Alexander Vasiliev. Beauty in Exile

Download a book Alexandra Vasilyeva "Beauty in exile. Queens of the catwalk" in pdf format you can follow this link: http://libgen.info/view.php?id=192246 (I would put it in an attachment, but the file weight is too large).

There is nothing more subjective, fleeting, changeable than beauty. What was met with delight yesterday, today only causes a smile. The faces of recent idols are forgotten - new ones have replaced them. Nature betrays those whom it has generously endowed: old age has no mercy for them. And fashion knows no constancy. But there are exceptions to these cruel rules.

For many years, theater artist and fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev conducted searches in archives and museums, European and overseas. Only here can you now see once fashionable fabrics with names that no one remembers, dresses in which the most beautiful women in the world once shone, unique beaded and satin stitch embroideries, elegant accessories whose purpose has been forgotten. Many of these things are over 70 years old. But, as the researcher convinces us, oh, a miracle! - their beauty has been preserved. The threads have not faded, the colors have not faded, the lace is just as fine, the pleating lines are just as impeccable...

Alexander Vasiliev met with those who once made these things and knew how to wear them, to whom they fit, like Cinderella’s glass slipper. However, the women with whom he had the good fortune to see and talk were not Cinderellas at all. And they were real princesses, countesses, baronesses, noblewomen from the best families of Russia.

They were considered the most sophisticated and elegant women of their time. And together with many, many, they were forced to leave Russia after the October revolution or shortly before that. But, finding themselves some in Paris, some in Berlin, some in New York, some in Constantinople, they did not get lost and did not bend under the hardships
emigrant life. Not considering the work, which until recently was unthinkable for their position in society, to be humiliating, they raised it to themselves. They devoted their taste, aristocracy, and artistic talent to the service of fashion. Many of them, no less eminent, had a career as great fashion models, or “mannequins,” as they used to say at that time. The spiritual beauty of their faces, captured in photographs, amazes even today.

The fates of these women are extraordinary and dramatic. Their life in exile is carefully restored by the author, collected bit by bit - from letters and memories of children and grandchildren, testimonies of contemporaries. But the main thing is from the stories of the book’s heroines themselves. After all, many of them lived to a ripe old age.

The documents, evidence, photographs that Alexander Vasiliev managed to collect convey the spirit and flavor of the time, the special atmosphere of the emigrant environment. Therefore, the publisher considered it important to preserve the style of the conversations he recorded and the magazine and newspaper publications cited in the book.

We hope that with the publication of this book, beauty, which has been in exile for so long, will return to Russia.

Publisher's preface to the book by Alexander Vasiliev "Beauty in Exile. Queens of the Catwalk"

The book "Beauty in Exile" is the history of Russian fashion in exile. The documents, evidence, photographs that Alexander Vasiliev managed to collect convey the spirit and flavor of the time, the special atmosphere of the emigrant environment. The book tells about the time when Russian artists and performers had a huge impact on the development of world fashion. Thanks to Sergei Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons" and the creative work of

World-famous fashion historian, collector, theater actor, stage designer, author of more than 30 books, psychoanalyst, lecturer, host of one of the highest-rated TV programs “Fashionable Verdict”.

Alexander Vasiliev was awarded the S. P. Diaghilev medal for the promotion of Russian art, the V. Nijinsky medal, the Order of Patron, and the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts. Twice winner of the Tobab Prize in Turkey. He was presented in the category “Fashion Legend” at the World Fashion Awards in 2010. In 2011, Vasiliev was awarded the People's Recognition Prize. In 2011, Vasiliev became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

A. Vasiliev can be called a kind of “initiate” of fashion, who has gone through the stages of knowledge of the origins of various styles and cultures. For maestro A. Vasiliev, fashion culture has become a real calling!

Alexander
Vasiliev

advises: Do what you love. This is real inspiration and pleasure. Remember that we are not eternal and sooner or later everything will end. People are dying and the end is inevitable. If every minute you remember that traffic jams, a broken refrigerator, rain, sun, snow, wind noise will cease, then every day will seem the happiest. You will perceive it as a priceless gift. Rejoice that you are alive and have all these joys. And I live in complete harmony with the world all the time because I am glad that it exists.

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Description

2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Revolution - an event that changed the course of history and turned the lives of tens of millions of people upside down. The fate of the Russian emigration, including that part that consisted of members of the noble families of the Russian aristocracy and representatives of the creative intelligentsia, has occupied the minds of researchers and historians around the world for many years. However, no one has been able to collect material about the life of these people in exile, equal in importance and scale to what the famous fashion historian, TV presenter and writer Alexander Vasiliev managed to find and preserve. Alexander Vasiliev’s book was first published back in 1998 by the Slovo publishing house entitled “Beauty in Exile” created a real sensation and marked the birth of serious interest in the topic of “white emigration” and its influence on the world of fashion and art of the first half of the twentieth century. Almost 20 years have passed since then. The book was republished in various formats 17 times only in Russian, not counting editions in English, Lithuanian, Latvian and other languages ​​- which is undoubtedly a colossal success for the author. However, Alexander Vasiliev did not stop there, and continued his research all these years and the search for new materials, photographs, artifacts and stories, which allowed us to make a new project - a book worthy of continuing the work begun many years ago with the publication of the first "Beauty in Exile". There was so much new material, including previously unpublished photographs, that it turned out to be impossible to fit the book into one volume - so the idea was born to present readers with an anniversary edition entitled “Beauty in Exile. One Hundred Years Later” in two volumes, the publication of which was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Along with the materials of the first “Beauty in Exile” The publication includes new chapters and a huge number of new photographs and illustrations collected by Alexander Vasiliev around the world over the past 20 years. “The interest I nurtured in the topic of fashion of the Russian emigration does not subside even now. This is evidenced by this new luxurious edition with color illustrations, supplemented by new chapters. Over the past 20 years, my collection has been significantly expanded with new acquisitions: dresses from Russian emigrant designers, fashionable drawings, rare photographs, paintings. They formed the basis of the new edition. I was able to familiarize myself with the archives of the Iteb house, kept by the second daughter of the founder, and purchase several dresses from the houses Iteb, Paul Caret, Ardance, Anna Sergeeva, Irfe , models from “Kitmir”, “Valentina”, “Irene Golitsyna”, “Oleg Cassini” and other fashion houses created by Russian emigrants. Also, the collection of the “Alexander Vasiliev Foundation”, which I created, now contains a sufficient number of costumes from the Russian seasons of Sergei Diaghilev, made according to the sketches of Lev Bakst, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, costumes of the emigrant duet Smirnova-Tripolitov, costumes of the Artsibusheva ballet troupe, theater wardrobe of Larissa Andersen, wardrobe singer Lyudmila Lopato, wardrobe of fashion model Thea Bobrikova, wardrobe of fashion model and secretary of Admiral Kolchak Lyudmila Lebedeva-Vasilieva, dresses of Shanghai designer Lydia Vinokurova, photo archive of Sergei Lifar and Erte and many other rare documents on the history of Russian emigration and fashion of that time. I dedicate this book to one One of the most significant events of the twentieth century, which marked a change in milestones in fashion, style and the lives of the heroes of my book, is the 1917 Revolution, which turned 100 years old. Fashion historian and TV presenter Alexander Vasiliev