softgrey
flaunt the imperfection
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2004
- Messages
- 52,895
- Reaction score
- 313
Billionaire fashionistas: Evgeny Lebedev
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 25/07/2008
Hilary Alexander examines Evgeny Lebedev, the latest billionaire to hand out generous donations to the fashion industry...
Billionaire fashionistas are emerging as the new tycoons behind catwalk creativity.
Suits you two: Joely Richardson and Evgeny Lebedev wear matching attire to Sir Elton John’s White Tie & Tiara BallBritain’s Sir Philip Green’s long association with emerging talent is well-documented through his Topshop-sponsored New Generation scheme at London Fashion Week. Roman Abramovich has extended his net to include fashion as well as football since acquiring girlfriend, the model and clothes designer, Dasha Zhukova, whom he is planning to marry.
The latest on the scene is the Russian entrepreneur, Evgeny Lebedev, 28, son of the oligarch, Alexandre Lebedev, who has donated half a million dollars to one of American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour’s pet projects, the the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Vogue Fashion Fund.
The fund, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, helps new talent find continued success in the industry with financial support and business mentoring. Finalists are selected by a committee that includes Ms Wintour, the designer, Diane Von Furstenberg, who is president of the CFDA, Julie Gilhart, fashion director of Barneys New York, and Patrick Robinson, executive vice president of design for Gap.
“Just as we are with each of the Fund’s supports, we are thrilled with Evgeny Lebedev’s generosity, grateful for his support and we look forward to his continued involvement,” Ms Wintour said.
Since its inception, the programme has granted more than £500,000 to 12 different fashion labels including Phillip Lim, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Derek Lam, Thom Brown and Thakoon, all of whose clothes are sold in top London stores.
Evgeny Lebedev, who lives in London, is chairman of the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation, which he founded with Mikhail Gorbachev to help children with cancer, and has interests in hotels, including Palazza Terranova in Umbria; restaurants, including Sake No Hana and The Silver Room at Hush, in London; the arts, including the Moscow Art Theatre and the Anton Chekhov Theatre in Yalta; and fashion.
He is a major shareholder in Wintle, the London-based couture men’s fashion company, which recently made its debut in Paris. Lebedev and his girlfriend, the actress, Joely Richardson, wore precision-tailored his ‘n’ hers trouser suits by Wintle to Sir Elton John’s White Tie & Tiara Ball in June. He is also in partnership with Jefferson Hack’s Dazed group to launch the magazine, Dazed & Confused in Russia.
The CFDA/Vogue 2008 finalists include Richard Chai, Alexander Wang, Albertus Quartus, Obedient Sons & Daughters and Organic, whose collections will be on show during New York Fashion Week which begins on September 5th.
In London, the British Fashion Council has selected twenty talented young fashion talents to receive Topshop New Generation sponsorship for catwalk shows or exhibition stands at London Fashion Week which follows New York and which runs from Sunday, September 14th to Friday, 19th September.
Catwalk sponsorship goes to the brilliant young knitter, Louise Goldin; Danielle Scutt, who won the Chloe Award for Best Designer at Central Saint Martins; Henry Holland of the House of Holland, who turned his catwalk into a parade of neon-tartan at last LFW and whose motto is ‘passio factionis’ (Latin for passion for fashion); the Peter Pilotto brand of Austrian-born Pilotto and Libyan-born Christopher De Vos, who take inspiration from everything from Byzantine churches to the Ballets Russes and science fiction; and MeadhamKirchhoff, a collaboration between two CSM graduates which made its catwalk debut at Fashion East in 2006.
NewGen event and exhibition sponsorship has been given to a number of other distinctive young brands including the theatrical hatter who has designed for Madonna, Nasir Mazhar; the cyber-surrealist shoemaker, Nicholas Kirkwood; and two accessory wizards, Anna Vince, who originally trained as a saddler, and Borba Margo, a Brazilian-Swedish-Polish partnership which works in leather, metal and fabric.
Further sponsorship at London Fashion Week comes through the BFC’s Fashion Forward scheme, partly supported this season by the London Development Agency.
High-rise names, Christopher Kane, Erdem and Marios Schwab are receiving FF sponsorship for the first time, while Roksanda Illincic is a second-time recipient.
telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 25/07/2008
Hilary Alexander examines Evgeny Lebedev, the latest billionaire to hand out generous donations to the fashion industry...
Billionaire fashionistas are emerging as the new tycoons behind catwalk creativity.
The latest on the scene is the Russian entrepreneur, Evgeny Lebedev, 28, son of the oligarch, Alexandre Lebedev, who has donated half a million dollars to one of American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour’s pet projects, the the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Vogue Fashion Fund.
The fund, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, helps new talent find continued success in the industry with financial support and business mentoring. Finalists are selected by a committee that includes Ms Wintour, the designer, Diane Von Furstenberg, who is president of the CFDA, Julie Gilhart, fashion director of Barneys New York, and Patrick Robinson, executive vice president of design for Gap.
“Just as we are with each of the Fund’s supports, we are thrilled with Evgeny Lebedev’s generosity, grateful for his support and we look forward to his continued involvement,” Ms Wintour said.
Since its inception, the programme has granted more than £500,000 to 12 different fashion labels including Phillip Lim, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Derek Lam, Thom Brown and Thakoon, all of whose clothes are sold in top London stores.
Evgeny Lebedev, who lives in London, is chairman of the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation, which he founded with Mikhail Gorbachev to help children with cancer, and has interests in hotels, including Palazza Terranova in Umbria; restaurants, including Sake No Hana and The Silver Room at Hush, in London; the arts, including the Moscow Art Theatre and the Anton Chekhov Theatre in Yalta; and fashion.
He is a major shareholder in Wintle, the London-based couture men’s fashion company, which recently made its debut in Paris. Lebedev and his girlfriend, the actress, Joely Richardson, wore precision-tailored his ‘n’ hers trouser suits by Wintle to Sir Elton John’s White Tie & Tiara Ball in June. He is also in partnership with Jefferson Hack’s Dazed group to launch the magazine, Dazed & Confused in Russia.
The CFDA/Vogue 2008 finalists include Richard Chai, Alexander Wang, Albertus Quartus, Obedient Sons & Daughters and Organic, whose collections will be on show during New York Fashion Week which begins on September 5th.
In London, the British Fashion Council has selected twenty talented young fashion talents to receive Topshop New Generation sponsorship for catwalk shows or exhibition stands at London Fashion Week which follows New York and which runs from Sunday, September 14th to Friday, 19th September.
Catwalk sponsorship goes to the brilliant young knitter, Louise Goldin; Danielle Scutt, who won the Chloe Award for Best Designer at Central Saint Martins; Henry Holland of the House of Holland, who turned his catwalk into a parade of neon-tartan at last LFW and whose motto is ‘passio factionis’ (Latin for passion for fashion); the Peter Pilotto brand of Austrian-born Pilotto and Libyan-born Christopher De Vos, who take inspiration from everything from Byzantine churches to the Ballets Russes and science fiction; and MeadhamKirchhoff, a collaboration between two CSM graduates which made its catwalk debut at Fashion East in 2006.
NewGen event and exhibition sponsorship has been given to a number of other distinctive young brands including the theatrical hatter who has designed for Madonna, Nasir Mazhar; the cyber-surrealist shoemaker, Nicholas Kirkwood; and two accessory wizards, Anna Vince, who originally trained as a saddler, and Borba Margo, a Brazilian-Swedish-Polish partnership which works in leather, metal and fabric.
Further sponsorship at London Fashion Week comes through the BFC’s Fashion Forward scheme, partly supported this season by the London Development Agency.
High-rise names, Christopher Kane, Erdem and Marios Schwab are receiving FF sponsorship for the first time, while Roksanda Illincic is a second-time recipient.
telegraph.co.uk
