Alexander Vasiliev is a Russian and French theatrical artist, interior designer, art historian and fashion historian. Vasiliev is also known as the TV presenter of the program "Fashionable verdict." He is an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Early years and education of Alexander Vasiliev

Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev was born on December 8, 1958 in Moscow.

Father - Alexander Pavlovich Vasiliev - famous painter-decorator. He is an academician, honored artist of the RSFSR, who dedicated the theater to 50 years of his life.

The mother is an actress of the Central Children's Theater (CDT), one of the first graduates of the Moscow Art Theatre, and after leaving the stage, taught stage speech at the alma-mater.

Since childhood, Sasha loved to consider theatrical costumes, scenery and theatrical props. All this inspired the boy to invent his own costumes and scenery for the performances. Already at the age of four, he embodied his fantastic inflating from plasticine. As reported in the biography of fashion designer Vasiliev, the site "Learn everything," for the sample he took reproductions from books on art and photo albums, which were stored in the home library. At the age of twelve, the boy himself staged the performance "The Wizard of the Emerald City," to which he invented and made all the costumes and decorations.

In the same young years, he had a passion for collecting ancient things. Surprisingly, he found many valuable exhibits in the waist. One day he got the icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker, dated the beginning of the eighteenth century. At that time, crowd apartments were being resettled. The newcomers tried to get rid of old things as soon as possible, often not understanding their true value.

Sasha Vasiliev studied at the elite English school in Moscow No. 29. But, according to Wikipedia, he was expelled from school for poor performance and transferred to the school of working youth No. 127. But he managed to enter the Komsomol, as Konstantin Raikin, Anastasia Vertinskaya and Stanislav Sadalsky vouched for him.

For the first time Alexander showed himself on television in the popular children's programs "Theatre of the Bell" and "Alarm clock."

Having received a certificate of secondary education, Vasiliev continued his studies at the production faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre School-studio, which he successfully graduated in 1981. He studied very well and even received a personal scholarship named after Stanislavsky. He was confusing to draw up excerpts from the performances of students of the acting faculty, thereby gaining experience and reputation.

Career of Alexander Vasilyev

Immediately after graduation, Vasiliev was gladly taken by the artist-decorator to the theater on Malaya Bronnaya, where he immediately began to create costumes for the performance of the "Wolves" and sheep. However, he worked in the theater not long - a year later fictitiously married a French citizen and went with her to Paris.

Two months later, Alexander found a job. In this he was helped by a friend of his wife's friend. She brought it together with the Polish director Eva Levinson, who was going to put on the Paris stage a performance "Pause of John" and was looking for a painter-decorator. The debut was a success - theatrical critics praised Vasilyeva's work, and Eva offered cooperation on a permanent basis. They made two more performances together, then other directors began to turn to Vasiliev. There were, of course, downtime, during which Vasiliev washed the windows and glued billboards, and sometimes sang on the streets Russian songs in the company with his Slovak friend, and quite successfully.

All this time, Alexander intensively studied the French language and achieved success in this. He even got a job at the Paris Fashion School to lecture.

At the same time, Vasiliev continued to work as a decorator, and already outside France. Accidentally found himself on the same plane with the director of the Icelandic National Theater, Vasiliev showed him his drawings and was immediately invited to work in Reykjavik. The contract for five performances in the main theater of Iceland in the most favorable way affected the professional reputation of Vasilyeva, giving him weight in artistic circles. At the same time, Alexander lectured on the history of the costume at the Royal Academy of Art in Belgium.

Soon at one of his master classes Vasiliev met the head of the Belgian Royal Flemish ballet by the Russian emigrant Valery Panov, who in the past was an outstanding dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre. Panov offered Vasiliev to issue a ballet on Dostoevsky, and then signed a contract with him for seven more performances.

Alexander Vasilyev continued to study his collection, and when it reached its impressive size, Vasiliev began to organize thematic exhibitions, which were very successful. Former French President Jacques Chirac was so impressed with the scale of the collection that he allocated a three-room apartment near the center of Paris.

Carter Alexander Vasiliev in the cinema

Vasiliev also proved himself in Western cinema - he worked as a costume designer in the films of Robert Enrico (the "Bost of the War"), Jose Giovanni (My Friend) and Moshe Mizrahi (Manzhklu).

The return of Alexander Vasiliev to Russia

Vasiliev lived in France until 2003. During this time, he worked in many theaters. At the same time, Alexander continued to engage in teaching and educational activities, as well as he designed the sites of theatrical festivals and interiors of private houses and continued to collect ancient things.

In 2003, Tatiana Ilyinichna, Alexandra's mother, died, and he was forced to return to Moscow to enter the rights of inheritance. It took quite a long time, and while the court and the case, Vasilyeva began to be offered to participate in various projects. Most of them were beauty contests, the organizers of which dreamed of getting a professional of this level to the jury, and even came from France. Vasiliev did not refuse, because it was possible to make a good money to replenish his collection with this money.

In the same year in Moscow earned the design studio "Interiors of Alexander Vasiliev" and his first exhibitions were held. Having found that he and in Russia have enough work, Vasiliev decided to stay in his homeland.

A year later, he organized a visiting school and appeared on television as the host of the program "Atunstance of the Century."

In the autumn of 2009, he took the place of the leading program "Fashionable verdict," replacing Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who left for health reasons. At the same time, Alexander spoke on the radio, lectured at Moscow State University, the Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting "Ostankino" and the school "MODA."

In 2011, he established the award of the "Lily Alexander Vasilyev" for high achievements in the design of interiors. The award is a handmade ceramic lily, awarded for interesting finds in the field of design and is considered very prestigious in artistic circles.

Vasiliev is the author of thirty books and unique photo albums dedicated to the history of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet fashion, as well as the architecture of tsarist Russia. His pen belongs to several biographical collections that tells about the life of his famous ancestors. The author's plans include the publication of the memoirs of Tatiana Leskova, the only granddaughter of the writer Nikolai Leskov and the founder of the Brazilian ballet school.

Recently, the fashion historian has taken up his collection, which in the near future plans to turn into a permanent operating museum. Several sites are already functioning in Moscow, where unique exhibits of its collection are exhibited, thematic exhibitions are also held in various historical and art museums, not only in Russia, but also abroad.

The collection already has more than 500 thousand exhibits, among which there are wardrobe items belonging to such legendary personalities of the Soviet era as Maya Plisetskaya, Lyubov Orlova, Lyudmila Zykina, Galina Ulanova and many others. In October 2020, the exhibition "Fashion of the Silver Age" - several dozen luxurious outfits, each of which is made in a single copy and impresses with the elegance of the cut, the quality of the materials used and the refinement of the decor.

Personal life of Alexander Vasilyev

The first love of Alexander was named Maria Lavrova. They met in Moscow, Alexander was 21 years old, Mary 19. They dated for three years. But then Masha went to Paris, to her parents. The lover Alexander decided to follow her and began to come up with various options to go outside the Soviet Union.

Suddenly, fate gave him a meeting with the French student Anna Bodymond. She studied Russian and came to Moscow for an internship. Alexander persuaded the girl to arrange a fictitious marriage with him, and four months later the newlyweds were in Paris.

Alexander met Masha, but a happy union did not work out - Masha managed to fall in love with another man, for whom she was going to marry. Alexander's heart was broken, but he did not rush to return to Moscow, but tried to start a new life in France.

After a while, the husband left Masha pregnant, and she made an attempt to return to Alexander. But he did not want to take responsibility for someone else's child, although he still had gentle feelings for this woman.

This story postponed the imprint on the whole future of Vasiliev - he ceased to trust the women and never got a wife or children. With Masha, he maintains friendly relations, however, as well as with his fictitious wife, with whom they divorced after five years of marriage.

The closest person of Alexander remains the half-sister Natalia, the daughter of her mother from the first marriage. She also works in the field of fashion and lectures on design and style. And Vasiliev soul does not get in his pug of the Cotica, which travels with him around the world.