Video: From all-Union glory to suicide: the tragic fate of the "Soviet Sophia Loren" fashion model Regina Zbarskaya
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Nowadays, every second schoolgirl dreams of becoming a model, because this profession is considered quite prestigious and fashionable. But in the days of the USSR, the concept of "model" did not exist, and the profession of a fashion model was one of the lowest paid and disrespected. The fates of the first Soviet fashion models were not as brilliant as those of modern models. History testifies to this fashion models # 1 in the USSR Regina Zbarskaya, which French magazines called "the most beautiful weapon of the Kremlin."
Despite the absence of a model business, Soviet fashion still existed: fashion shows were held, fashion models traveled abroad to demonstrate the advantages of the Soviet way of life and the beauty of working women. However, the "clothing demonstrators" in the 1960s. were equated with laborers of the last category and received one of the lowest salaries in the USSR. Almost no one knew the names of the models at that time, but they have survived to this day. One of them is Regina Zbarskaya.
At the age of 17, Regina Kolesnikova came from Vologda to conquer Moscow. Her real story seemed boring to her, so she came up with another biography: the daughter of circus gymnasts who tragically died in the arena, with Italian roots. In Moscow, the girl actively attended private parties, where she met her future husband, the artist Lev Zbarsky.
In the Fashion House on Kuznetsky Most, Regina Zbarskaya was not immediately appreciated - “colleagues in the shop” said that she had crooked legs. But she knew how to defile on the catwalk so that the flaws were not noticeable. She quickly became the # 1 model and often represented the USSR at foreign shows. She was highly regarded by Yves Montand and Pierre Cardin, in the West she was called "Soviet Sophia Loren".
It is not known for certain what price Regina Zbarskaya had to pay for such frequent business trips abroad. According to rumors, she had love affairs with members of the Central Committee, visiting celebrities and local dissidents, on whom she later "knocked". She was said to be Russian Mata Hari and collaborated with the KGB. However, the lack of documentary evidence does not allow to assert precisely.
The family happiness of Regina Zbarskaya ended very quickly - her husband did not want children and forced her to have an abortion, after which she switched to antidepressants. Soon he left her, and later went abroad. The drugs affected the firmness of the gait - the girl could no longer take part in the shows. Vyacheslav Zaitsev tried to help - he arranged for her to be a cleaner at his Fashion House, but she could not work there.
Regina twice tried to commit suicide, after which she ended up in a psychiatric hospital for several years. In the end, one of the suicide attempts became fatal - in 1987 she passed away at the age of 51.
The Khrushchev thaw gave a start not only to domestic fashion: for the first time in the USSR, they brought to the show of models Christian Dior in Soviet Moscow in 1959
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