Gosha Rubchinskiy is one of the most relevant voices in menswear right now. Not only are his clothes seen on the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week and Pitti Uomo, they can also be found on the backs of young guys (and girls) on the street and in skate-parks across the world. Talk to the staff of Dover Street Market where his brand is stocked, and they’ll attest to its popularity and cult following – and they should know, as theyr’e the ones that deal with the enormous queues a drop or launch attracts. Despite this, Rubchinskiy always shies away from the spotlight, preferring to draw attention to the community of skaters, artists and other young creatives that he mixes and collaborates with. One of these people is Tolia Titaev, a pro-skater, friend and muse with whom he’s starting a new label: PACCBET.
Rubchinskiy and Titaev met around eight years ago at one of the designer’s castings – one of Titaev’s friends was helping the designer find models for his first show. It was to be a fateful encounter: Titaev secured that modelling gig and went on to model in many of Rubchinskiy’s shows and, ultimately, become one of his best friends. Now, they’ve come together again to launch PACCBET.
“The idea of PACCBET originated a couple years ago when we started thinking about creating a new Russian skateboard brand,” explains Titaev. “We had tried to make a few skateboards by ourselves in the past, with other names, but every time it was a disaster and we never managed to finish the projects.”
“We designed clothes to skate in. It’s mean streetwear, I think” – Tolia Titaev
Those familiar with Rubchinskiy’s design lexicon will recognise PACCBET as a slogan he has used in his own work. “We started to play with the notion of PACCBET and realised it was a perfect name for us!” says Titaev. “PACCBET (RASSVET) means sunrise. РАССВЕТ is a power, the beginning of a new day. A new day, a new life, a new world.”
The name is symbolic, too, of the new generation of skaters emerging out of Russia – one which Rubchinskiy himself has been a tireless champion of. “It’s a great link to Gosha as he has already used this idea in his collections,” says Titaev. “Now many people are familiar with the word.”
Produced by Comme des Garçons like Rubchinskiy’s label, PACCBET’s debut collection consists of a small selection of skateboards, t-shirts, hoodies, and caps, all of which are designed by Titaev himself. “We designed clothes to skate in. It’s mean streetwear, I think,” he says of the range, which launches on September 17 at the Dover Street Market worldwide and Paris Trading Museum.
This isn’t the first label to launch under the Rubchinskiy banner, though – earlier this year, skater and artist Valentin Fufaev AKA @DOUBLECHEESEBURGERVF launched a self-titled capsule collection and staged an exhibition of his work at the designer’s space at Dover Street Market London.
Watch an exclusive backstage video of the PACCBET lookbook shoot below:
