Chances are if a designer hasn’t already opened a Russian flagship, it’s their next stop. Thanks to its wealth and the explosive, long-dormant acquisitiveness of its nouveau-riche population, Russia—Moscow in particular—is the undisputed capital of conspicuous consumption, and houses from Diane von Furstenberg to Dior have taken note. “They have money to spend,” Ralph Lauren said at the inauguration of not one, but two Moscow shops in May. “Their appetite is like when you sit down to a meal starved.” To illustrate his point, before Lauren’s flagship was open, one woman muscled her way in and reserved five crocodile Ricky bags to the tune of $100,000.
ilist
Travel
Russian Revolution
October 2007
