When the tsarinas reigned supreme

A group of Russian women were once the hottest things in couture, embraced not just by fashion, but by the world of watchers. Where are they now?

At this time, just over ten years ago, something happened in fashion that was so rare and unexpected than the sight of Kate Moss in a tutu.

The front row of couture shows, that rarefied tableau that often seems preserved in amber, has undergone some sort of metamorphosis seemingly overnight. A group of young women materialized en masse, with a magnetic combination of beauty, charm, wealth and wardrobe that sent the fashion world into a frenzy. The fact that they emerged from Russia, once considered a fashion wasteland and then a flashy upstart, has made them irresistible. in the New York Times shortly after a Style.com article called them the new "Russian Federation".

"They broke the stereotype of Russia," said Robert Burke, the founder of a namesake luxury consultancy.

Also known as the Russian fashion mafia, the Russian fashion pack and the Russian fashion royal family, they were a rotating group that included the designer Vika Gazinskaya as well as the model and founder of the association Natalia Vodianova, but with a core consisting of Miroslava Duma, editor of fashion and entrepreneur; Elena Perminova, a model with a Cinderella story; and Ulyana Sergeenko, a designer.

All were linked by their quirky personal taste, a tendency to change clothes several times a day, and their kindness and wealth as a photographer. And they were following in the footsteps of society figure and global art and magazine entrepreneur Dasha Zhukova.

Their profiles rose with the advent of street style , Instagram and publication -Glasnost emergence of Russia as a booming market. Later, they built their own strongholds and brands based on their fashion fame. They were eye-catching bridges between Russia and the world.

As Karin Winroth, associate professor of business at Södertörn University in Sweden, wrote in the scientific journal Baltic Worlds: "They were not only seen as role models and sources of inspiration for fashion: they were also seen as ambassadors of a new Russia. Their popularity put Russia on the map as that country offering fashionable inspiration."

At least until February when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and those bridges started to look very flimsy - as well as how fashion itself can be a shortcut to acceptance, reverberating beyond individuals to affect perception in the world at large.

Transitive Theory of Creation, after all, is not limited to people.

"People use fashion and taste to rehabilitate themselves or to empower a larger project like a profession or a country," said Sophia Rosenfeld, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Democracy and Truth: A Short History". "To whiten oneself or whiten a national culture or set of business practices."

Think of it as the theory of transitive properties of taste...