Gosha Rubchinskiy’s trilogy of homecoming shows came to a close in Yekaterinburg, with his band of Russian youth storming through the city’s Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in his autumn/winter 18 collection. It concluded a trilogy of shows, that have seen the Russian polymath move through his country’s geography and history, from Kaliningrad to St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg. Gosha took us on a journey from east to west, from the Romanovs to the twilight of the USSR, football hooligans to ravers. Across it all, Gosha’s band of models marched into the future; his designs turning all this Russian history into a uniform for the 21st century.
At the end of the show the models assembled, formed a choir, and began singing Goodbye America by Nautilus Pompilius, a Russian new wave group who bridged the late 80s/early 90s. It was this moment that most touched Gosha’s friend and collaborator Stas G — a fellow documentarian of Moscow’s skate and youth culture.
He has been there across the three shows and, for autumn/winter 18, captured Gosha’s models behind the scenes and backstage at the show for us. “I’m very interested in the idea of youth, I wanted to show models off their duty, everyone’s individual attitude — that’s what really appeals,” he explains. “All of the models were streetcast, so I find it very interesting to see them in their own clothes, see how they act and how they present themselves in real life.”
“Staging shows in his home country with local models feels very natural and honest,” says Stas G. “I think it was an important step for Gosha. It was exciting to witness these shows, from hearing stories of young people from different cities to getting into Russian history, looking at it with a new perspective.”
Credits
Photography Stas G