An outstanding singer who won the love and appreciation of audiences in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, and also far beyond their borders, Edita Stanislavovna was famed for her exceptional taste, elegant wardrobe and truly sumptuous stage outfits. Having created her own unique image, she became a symbol of an era and a true model for imitation for several generations of Soviet and Russian women.
With her concert costumes, Edita Piekha introduced the public abroad to the names of Soviet and Russian couturiers. One of the first designers to create stage outfits for the singer was Slava Zaitsev. Edita Piekha made a gift to the Hermitage of eight ensembles that one of the country’s foremost stylists created for her over the years: from the dresses with low-key decoration and a distinctive, readily recognizable, silhouette of the late 1970s and early 1980s to the multi-layered concert costumes of the early 2000s that underlined the vocalist’s mature beauty and figure. The singer turned repeatedly to Slava Zaitsev’s creativity over her long career as a performer. The output of two other Moscow-based designers – Alexander Sheshunov and Vladimir Seredin – is also represented by elegant stage dresses in the collection.
In Leningrad and Saint Petersburg, Edita Piekha invited for collaboration such specialists as Nonna Melikova, Tatyana Parfionova and Irina Tantsurina.
Nonna Melikova was the leading artist-designer in the Experimental Workshop of the Leningrad House of Fashion Models. Edita Piekha presented the museum with five of her works from the 1980s. Nonna Melikova was the creator of costumes for several of Edita Piekha’s anniversary concerts and they are classic examples of stage outfits that retain their topicality many years later.
Tatyana Parfionova’s work is represented in Edita Piekha’s collection by three costumes: from a trouser outfit produced in the 1990s – the first years of the Tatyana Parfionova Fashion House – to a luxurious dress from the early 21st century made of silk in the artiste’s beloved turquoise-blue shades.
Recently, the designer Irina Tantsurina, founder of the eponymous fashion house and brand Tansurina, has done a lot of work on creating the singer’s stage images. The collection features three concert dresses by her made of silk fabrics in a range of light colours.
Some of Edita Piekha’s beautiful concert dresses were made in the 1980s and early 2000s in an individual sewing atelier, but that does not in any way diminish their significance. Edita Stanislavovna repeatedly wore those outfits when performing on stage and on television and always looked immaculate.
The title chosen for the exhibition-event is a line from a song by a pair of Leningraders – the composer Alexander Morozov and the poet Mikhail Riabinin – A zhizn’ prodolzhayetsya… [And life goes on…], which Edita Piekha first performed in 1979. At the start of spring, as International Women’s Day approaches, it sounds particularly life-affirming, bringing hope.
The curator of the exhibition is Nina Ivanovna Tarasova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, head of the Decorative and Applied Art Sector in the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture
The exhibition “And life goes on…” can be visited until 20 April 2025 as part of a general guided tour of the open-storage facility at the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre.