Fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev died at 86. Reports from the Telegram channel Mash indicated that in the afternoon of April 30 he was admitted to a hospital in Shchelkovo with internal bleeding and later passed away in the intensive care unit at around 6 pm.
A representative for the designer, Nikolai Golovin, confirmed the death to socialbites.ca. He stated, “I acknowledge it today. When speaking about the passing of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Zaitsev, I do not want to discuss any diagnosis. The truth is, he has left us. What difference does it make – from what, exactly.”
The designer remained visible in public life until recently, attending events in a signature look of a hat and sunglasses, often in a wheelchair. Many knew of his struggle with Parkinson’s disease since 2016, yet he still appeared at fashion events, including the opening show of the Slava Zaitsev house at Moscow Fashion Week in September 2022 in Zaryadye Park.
This year, Super Edition released a video from the designer’s 85th birthday celebration on March 2, 2023. He was seen at the Yar restaurant, seated at the main table with a small group and guests at other tables, among them Bedros Kirkorov.
Vyacheslav Zaitsev stepped down from the post of general director at the fashion house in December 2019, handing the business to his son Yegor.
Zaitsev is remembered as a defining figure in Soviet and Russian fashion, not only for his clothing but also for his warmth and wit on stage and on the Fashion Sentence show, which he hosted from 2007 to 2009. His rise began as a 14-year-old student at the Ivanovo Chemical-Technological College, where the native of Ivanovo region studied textile drawing.
After technical school, Zaitsev enrolled in the Textile Institute in Moscow. In 1962 he was sent to work at the experimental and technical clothing factory of the Moscow Regional Economic Council, where his first collection—practical, feminine wear for factory workers—faced initial resistance from the methodology department.
Curiously, a critique of that collection drew attention in Paris Match with the headline Dictating fashion to Moscow. Three years later, in 1965, Zaitsev was noticed in Moscow by Dior designer Mark Boan and Pierre Cardin, with Guy Laroche and other French delegates present.
By then he had already established himself in the USSR as the artistic director of the experimental and technical workshop at the All-Union House of Fashion Models in Kuznetsky Most, a post he held for thirteen years while launching several successful collections. His Russian Series, featuring calico fabrics with folk motifs, traveled to the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Abroad, he earned admiration as a pioneer of Soviet style and was nicknamed Red Dior.
Toward the end of the 1970s, Zaitsev left ODMO due to a flood of clarifications and changing directions, moving to the Fashion House No. 19 factory, where he rose from artistic director to head.
In 1980 he dressed Soviet athletes for the Moscow Olympics and worked on costumes for theater, stage, and cinema, including the Theater of Satire. Moscow City Council, the Moscow Art Theater, and Sovremennik helped bring new trends to classical productions, and Broadway also sought his work, notably on Duke Ellington’s musical Sophisticated Ladies.
A significant part of his path involved painting and poetry, outlets through which he expressed experiences and emotions that didn’t always fit fashion’s world.
He once reflected, I am glad to have the chance to capture the state of my soul, its pleasures and sorrows, love and disappointment, and the ongoing pursuit of knowledge and revelation.
By the late 1980s, Zaitsev stood as the leading Soviet and then Russian fashion designer, with theatrical performances and bright costumes shaping the local industry’s highlights.
In 1992, the Vyacheslav Zaitsev Fashion House established its own design academy, known as Fashion Lab.
Even as his influence mellowed in the 2000s, he remained a persistent voice in fashion, described by Paris Match as still shaping trends, especially through the Fashion Sentence program.
In recent years, Evi consistently led fashion shows during Moscow Fashion Weeks, where hats, shawls, tiaras, and vibrant colors made each collection instantly recognizable. Vyacheslav Zaitsev’s own life mirrored his public persona: a kind, smiling, enduring figure who left behind a lasting legend.