There is only one word you might coin when it comes to mass fashion in Moscow and the word is ‘slow’.

Brands come and go around the world but the Russian market has been always sort of ‘tabula rasa’ for the world’s fashion cycle. Key mass-market player were too reluctant to integrate into a complex local clothes industry.

The ice broke up when, two or three years ago, Zara and Topshop entered the market provoking a massive chaos around major retail malls in Moscow. H&M opening on the outskirts of the capital resembled Black Friday in the US at its worst with the 1km crowd gathering at the store entrance.

Uniqlo was the last player in the team of pop-fashion brands (except for Muji) to appear on Moscow’s market and finally the good news has arrived – March will see its grand opening. So everybody somehow connected with the industry is now guessing whether this overmastering Japanese brand will inject some fresh life into this frozen kingdom of Chinese borax and glamour Italian crocodile jackets.