Russian fashion designer Slava Zaitez built up a reputation during the 70s for his portray of life during the Soviet era. Now aged 78, his new collection shows a more free approach to the catwalk. Here's a look at why this man was once hailed as the "Russian Dior".

Another striking creation by famed Russian fashion designer Slava Zaitsev.

This gold dress will be deputed at Russian Fashion Week when he will unveil two new collections.

One of which is premièring this Thursday.

The son of a laundress, Slava grew up in a communal apartment in the Soviet Union, where fashion was officially outlawed.

"After the war it was a period when we were waiting for father, but he didn't return, he was jailed for being captured. Under the 158 enactment as a son of a country's traitor I wasn't accepted into any of the higher educational institutions. The only technical college which accepted me was a textile technical, arts and crafts faculty," said Slava Zaitsev, fashion designer.

After being accepted he got straight A's — before being sent to Moscow to study at the Textile Institute.

In the 1960s, Zaitsev was producing bold designs and colours in a country mostly known for dressing in plain clothing, attracting the admiration of rare foreign visitors.

A French magazine profiled the young designer, calling him a "Russian Dior."

This gold dress will be deputed at Russian Fashion Week when he will unveil two new collections.

That enraged Zaitsev's boss at Moscow's one and only hub of fashion design.

"It was published in Paris Vogue that Zaitsev is Russian Dior, but my boss has written to a newspaper "we have 60 Diors! 60 designers in a fashion house and all are Diors, so do not exaggerate". It was 1965. A personality was demolished completely," said Slava Zaitsev.

Zaitsev was one of the first Soviet designers to show his collection on catwalks in the West as the Iron Curtain fell in the 1980s. But he was disappointed in what he saw develop in the money-driven nature of the American fashion industry.

On his first visit abroad, Zaitsev presented his collection at New York's Waldorf Astoria in 1987.

"We had a big show at the Waldorf Astoria. I still remember there was a big hall on the 16th floor. It was full of people, there was Oscar de la Renta, there was Bill Glass, a designer, local Dior. And the show went really well. And there was a group of Americans with me to organise the show and be with me in free time. And I became friends with them, as a person who travelled abroad for the first time in 1987, I came there. And after the show they all disappeared, disappeared without saying goodbye. What's going on? And Tamara said they got their money and left. This was a complete disappointment for me that money was more important in the West. I still can't get used to the idea," said Slava Zaitsev.

Despite his age, Zaitsev is dreaming of venturing into the mass market. His House of Fashion — which makes made-to-measure clothes — is looking for investors to launch a mass market collection, something "not too cheap but really good quality."

Zaitsev has even already found production facilities in his hometown of Ivanovo, about 250 kilometres north-east of Moscow.