Video: The path of the fashion model Elena Izergina: Truth and myths about the Soviet world of fashion
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
When the series about the life of Soviet fashion models "The Red Queen" was released on the screens, many of those who at one time were related to the world of fashion in the USSR were outraged - the events seemed far-fetched to them and very far from reality. Yelena Izergina, one of the most famous Soviet fashion models, who is most often referred to in the media as the first wife of Valentin Gaft, was a witness of how everything actually happened. What inaccuracies and exaggerations so outraged the one that stood at the origins of the fashionable world of the USSR?
In the USSR, the profession of a fashion model was not fashionable and prestigious - the fashion industry was poorly developed, practically the only place where they could work was the Model House on Kuznetsky Most, but the "clothing demonstrators" were equated with laborers of the last category. The word "fashion model" was not even in the directory of professions. Nevertheless, Soviet fashion existed and developed, fashion shows were held, and the most successful models traveled abroad. Among them was Elena Izergina, although her name is not as widely known as the names of her colleagues Regina Zbarskaya, Mila Romanovskaya, Galina Milovskaya, Elena Metelkina, Leka Mironova.
Since childhood, Elena's greatest passion was theater, and she believes that the prerequisites for this were laid in her family: her grandmother's sister, actress Elena Leshkovskaya, was the star of the Maly Theater. Elena's own grandfather also left a noticeable mark in history, only in another area - medicine: Peter Izergin was one of the founders of the children's bone tuberculosis sanatorium in Crimea. Elena was a native Muscovite. She received the specialty of a props artist at the Moscow Theater and Art School, after which she was assigned to Mosfilm. There she was an assistant to the artist, took part in the work on the films of Ivan Pyriev, but due to illness she was forced to leave.
Once fate brought Izergina to the deputy chief artist of the All-Union House of Fashion Models Alla Levasheva, and she invited the girl to try herself as a fashion model. Later Elena told: "".
Izergina was among the models who often participated in fashion shows abroad. On one of these trips at an exhibition of Soviet fashion in London, she met Yuri Gagarin - he attended the show and was photographed with fashion models. Elena is still proud of this photo next to the world's most famous cosmonaut.
Once Pierre Cardin invited Vyacheslav Zaitsev to Paris, where a show of the collection of the Soviet fashion designer was to take place. Izergina and another girl were chosen for the trip. But Zaitsev himself was not released from the country for some reason, like Elena's colleague, and she alone represented the entire Soviet collection.
Elena Izergina was a real beauty in her youth, she always had many fans, and one of them was the young actor Valentin Gaft. He was blinded by the beauty of the fashion model, and they began an affair. Once a young actor invited the bride and his mother to his debut performance at the Theater of Satire and failed the performance out of excitement. Soon they got married, and at first their happiness was not overshadowed even by the cramped living conditions - the newlyweds settled with Elena's mother, dividing the only room in a communal apartment on the low ground floor with boards into two parts. Windows constantly rattled from passing trolleybuses, but at first this did not bother anyone.
Over time, the young began to conflict - Gaft was annoyed by the wife's excessive love for homeless animals, which she brought into the house all the time. The actor recalled: "". However, this was not the main reason for the discord in the family - both were too young and not yet ready for family life. Eight years after the wedding, Elena met another man, film critic Dal Orlov, divorced Gaft and remarried. This marriage proved to be strong and durable.
In total, Elena worked at the All-Union House of Fashion Models for 14 years. During this time, she managed to graduate from the theater department of GITIS, got married a second time, gave birth to a daughter. After completing her modeling career, Isergina worked for 16 years as the head of the literary department at the Moscow Theater for Young Spectators, and then at the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. Today, she calls her family her main happiness.
When Izergina watched the series "The Red Queen", she was outraged at how much reality was distorted in it. The former fashion model called the plot ridiculous, stamped and absurd - there were inaccuracies in the details (at that time the models had not yet been taught the skill of fashion shows), and in the depiction of mores in the fashion world. Elena said: "".
Some fashion models could not stay in the USSR and were forced to leave the country forever: Forced emigration of the "Soviet Twiggy".
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