, in fact, a single person, rather a collective of women – models, matrons and more – that have captured fashion’s attention. The common thread? Each woman hails from Mother Russia.

Every few years, a wave of women comes to define the mood and momentum of fashion’s trending circle. We’ve seen the all-American cheerleader, the boho-grunge Brit, the glowing Aussie, the tight-lipped Eastern European – now it’s the turn of The Rus. While a few years ago names like Miroslava Duma, Anka Tsitsishvili and Anya Ziourova were impressive merely for their mouth-filling mellifluity, now they resonate as a signal of the impressive entrepreneurship and fresh style that Russian’s new guard is bringing to fashion’s table. Call it symbiosis across industry, an organic shift in cultural focus, or just plain coincidence, but the growth in popularity of Russian faces has elegantly aligned with the success of Russian fashion brands, including the irresistible Olga Vilshenko, who we had the pleasure of speaking with earlier this summer.