Flowing felt coats, the bright blues and hot pinks of folkloric shawls and cloaks reminiscent of tsarist cavalrymen dominated doyen of fashion Slava Zaitsev's show this week.

"I showed the potential Russian fashion has," said the 73-year-old Soviet icon, who continues to dress the wives of Russian leadership, something he has done since the 1970s.

Zaitsev said he wanted to show a "history of Russia" on the catwalk, beginning with the waistcoats and top hats worn by nineteenth century writer Alexander Pushkin, to heavily embroidered floral jackets evoking the pre-revolutionary Russian countryside through to modern metallic gowns.

Loose-fitting, all-fur mink shirts and trousers evoked Russia's tribes scattered across the Arctic, who live off and wear reindeer.

Another Russian establishment, Valentin Yudashkin, whose boutiques line Moscow's multilaned roads, strayed from his usual violet and black gowns and also looked toward home turf for his show.

Dancers dressed in traditional Caucasus outfits lept upon the catwalk to perform the lezginka dance from Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus, where Moscow is battling an increasingly difficult Islamist insurgency.

Models then clad in shaggy ram's wool hats and ankle-length coats traditionally worn by some in the North Caucasus strutted across the runway.