Daily Coverage: UFFR - Vassa

If the words Russian Fashion spell furs and glitz, then you will be sadly disappointed in the clothes of Vassa.

Clean modern lines, more reminiscent of Calvin Klein or Tom Ford at Gucci, than The Bolshoi ruled this collection. Leaving aside a few brief excursions into bondage, see through and sexiness, the clothes more tellingly resembled those of the world¹s chicest nun.
With a tightly controlled colour palette of black, ivory and grey, and a preponderance of high necks, the purity of the designers vision was uncluttered by over accessorisation or tricksy styling. Flashes of silver or leather as bands or belts were the only decoration. Citing Halston and Beene as influences she certainly follows these great innovators- if not in construction skills, certainly in avoiding the overstated.

What the sequinned and chiffoned gala audience made of it is anybody¹s guess, but as a Russian in New York, Vassa certainly has a clean vision of what she means by fashion.

Reports by Tony Glenville