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Vice Blog

RUSSIA - THE INSIDE OF A GUY'S BRAIN WORN ON THE OUTSIDE

Gosha Rubchinsky's spring/summer PDF is amazing. It throws together images of Moscow urinal altar backdrops, wayward Russian teens on the street, changing rooms, and athletic arenas. The designer's sharply cut, minimal sportswear is juxtaposed with spikes and gothic script, hinting at the trance-loving hardnut skinhead proles and black metal-loving dropout stereotypes of Russian youth. The whole thing ends with the words "Evil Empire," which was Reagan's Cold War description of the USSR. When I saw that I nearly came in my trousers.

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If this isn't "tapping into the male conscious," what is? Lots of menswear journalists have been purple-dicking it over Gosha Rubchinsky. Pictures of roughneck Russians of military conscription age in sporty situations will do that to a fag.

Vice: When westerners think of Russian fashion, we tend to think of vulgarity, decadence, and excess, but you're nothing like that. 
*Gosha Rubchinsky: I don't pay much attention to what other fashion designers do. I'm not really into fashion like that. I'm trying to do something good for the kids born after the USSR collapsed in 1991. They are young and free, they don't need diamonds--they're the diamonds, it's all on the inside.*

Who are these kids you work with? 
Street kids are all the same. There's a coming together of the skateboarders and gang members. I'm trying to create a new aristocracy getting these kids educated out of thinking the worse they are, the better they are.

Are you working just in Moscow or the rest of Russia as well?
Moscow follows trends from the west. Everything I do comes from the rest of Russia, where it's more wild.

What should westerners check out in Russia?
Moscow's suburban night trains, which full of kids travelling home after a night out. It's really dangerous but worth the risk.

Hm, maybe I'll just take your word for it.

DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI