Russia’s most famous fashion designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who dressed the country’s first lady, has died aged 85
Moscow — Russia’s most famous fashion designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who dressed the country’s first lady, has died at the age of 85, Russian news outlets reported Sunday.
An obituary published by the TASS news agency said he died after a long illness but did not say when.
According to other Russian media reports, he was taken to a hospital in the Moscow region with stomach bleeding and died in intensive care.
Zaitsev was born on March 2, 1938, in Ivanovo – a center for the textile industry, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Moscow – in the Soviet Union where much of the standard clothing was gray, old-fashioned and sterile. imagination He gained fame in his own country – and to some extent in the world – when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife Raisa wore his creations in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Due to the prominence of the Soviet couple, the reform program known as “perestroika”, and an economic and political program that raised hope, Zaitsev went on to show his fashion in Paris, Tokyo and the capitals of the t – world
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wife, Lyudmila, wore one of Zaitsev’s dresses and accessories for a state visit to the United Kingdom in June 2003, which included an audience with Queen Elizabeth II.
Among Zaitsev’s other accomplishments was his 1988 costume design for the New York City musical revue Sophisticated Ladies, based on the music of jazz composer and big band leader Duke Ellington.
He founded his own fashion house in Russia, winning several awards in his own country and elsewhere.
