Armand Basi at Russian Fashion Week March 2006

Armand Basi appeared at Russian Fashion Week in March 2006 as one of the season's international guest names, in the designer showcase linked above. The record holds three runway photographs of the Moscow show, pictured by Maria Valentino, Firstview, and provided by Russian Fashion Week.

The guest names are a measure of a fashion week's standing. Alongside Armand Basi, the March 2006 bill carried Isabel de Pedro, Jenny Packham, Julien Macdonald and Zandra Rhodes — established labels from outside Russia travelling to a Moscow runway, in the same programme as the home designers the week existed to present.

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not photographs from this show.

Guests on a Home Stage

For the visiting labels, a Russian Fashion Week appearance put a collection in front of a new market's press and buyers in a single show. For the event, the guests raised the bill's international weight and gave the Moscow audience a direct comparison: the visiting collections walked the same runway, under the same lights, as Arsenicum by Enton, Daria Razumikhina and the other home names. Armand Basi's three photographs are the record of that exchange for this label.

Guest shows also set a benchmark that a home industry measures itself against. A visiting label arrives with its production, styling and presentation already proven in its home market, and walks the same runway the local designers walk an hour later. Buyers and press in the room make the comparison whether anyone announces it or not. Armand Basi's presence on the March 2006 bill is therefore part of the home designers' story as well as its own: this is one of the standards the Moscow names were presenting alongside that season.

Photos