Gosha's Gang Spirit

PARIS, France — In Paris, this season, it is the Nineties all over again: neorealist fashion, gritty decor and casting rooted in raw reality. But it's a different kind of Nineties, set in the drab public housing estates of post-Soviet Russia, amongst a burgeoning rave scene, outcasts in vintage sportswear and the first whiffs of Western-style consumerism and a youth-fueled cultural underground. Blame Gosha Rubchinskiy for igniting the trend. He was there before anybody else. More a director with an eye for striking casting than a designer in the traditional sense, Gosha is the Harmony Korine of fashion. He finds beauty where other see alienation. He's able to turn the humble tracksuit bottom into a piece of art.

This season saw Gosha growing up and out of the sportswear niche. Presented in a derelict theatre amid a thick fog, his collection was an affair of transmogrified urban-wear with twisted details like elongated sleeves and very high waists. But it's not really the fashion details that count here. Rather, it's more about the gang spirit which ultimately projects an allure of uber-cool.