The New Coldness

Denis Simachev

One man helps a nation regain its sense of style

Every year, millions of girls are forced to make the awful choice between being a physicist or being a beauty queen. Thankfully, in Russia, where nuclear energy sector employees can compete in their own web-based beauty pageant, it’s possible to be both. Each year since 2004, industry women of the former Soviet Union ages 18 to 35 are urged to submit their photos and fill out a questionnaire describing their interests (i.e. “fitness, neutron monitors and teasing my bangs”) in hopes of becoming the next Miss Atom. An IQ test isn’t necessary to enter as, according to official contest guidelines, “It’s quite obvious what [kind of] IQ a nuclear-employed person must have.” Yes, but who are the brains behind this operation?

Mustachioed darling of the Moscow fashion world Denis Simachev is famous for juxtaposing Russian folklore with couture flippancy. Hence his trademark “Putin’s face framed by a stitched garland” t-shirt. But for his Spring/Summer ’09 fashion line, Simachev is laying off the khohloma floral prints he's relied on for years, and tapping into another Russian tradition — substance abuse.

Just before the New Year, when her compatriots were busy mixing up the olivye, 16-year-old fashion designer Kira Plastinina was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Plastinina, whose fashion empire was financed entirely by her dairy-magnate father, Sergei, has spent the last two years setting the world aflame with magenta tutus, nylon jumpsuits, and frilly lingerie—that you wear on top of your clothes—to the accolades of… uh, we'll get back to you on that one. Today, we salute the fallen princess, now prudently shifting her focus from L.A. to Kazakhstan, with a retrospective of her short time on U.S. soil.