Valentin Yudashkin, the famous fashion designer ,died at 59 on May 2, 2024, after a long battle with cancer.
The designer whose designs drew eyes at international fashion shows, sports events, and military ceremonies died on Tuesday. His wife, Marina, confirmed his death but did not state any cause. Yudashkin, who received a kidney cancer diagnosis in 2016, allegedly spent last week in the hospital.
His brief stint as a pupil with the seasoned designer, however, was described as “informative, large-scale, and beautiful” when he made an appearance in public earlier this year for Zaitsev’s 85th birthday. News of his death came just two days after the death of the Soviet Union’s most renowned fashion designer and Yudashkin’s mentor, Vyacheslav Zaitsev.
Series of events in Yudashkin’s career
Yudashkin, whose frequently theatrical designs are displayed in museums in France and the United States, first made his mark by dressing the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Raisa Gorbachev, in the late 1980s.
In the 1990s, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, he became a Russian icon. In the 1990s, Yudashkin founded his own fashion house. In 1991, he debuted with a presentation in Paris called Fabergé, which was well received and served as the springboard for his career in Europe. He was successful in winning over the crowd. Sadly, his Paris performance was postponed last year because he did not denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He debuted a prêt-à -porter brand in 1994, then a range of fragrances in 1995. He became the first and only Russian fashion designer to be rewarded with membership in the Syndicate of High Fashion in Paris in 1996.
He is also credited with creating the Russian team uniforms for the Olympics in 1994 and 1996, as well as the 1999 football team colours. He redesigned 85 parade uniforms for all the branches of Russia’s armed forces, along with designer Igor Chapurin, in 2008.
More about Yudashkin
Yudashkin was born in a small town named Odintsovo, a city on the outskirts of Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Industrial Vocational School with two diplomas that portended his future career: one was in the history of fashion, and the other was in make-up and decorative cosmetics. Yudashkin gained notoriety for his very dramatic attire and started performing at events all around the world. His intricate and ornate designs stood in stark contrast to his hometown of Odintsovo’s drab Soviet monoliths.
Yudashkin’s haute couture collections were renowned for their elegance, with flowing lines in luxurious fabrics often embroidered with beads, pearls, gold piping, and semiprecious stones. But he also shattered fashion protocols by starting a line of jeans and expanding his ready-to-wear lines.
Yudashkin’s career
As mentioned earlier, Yudashkin was not only famous for flamboyant evening gowns but also for redesigning Russia’s military uniform. He said in an interview that the most strenuous task was to make sure that the uniforms were functional. He spent a major part of his time chatting with people who are serving in the army to check and understand what works for them, what does not, what is comfortable, and what is not. He claimed that the military manufacturers had corrupted his design.
Yudashkin joined the French Federation of High Fashion as the first designer from Russia and has participated in numerous Paris fashion weeks over the past three decades. He was presented with the French Legion of Honour on his 50th birthday.
Yudashkin’s career was not without controversy. Yudashkin was one of Vladimir Putin’s many ardent supporters in both the 2012 and 2018 presidential elections. Yudashkin’s works were apparently taken down from a virtual exhibition in March 2022 by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in Paris because he supposedly did not speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Numerous museums, including the State Historical Museum in Moscow, have acquired Yudashkin’s clothing.
