Lumiér Garson Is a Russian Fashion Brand to Watch

Models donned easy pink silk skirts with an asymmetrically lace-trimmed hem, sweatpants with endless rows of utilitarian buckles, and black cargo jackets heavy with zippers and D-rings. Most of their faces were shrouded by patent leather and velvet face masks, some of which looked to be a riff on a niqab, the hijab worn by Muslim women which only allows the eyes to be seen.

A stunt like this wouldn’t be uncommon at the shows in New York or London, but it is rare for Moscow, where the design as a whole scene seem to be struggling to find a solid identity. That’s not the case for Rudoff, whose brand first debuted at fashion week in March 2015, the year it was founded. He abandoned his law studies to branch out into fashion. As a result, his collections tend to be a careful analysis of culture, rather than just clothing.

“The main idea of Lumier Garson by Jean Rudoff is to show some cruel and adverse aspects of modern reality. The collections reflect what is currently happening in the world, revealing what is underneath the top layer rarely pierced through by the ordinary man,” is how Then and Now, an e-commerce shop, described the brand. They are the only international stockist for this young Russian designer.

“This collection is about nothing,” Rudoff told to the Observer before his show, through a translator. “It hasn’t got any message, any idea and it’s also called ‘No Name.'” Despite the lack of a formal description, there was a sense of aggression through the range. An olive green bomber jacket had patches that were haphazardly painted over in black; a trench coat with buttons that ran from collar to hemline was similarly splashed with dark paint.

Last season, plenty of journalists pointed out that his collection was heavily inspired by each of those design icons, even saying that Rudoff ripped off the font that Simons has adopted as his signature.

“Now I just laugh about it,” he said. “But this is a message for people that you shouldn’t say words that are not true and are not a real situation.” Earlier in the interview, he mentioned being wary of journalists, expressing disdain that they use their own terminology to describe a situation and often move around words, to make the quotes as they want.