Zaitsev, Slava (born 1938)

Famous clothes designer, both in Russia and abroad. He graduated from the Moscow Textile Institute in 1962, with a degree in painting and design.

He was the first Soviet designer to receive recognition internationally. During the Soviet era, haute couture was dominated by Zaitsev and Valentin Yudashkin and he was compared to other world-renowned fashion designers such as Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin, and Yves Saint Laurent, Zaitsev was seen as being to compete with Western designers, however, under the communist regime, the only country outside of the USSR where Zaitsev was able to work was Czechoslovakia. Only in the 1990s he started to work in Western Europe and the USA.

He is still active as a clothes designer, in Russia, and internationally.

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