Volchok (russian: ВОЛЧОК) is a Russian

streetwear Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually hau ...

manufacturer.

History

Volchok was established in 2014 by Vasily Volchok-Rusakovich who previously worked at 2×2 TV Channel and dealt with

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

vintage clothing Vintage clothing is a generic term for garments originating from a previous era, as recent as the 1990s. The term can also be applied in reference to second hand retail outlets, e.g. i''n vintage clothing store''. While the concept originated ...

via

online store Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

. Inspired by the success of a friendly local streetwear manufacturer Volchok-Rusakovich made 200 black tees with "Юность" (Youth) print that made the brand popular among locals. The huge media attention reached Volchok in October 2016 when

L'Officiel ''L'Officiel'' () is a French fashion magazine with a USA edition. It has been published in Paris since 1921 and targets upper-income, educated women aged from 25 to 49. In 2006, it had a circulation of 101,719. A men's edition of ''L'Officiel'', ' ...

Russia former editor-in-chief and Vogue Russia fashion editor Olga Dunina both wore those "Юность" black tees at a

cocktail party A cocktail party is a party at which cocktails are served. It is sometimes called a cocktail reception. A cocktail party organized for purposes of social or business networking is called a mixer. A cocktail hour is sometimes used by manag ...

Galeries Lafayette The Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and othe ...

Design

Volchok designs

t-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

sweatshirt A sweatshirt is a long-sleeved pullover shirt fashioned out of thick, usually cotton cloth material. Sweatshirts are almost exclusively casual attire and hence not as dressy as some sweaters. Sweatshirts may or may not have a hood. A sweatshirt w ...

s, pants,

sock A sock is a piece of clothing worn on the feet and often covering the ankle or some part of the calf. Some types of shoes or boots are typically worn over socks. In ancient times, socks were made from leather or matted animal hair. In the late ...

s, cloaks,

coat A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, a ...

s and other apparel for men and women while most models fall under

unisex Unisex is an adjective indicating something is not sex-specific, i.e. is suitable for any type of sex. The term can also mean gender-blindness or gender neutrality. The term 'unisex' was coined as a neologism in the 1960s and was used fairly inf ...

. Clothing is (mostly) fabricated locally in Russia so it remains affordable to regular customers. According to Volchok-Rusakovich his company is also a social platform for young people as the simple design with laconic black and white color palette is intended to be a medium for messages, transmitted via prints and slogans. Volchok's most notable designs are based on

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

slogans such as "Вера" (Hope), "Юность" (Youth) or "Моя оборона" (My Defence), "No Tsars No Gods". However some collections introduced a more complex graphic work. At the 11th Faces & Laces show in Moscow in August 2017 Volchok presented a collection named after the

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

game series that included drawings made in tradition of

Japanese animation is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening ...

. Volchok FW 2018—19 collection presented at Futurum Moscow show in Museum of Moscow on the last day of

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is a series of international fashion weeks sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, a brand of Daimler AG. Designers featured during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks include notable designers such as Rosenthal Tee, Mary Katrantzou and David ...

Russia in March 2018 included prints of birds and other wild creatures. Volchok's references are picked from the Russian underground culture even when the messages themselves are political: the SS-2018 collection presented at MBFWRussia in October 2017 was dedicated to complicated political relations between

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Volchok-Rusakovich describes the brand's nature as "Russian Gothic" while fashion magazines consider it an example of post-Soviet aesthetics.

Reception

Volchok was among the first Russian streetwear brands to take part in major fashion shows. Since 2016 it has participated in seasonal Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia events and Pitti Uomo exhibition in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in January 2018. Volchok received numerous special mentions in

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

, Fashionista and other fashion magazines as well as New East-focused

The Calvert Journal Calvert 22 Foundation was a non-profit UK registered charity created in 2009 by Russian-born, London-based economist Nonna Materkova. Calvert 22 Foundation focused on the contemporary culture and creativity of the 29 countries of the New East ( ...

as a notable representative of Russian fashion scene and part of the Russian fashion new wave. Following MBFWRussia in March 2018

i-D ''i-D'' is a British bimonthly magazine published by Vice Media, dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. ''i-D'' was founded by designer and former ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' art director Terry Jones (i-D), Terry Jones in 1980. The ...

reporter Rae Witte called Volchok FW 2018—19 collection the most interesting streetwear collection of the shot and The Fall contributor Dee Moran acknowledged Volchok as a potential rival

Gosha Rubchinskiy Georgiy Aleksandrovich Rubchinskiy (russian: Георгий Александрович Рубчинский; born 29 June 1984), known as Gosha Rubchinskiy (russian: Гоша Рубчинский), is a Russian fashion designer, photographer and ...

Stores

Volchok runs stores in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(), Saint Petersburg (Berthold Center) and in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

References

{{Reflist, 2 Clothing companies of Russia Manufacturing companies based in Moscow Clothing brands of Russia