The lessons of Alexander Vasiliev: Why the fashion historian did not stay to live in France, and what the great ballerina Plisetskaya taught him

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

To many, the host of "Fashionable Sentence" seems eccentric, but everyone who has had a chance to personally meet Alexander Vasiliev notes the incredible charm, subtle humor, sharp mind and amazing vitality of the man who is often called the Keeper of Fashion. He knows six languages, needs to take care of someone and builds his life in accordance with his own principles, trying to learn from every encounter given to him by fate.

Born an aristocrat

Alexander Vasiliev considers himself an aristocrat. But not even because his parents really have noble roots. Mom, actress Tatyana Gulevich, is the successor of the Polish noble family, which has its own knightly coat of arms. Father, theater artist Alexander Vasiliev is a descendant of Vasily Chichagov, a famous admiral who served during the time of Catherine II.

The fashion historian is proud of his origin, but considers it much more important in life to be a well-mannered person, to follow the speech, manners and attitude towards others. And he calls the main sign of treating the servants like a queen. According to Alexander Vasiliev, not everyone has aristocratic roots, but everyone can bring up a cultured person on their own.

He was only five years old when he signed his first autograph in his life. The programs “Bell Theater”, “Alarm Clock” and “Good Night, Kids”, which he hosted, brought him fame. Children from different cities wrote letters to him, and his mother forced him to answer everything. She signed envelopes, and little Sasha answered his peers by writing uneven letters on paper. At school, popularity became the reason for hostile attitude towards him from classmates, but Alexander did not lose heart, he took lessons from any situation and felt surprisingly confident.

Since childhood, he was fond of creating scenery and costumes, and he designed the first performances already at school age. At the age of 12, he showed his own performance, in the preparation of which he immediately acted as a director and artist. But he could not boast of academic success, the future fashion historian was expelled from the English school for poor academic performance. Alexander Vasiliev received a certificate of secondary education already at a school for working youth.

Back in his school years, he began to collect his collection, the first to which was the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, picked up in Nashchokinsky lane near the urn. It is still kept in his collection.

His father taught Alexander to be prudent about money, gave him quite large sums for his birthdays, but at the same time demanded a detailed report on what was spent. Alexander Vasiliev spent the donated on the purchase of antiques for the collection.

After leaving school, he became a student of the production department of the Moscow Art Theater School, and later worked as a costume designer at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya.

French lessons

In the early 1980s, Alexander Vasiliev fell in love. Masha Lavrova lived with her parents for a long time in Paris, where they worked, and desperately wanted to return there. Their romance lasted three and a half years, and after Masha entered into a fictitious marriage with a Frenchman and left for France. Two months later, Alexander Vasiliev went after his beloved, using the same method of traveling abroad: a fictitious marriage with Anne Bodimon.

And in France, it suddenly turned out that he was from a famous artist, about whom the newspapers wrote, suddenly turned into an emigrant. No one knew him, no one needed him. And even her beloved very quickly lost interest in him, and after that she completely found a person who helped her make a career. But Alexander never concealed a grudge: he and Masha are still friends today. The former lover comes to visit him with her child.

But Alexander Vasiliev did not despair and undertook literally any job. Only a chance acquaintance with a woman director allowed him to return to the creative rut. He played the main role in a short film, then several cameo roles in films and TV series, even appeared on the stage as a Russian prince.

Later he returned to his hobby, began to design performances in theaters, worked as a decorator at famous festivals, and already in 1994 he began to lecture at universities and conduct author's master classes. Alexander Vasiliev was successful again and from the experience of his first love he learned one lesson: he will never be unhappy again.

In France, Alexander Vasiliev suddenly realized how pragmatic the French are. They are not attached to anyone or anything, build relationships on the basis of companionship, not friendship, and always rely only on themselves. However, the fashion historian does not attribute this to bad qualities, he is simply surprised at such a different perception of the world among representatives of different nationalities. And he himself was nevertheless closer to the Russian breadth of the soul.

Having managed to build his career in Paris, received French citizenship and achieved recognition, Alexander Vasiliev returned to Russia in the late 1990s.

Life lessons

He was surprised at the changes that had taken place, however, out of his own habit, he simply took up work again. The fashion historian graduated from the graduate school of Moscow State University, received a Ph. D. degree in art history, became the organizer of the Festival of Fashion and theatrical Costume "The Volga Seasons of Alexander Vasiliev", then the host of the show "Fashionable Sentence".

His fashion collection contains over 65,000 items, including stunning costumes of famous personalities and many art objects related to the history of fashion. But at the same time, he dreams of creating a real fashion museum, which anyone could come to. True, he considers this project to be premature so far.

He tries to keep his promise to himself and to be happy. Alexander Vasiliev completely trusts only his diary and admits that any person, due to his weakness, can betray.

Alexander Vasiliev considers knowledge of languages to be obligatory for a modern person and he himself knows seven of them: Polish, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Serbian and Turkish. He considers himself hardworking and successful, knows how to think positively and at one time started a dog not because of loneliness, but out of a desire to take care of someone.

He does not regret anything in his life, enjoys his own happiness, as he understands it, and does not consider it shameful to be able to benefit from his own popularity. The great Maya Plisetskaya taught him this quality.

In a Parisian store, Alexander Vasiliev helped the ballerina choose shoes, since she herself did not know French. The sellers did not recognize her and then she asked Alexander to tell her who she was. And then she got a 10% discount. After that, for the presented photo, she was given another five percent, for an autograph another five. And for a signature mentioning a store - another 10%. It was a brilliant lesson. Alexander Alexandrovich considers the ability to monetize his own name to be a talent and appreciates this quality in people.

He does what he loves, so he does not know fatigue and feels completely happy. Alexander Vasiliev is never tired of his work, he dreams of seeing all people beautifully dressed, educated and cultured. For this, he lives, diligently collecting precious exhibits in his collection, telling people in his books about fashion and about personalities who make fashion and history.

Maya Plisetskaya, who taught Alexander Vasiliev a lesson in monetizing the name, was called not only a ballet legend, but also a style icon. She always managed to look as if all the outfits were brought to her from French fashion houses. A lot really connected her with the world of fashion: possessing impeccable taste and unique plasticity, the ballerina inspired many designers. She was personally acquainted with Coco Chanel, and Pierre Cardin considered her to be his muse.