1984 Summer Olympics For Gosha Rubchinskiy at Paris Menswear SS16

Before I commence with the blog post, I would just like to say that the reason I haven't and probably won't write about any Milan shows is because I don't feel emotionally connected to them the same way I do with designers who show in both London and Paris. Anyway, Gosha Rubchinskiy is someone really affecting the way we look at high-end fashion, the Moscow-born designer started his namesake label back in 2008 and who's designs caught the attention of Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo. So much so they produce his entire collections since he struggled to meet the demands of buyers at an earlier stage in his career. How amazing is that? This season he dragged his audience to what looked like a broken basketball court, stylised with peeling blue paint and haphazardness gym equipment. A perfect setting, perhaps full of youth culture history - the wins, the defeats, the teenage kisses and heartbreaks, the dreams, the aspirations, the injuries and the many ends of those dreams. A setting that fits in so seamlessly for the Russian brand, what with it's street-cast kids and all brought along with Gosha from Moscow and various other places. In fact Russia felt more present in this collection as appose to his two previous Paris shows, was it because of the Soviet flag's Hammer and Sickle being physically carried? Or because the same design was shaved into the back of models' skinheads? Or even the eye make-up representing Russian rockstars of the 1980's? Or maybe it was the reference to the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, the one that Eastern European countries led by the Soviet Union boycotted as a reaction to the United States, who four years prior done the same at the Moscow Summer Olympics? Anyway Russia was more present in this Gosha Rubchinskiy Spring/Summer 2016 collection.

For this collection, Gosha Rubchinskiy took Russian casual-wear to the next level. The Eastern-European-Olympics theme ran throughout the collection and I just loved everything about that. I especially admired those incredible nylon windbreakers (at times fluorescent), sporty vests worn with short-shorts gave the collection a weird schoolboy PE kit fetish and what looked like a garish, abstracted woodland print maybe? I also loved. Team those with a pair of Reebok Classics like Gosha Rubchinskiy did and you've got a strong cohesive collection. Those Gosha Reebok Classics I'm pretty sure will be made available from Dover Street Market, if they're anything like the designer's previous trainer collaborations with Vans and Camper and I'm ever more certain they'll sell out. And fast too. The designer would go to explain after the show that, although how nostalgic and retro the collection seemed, thats how the kids who live in Moscow dress even today. I couldn't help but think of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) from Rocky lV when I saw this collection. Only much less muscles. The film itself was released in 1985, a year after the LA Summer Olympics. Everything from the clothes these teens wore - the training gear, the quiff-like bouffants or flat-tops, the overused Soviet Army emblems and maybe even that expressionless, cold but somewhat cocky attitude on the models' faces? They all reminded me of Ivan Drago in some way. When it came down to it, it was just a beautifully presented collection and wonderful addition to the Spring/Summer 2016 roster. Gosha Rubchinskiy is definitely a designer to take note of for any future references and this time around I'm sure the designer is here to stay. 

Images courtesy of Dazed Digital and Style.com

Thank you all for sticking with me through the delays of Paris Menswear Fashion Week, I promise I will upload the rest of my favourite shows as soon as possible, but goodbye to all of you lovely people for now until next time on...

The Wolf of High Street

xxx