Fashion designer Valentin Yudaskinthe first Russian fashion designer admitted to the French Haute Couture Association in the 1990s, died at the age of 59, announced today the fashion house he owned in Moscow.

“Yudaskin no longer exists,” a representative of the fashion house told the official TASS news agency. According to Russian media reports, the designer had been battling cancer for the past few years.

“Unfortunately, today we learned the tragic news of the death of Valentin Yudaskin. President Vladimir Putin expresses his deepest condolences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He expressed his regret over the death of the designer, saying that he was a personality who “contributed a lot to the development of Russian art in the country (…), as well as to the promotion of Russian culture abroad.”

“A genius fashion designer, recognized internationally, his clothes were worn by stars of showbiz, theater and cinema, while his shows attracted great interest,” said the announcement of the First Russian TV channel.

In March 2022, the show of creations by Valentin Yudashkin, who was also one of the designers of the new Russian army uniforms, was canceled by Paris Fashion Week because, according to its organizers, the designer had not “distanced himself” since the Russian attack on Ukraine a few days earlier.

In 1991, Valentin Yudaskin caused a sensation in Paris with the Fabergé collection, one of whose dresses was donated to the Louvre Museum. He then regularly participated in Haute Couture fashion weeks in Paris with collections such as ‘Fresques’, ‘La Grande Catherine’ (The Great Catherine), and ‘Ballet’.

A lover of bright colors and rich embellishments, he built a thriving business from a Soviet-era atelier to become the first Russian to be admitted to France’s Syndicat de la Haute Couture in 1996.

By the early 2000s, his fashion house was selling his creations in the US, Italy, Belgium, Britain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

In 2013 when Yudaskin turned 50, the French ambassador to Russia awarded him the order of Knight of the Legion of Honor.

On Sunday, April 30, another famous Russian fashion designer, Vychislav Zaitsev, passed away at the age of 85. He was the first Soviet fashion designer to become famous.

Yudaskin had described Zaitsev as a mega fashion designer, artist and creator. After graduating from the fashion design school of the Moscow Industrial Technical School in 1986, Yudaskin interned with Zaitsev where he did his practical training.

“At such a time two fashion designers left at once, it’s a huge tragedy,” stylist Vlad Lisovets told the RBK media group. “Valentin was a man who helped all Russian women, especially singers, to look like Hollywood stars, full of dignity, because his clothes fell off