Russian Designer Valentin Yudashkin Dead at 59
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Valentin Yudashkin, the first Russian to be admitted to the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 1996 before being excluded in 2022 for failing to condemn his country’s attack on Ukraine, died in Moscow on Tuesday at age 59.
His death was announced by Russian news agency Tass and confirmed by a company spokesperson.
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The cause of death was given as cancer, a condition he had been battling since 2016, according to news reports. He is survived by his wife and a daughter.
Along with Vyacheslav “Slava” Zaitsev, who is considered his mentor and who died on Sunday, Yudashkin is seen as one of the best-known Russian designers of the late Soviet and post-Soviet eras. French Russsian fashion historian Alexandre Vassiliev noted how Russia has lost its “primary and most valuable fashion designers in two days.” Although Russia has 1,000 professional designers registered, very few of them show continuous collections and only five or so are well-known. The war in Ukraine has made getting materials such as fabric and buttons more challenging for designers, since most textile factories are focusing on war-related production, according to Vassiliev.
Yudashkin and Zaitsev embraced a design ethos that was more reminiscent of the late 20th century than the 21st century, favoring lavish, imported fabrics, appliqués, embroidery and Asian influences. “They were very feminine with their designs, using narrow waistlines to present women as slim and tall, which is not always the case in reality. They [envisioned] sublime women. They loved high style hair adorned with flowers, high heels and lots of long dresses. Their styles were [more] fairy tale-like than everyday fashion. Of course, neither of them was similar to the ready-to-wear or fast fashion of today,” Vassiliev said.
Tanya Wetenhall, a professor at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, recalled visiting the Soviet Union for the first time in 1986 to see Zaitsev. She noted how that period in Russian history was similar to the one that “we seem to be headed back into — a closed Russia.”
She noted how both designers “were on this mission to try to show us another side of Russia from a form of cultural diplomacy, which was fashion. Through their voices, they tried to educate us about a world that existed pre-1917 with wonderful fashion and a connection to Paris,” she said. “It’s kind of heading into a dark period again. I hate to say it because those links are now gone. It takes a generation to work out of that.”
The loss of Zaitsev and Yudashkin comes at a pivotal time for Russia, Wetenhall said. “This moment that we’re entering questions how do the arts survive in this period and how can we think about using them in the future, when all of this ends to find ways for people to come back together.”
Born on Oct. 14, 1963, in Moscow Oblast, the region surrounding the Russian capital, Yudashkin studied garment design at Moscow Industrial College, graduating in 1986. Early on in his career in 1988, he worked for Zaitsev as a makeup and hairstylist for the designer’s runway show that highlighted the cocoon-like collection that was inspired by Fabergé eggs runway shows. “The collection was unwearable, because you can’t even sit in a car in a dress shaped liked an egg. But it was very spectacular,” the fashion historian said.
Yudashkin rose to prominence in the perestroika era by dressing Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and is remembered for his theatrical style. He showed his couture designs in Paris for the first time in January 1991, catching the eye of international press and museums thanks to opulent cocoon designs inspired by Fabergé eggs, and opened his label in 1993.
WWD described him in 1995 during Moscow Couture Week as a designer “with elan, but also a wild imagination,” whose designs shown in Paris had included “thick horizontal channel quilting built into tubes which cover torso, arms and neck.”
In 1996, he became the first Russian designer to be admitted to the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and would show intermittently on Paris’ couture week schedule for a number of years, becoming a guest member in 2016.
A 1997 feature on Yudashkin’s first store in his native country, next to his couture house on Ktuzovsky Prospect, highlighted “the entrenched position [he] occupies in the Moscow government circles” with the presence of then-mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who harbored presidential ambitions at the time.
In addition to couture, ready-to-wear and a denim line, he designed uniforms for national airline, Aeroflot, and his country’s Olympic and football teams in the ’90s.
A matryoshka he designed for Russian Vogue’s 10th anniversary celebrations in 2008 became the top lot of the evening, netting $100,000 for charity. It was also the year his designs marched in Red Square, when he presented uniform designs for all branches of Russia’s armed forces.
In 2022, his digital show was deprogrammed from the Paris Couture Week platform by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode over Yudashkin’s continued silence and position as an affiliate of the Russian regime. As for how Yudashkin’s decision not to renounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vassiliev speculated that the designer’s business was more reliant on Russia than the West, and he was “very much frightened to lose everything such as stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg shops and a workshop.”
The Russian Fashion Blog founder Julia Dale noted that after the Iron Curtain came down, Russians were hungry for imported goods and experiences that they had previously been deprived. In addition to being as “single-handedly responsible for creating the first Russian luxury brand that could be compared to iconic European brands with his haute couture line,” Yudashkin also created “exquisite jewelry, accessories and fragrances,” she said. “Despite Yudashkin’s fame and success, his many friends in Russian cultural circles describe him as kind, humble and devoted to his craft.
“He played a significant role in promoting and preserving traditional Russian craftsmanship and supporting the development of a strong fashion industry in Russia that values the work of skilled artisans.”
On a more personal note, Dale said Yudashkin’s exhibition with hundreds of pieces at the State Historical Museum in Moscow in the early Aughts “was very inspiring to see the level of craft I thought had long been lost in Russia.”
Although his death “is a huge blow to Russian fashion, he had done a lot to pave the way for a new generation of designers,” Dale said, adding that his legacy will no doubt continue through his daughter Galina’s stewardship as creative director of his fashion house.
The New York-based Gennady Perepada of One and Only Realty, who had listed Yudashkin’s Upper East Side town house last year, described him as the “the best couture [designer], the best father, best grandfather, best human being and best friend.”
Yudashkin is survived by his wife Marina, daughter and three grandchildren. His burial is being planned for a Russian cemetery where many prominent citizens are interred, according to Vassiliev.
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