ZA_ZA // Spring Summer 2020

ZA_ZA is the brainchild of Alexandra Koryakina-Nikolaeva, who has been a staple here at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia since Spring 2018. Created by Yakutia native Alexandra Koryakina in 2011, ZA_ZA is notoriously avant-garde, stating its mission as “bringing something unexplainable to an explained world”.

For this collection, Koryakina-Nikoleva went all out, with animal masks, giant Z and A stuffed lettering for scarves and a somber, gothic tone. Couture sweatshirts featuring tiny prints of cartoon animals contrasted with giant tartan coats and patchwork longsleeves.

After that things moved into an even more macabre and dark territory, with models wearing animal face prosthetics coming out in plush and wool garments with all-over prints of human mouths, faces and hands, some scarves and accessories even being shaped to resemble a human arm. The rest was almost all-black, with long black coats, sweaters, dresses and trenches only rarely being contrasted with a wild pink or dirty-blue toned outfit.

A collection straight out of a Francis Bacon masterpiece and a perfect one for a dark and cold Winter. The show was participated by models of elegant age.