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Don't tell my new Arsenal mates but I design women's clothes
Benedict Moore-Bridger4 Feb 2009
THE Premiership's latest football star has a double life as a designer of women's clothes, the Standard can reveal.
Andrei Arshavin, who moved to Arsenal yesterday in a deal worth an estimated £15 million, has his own clothing line, ranging from dresses to sportswear, which is particularly popular with Russian women.
The 27-year-old, who has moved from Zenit St Petersburg, also completed a thesis on designing a suit which can be worn both casually and for sport.
Arshavin, from a working-class family in St Petersburg, enrolled in the St Petersburg State University of Technology and Design aged 17, originally studying chemical technology, but taking up sewing because of the number of women on the course.
He showed a flair for design and began making clothes. A number of his early pieces are held in the institute's museum.
He said: "When I turned 17, I had to choose which university to attend. My friends and I decided to try for the technology and design institute because there were lots of girls among the students and you didn't have to study too hard, or so we thought. I enrolled in the chemical technology department.
"But when I began training with Zenit I had to miss a lot of classes. I transferred to the clothes design department. I have designed several garments myself."
The footballer and his wife Yulia have a son, Artyom, three, and a nine-month-old daughter Alina.
Arshavin is believed to have helped convince his wife to move to London during a number of visits to the capital.
He shot to prominence at Euro 2008 where his performances for Russia earned him a place in the Team of the Tournament. He won the Russian Premier League with Zenit in 2007 and played a key part in the club's Uefa Cup winning campaign last season.
Reader views (2)
here is one of our new celebrity designers for the UK market!
- Hallett Johnson Iv, Ny, NY USA, 04/02/2009 16:13
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Only in the "marshmallow for brains" world of British football would this be seen as any sort of an issue. No doubt some of the morons that occupy our football stadiums of a Saturday afternoon will already be thinking up some sort of "insult": based on an infantile and fearful view of anything they perceive as less than masculine.
- Alan, London, 04/02/2009 15:23
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