Yours for a day's wages - micro-minis in Moscow

LIZ Hurley is ugly. Or, at least, so says Russian superstar Anna Kournikova. But her comments were not to a seasoned sports writer on the edge of the Number One Court at Wimbledon, or whispered venom in a dark corner of some nightclub. They were off-the-cuff remarks made when she was interviewed by Russian Vogue in Majorca last month - and they were intended for a Russian audience, which would probably agree with her.

Russian Vogue has been running for two years now, and celebrities like Kournikova are a godsend. In a country racked by nine years of economic chaos there has been no time to build up a fashion and music industry. Russian Vogue is seriously short of stars with international standing to write about.

"It is early days still," says Anita Gigovskaya, Russian Vogue's managing editor. "You just have to look at the mix in the magazine. There are relatively few Russian celebrities, so we write more about international stars."

To prove the point, the big feature this month is an article about Madonna's friendship with Rupert Everett. (Happily, there is also room in the current issue for a firm Vogue favourite - Alla Pugachova, a rather dreadful Soviet-era crooner who is Russia's biggest star.) Vogue has 10 international local editions published from Australia to Brazil, Italy to Korea. The Russian edition is one of the newest, launched in September 1998 with a party in the smart Patriarchy's Passage shopping mall in central Moscow. The timing couldn't possibly have been worse. The rouble had been devalued only days before and the country was plunging into economic crisis. Hundreds of Russia's brightest and richest partied until dawn while the man on the street lost his life's savings.

Following the crisis of 1998, a quarter of the population lives in poverty and the average salary is $70 a month. But over the past nine years a lucky (and ruthless) few have made millions. And it is for them that Vogue exists: the magazine's cover price of Rb75 (1.80) is as much as most people earn in a day.

Vogue's circulation has barely budged from its initial 150,000 - a third of the sales of Russian Cosmopolitan - but sales have begun to pick up again over the past 12 months. With a staff of 25, Gigovskaya says that 90 per cent of the material is Russian-produced, but the bulk of the content remains about the international fashion scene.

All the fashion shoots are organised by the British office and shot on location with Western photographers and stylists. This month's issue carries a pictorial of Yves St Laurent, Dolce and Gabbana and Versace swimsuits shot on location in Mexico, and another featuring top-name evening gowns shot in St Petersburg. Few Russian designers make it into the pages of Russian Vogue, although their numbers are increasing.

"We feature some young Russian designers and there are a few who are now opening boutiques in Moscow, St Petersburg and places like New York," says Gigovskaya, "but as we are reporting on international fashion - what's hot and what the latest trends are - the standards we judge the Russians by are high. Only a few can meet them."

For most Russians fashion is a new invention. The country has only been open to Western influences for nine years, and many Russians favour the crass and garish over the tasteful. But over the past decade the sharkskin suits and micro-minis have given way to Armani and Dolce and Gabbana, as the Russians travel and learn a more subtle touch when dressing.

"We have an educational function," says Gigovskaya. "Our main function at Vogue is to report on world fashion as well as what is happening in the local market."

IN THIS MONTH'S RUSSIAN VOGUE P Best friends - Sergei Rakhlin speaks to Madonna and Rupert Everett about their mutual love.

The cars and men in the life of [singer] Alla Pugachova.

All the world in jeans.

Shopping: what women need to make them smile.

Watch trends in Basle and Geneva.

Fashion shoot: humid summer in St Petersburg.

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