Fragrance house

Slava Zaïtsev

Slava Zaïtsev is the eponymous fashion brand of Russian designer Viacheslav Zaitsev, born in Ivanovo in 1938. Zaitsev began working independently at Moscow’s Prospekt Mira fashion house in 1978, and the Slava Zaitsev Moscow Fashion House opened with a theatrical show on June 19, 1982. It became the first Soviet named clothing brand and the only Soviet fashion house permitted to place its designer’s own name on clothing. Its visual identity draws on Russian cultural references, including folk costume, Pavlovo Posad textiles, traditional embroidery, and Russian-derived silhouettes and motifs. International recognition followed a 1963 Paris Match profile and a 1965 meeting with Pierre Cardin, Guy Laroche, and Marc Bohan; Zaitsev was subsequently associated with the nickname “Red Dior.” He designed Soviet Olympic uniforms for Moscow 1980 and Sarajevo 1984, presented the “Russian Seasons” collection in Paris and Munich in 1988, showed in New York and Beverly Hills in 1992, and received a major Hermitage exhibition in 2016. Fragrance was conceived as an extension of his fashion, with Maroussia presented in Paris in 1991 and recorded as released in 1992; Osmoz identifies it as Zaitsev’s best-seller.