тина
I base most of my
Fashion
sense on what doesn’t itch.—Gilda Radner
Denis Simachev
Fashion designer
by Micha Rinkus
Slouched insolently in a booth with the pull-chain of an rich piled Dolce & Gabbana on hermes on Jimmy Choo
old-fashioned toilet dangling overhead, Denis Simachev with reckless abandon, not caring that slavish devotion to
(see-ma-ChYOV) looks not unlike the rest of the clientele Western brands was, at the very least, uncool. The coun-
at his club — asymmetrical haircut, immaculately clean try’s party scene suffered the same affliction: Moscow’s
sneakers and an air of impenetrable boredom. he wears exclusive megaclubs were glitzy and decadent, but could
an ironic graphic tee, also not an uncommon clothing never be mistaken for hip. how could they? Money was be-
choice in this particular haunt, the primary difference be- ing spent purely for the sake of spectacle, and without a
ing than he designed it. “Pykh! Pykh! Pykh!” growls the hint of originality. It was if an entire generation had no
wolf on his chest, instantly recognizable to Gen-x Rus- pants, and no one on the inside would call them out.
sians as the cartoon menace of Nu Pogodi, a Soviet rip-off The first cracks in this facade came at the start of this
of Tom & Jerry. decade with the emergence of “indie elitny,” a trend that
It’s difficult to pinpoint why exactly Simachev Bar & infused the same moneyed hyper-exclusivity with cosmo-
Shop, the designer’s first monobrand store whose lower politanism and an air of ironic distance. Password-
level is a white-hot hipster hangout, seems so out of place encrypted underground clubs like Gazgolder, hidden in
for Moscow, but it’s something to do with its quirky black the industrial shantytown near Moscow’s Kurskaya train
humor. While other establishments spend their money to station, hosted tusovkas (intimate parties) for Moscow’s
look as glam as possible, the designer chose to invest in golden youth — investment bankers who moonlight as
a handful of one-of-a-kind decorations, such as a cheer- DJs, models who holiday in Goa, young designers fed up
fully colorful mosaic depicting a hentai rape scene, a pi- with the lazy and derivative fashion of their predecessors.
lot’s ejector seat for seating and antique toiletry. These are And when this elite circle of New New Russians needed an
trappings of an idle wealth that can now indulge its eccen- ambassador of style, Denis Simachev was more than will-
tricities, including potty humor. Then it becomes clear: ing to step in.
Simachev, like his Bar & Shop, is cool, something the rest his first solo boutique, Denis Simachev Shop & Bar,
of Russia glaringly is not. opened in early 2007 on Stoleshnikov Lane. Beloved by
In the 1990s, New Russia had a fashion problem. Like the wives of Moscow’s minigarchs, the lesser versions of
Beverley hillbillies cut loose on Rodeo Drive, the newly the city’s infamous oligarchs, Stoleshnikov is where the
readrussia.com/2008/WiNTer/ 54 Photo by Manakai
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