The Russian style is quite hard to define, because in such a vast country stretching through 11 time zones, it’s hard to talk about a unified style – and that makes the Russian Fashion Week especially interesting.

And while the designers might not always be able to agree on aesthetics, all of them say that buyers are now looking at homegrown labels – which is very good for the domestic market.

Designers and buyers at the RFW are trying to avoid speaking about the global economic crisis, although they are unanimous in saying that there is no crisis of talent in Russia.

They add that the credit crunch has not affected the customers’ intention to snap up local labels.

Others even believe that the crisis has had a good effect on the work of designers.

Many of the Russian designers who had been considering moving their manufacturing from Russia to Asia due to the crisis have changed their minds, in deference to their European customers, who praise the high quality of Russian products, and say they wouldn’t want them to turn into primitive replicas.

Evelina Khromchenko, the editor-in-chief of L’Officiel Russia fashion magazine, says that because of the crisis, designers are now more focused on quality.

“Soviet designers, for example, Slava Zaitsev, used to work in very difficult conditions. With practically no communication with the rest of the world, they managed to create masterpieces of a much better quality than that of Western designers. Being kept isolated, as if in a glass jar, they managed not only to keep up with the main international trends, but sometimes were even several steps ahead, matching the quality of Paris designer outfits,” she said. “Look, this is a simple pret-a-porter coat made by Zaitsev. But such stitches are typical of haute couture outfits. This is Russian quality.”