Exclusive: Gosha Rubchinskiy drops AW16 lookbook and film

Gosha Rubchinskiy AW16

Today, Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy unveils his AW16 lookbook, which features his Save and Survive themed collection debuted at Paris Men’s Fashion Week in January. He has also premiered a new film, capturing the build-up to the show which saw streetcast models, including London-based photographer Tom Emmerson, take to the catwalk.

Although ‘post-Soviet skatewear’ is the term most used in relation to his work, Rubchinskiy showed that there’s so much more to his design vocabulary than this. He cited multiple subcultural references including punks, skaters and skinheads like the ones he said hung out at the TaMtAm (Saint Petersburg’s first independent music club) in the early 90s. This comes across very literally in the lookbook model’s hair (or lack thereof).

Tracksuits and turtlenecks feature alongside streetwear basics, tops are oversized, sleeves elongated and, in a couple of cases, come with two cuffs. Looks are styled with beanie hats and football scarves, braces and cotton military-style belts, Vans Half Cabs and Reebok Classics. Cyrillic script – one of the designer’s signatures – is present, along with the graphic tees that will spawn a thousand Gosha Talk WTBs (that’s Want To Buy, for those unaccustomed to the vernacular of online streetwear trade groups).

This lookbook and film come in the wake of Rubchinskiy’s announcement, made earlier this month, that he would be presenting his SS17 collection at Florence’s biannual menswear trade show Pitti Uomo in June. “I wanted to do something unexpected,” said Rubchinskiy in an interview with The Business of Fashion. “A Russian designer showing streetwear at Pitti – that’s definitely something people don’t expect to see.” Along with the show, the designer, who is also a photographer and filmmaker, will be creating a new film and book.