The Russian Is Coming 038; She146;s 15

Is it Paris? Miley? Ivanka?

No, it8217;s Kira Plastinina, a 15-year-old Russian fashion designer, and if everything goes as planned, she8217;s going to be the next 8220;it8221; girl.

8220;When I was really little, people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,8221; she says, 8220;First I said a princess, then I said a fashion designer. I8217;m not grown up, but I am a fashion designer!8221;

Plastinina is a phenom in progress. She8217;s just in from Russia, where in the last year she opened 40 stores bankrolled by her millionaire daddy, Sergei Plastinin, one of Russia8217;s largest dairy producers worth of more than 500 million. Six months ago, she had a fashion show with Paris Hilton in the front row. And she8217;s already had three Women8217;s Wear Daily stories; Teen Vogue is calling her a 8220;teen tycoon8221; and 8220;the talk of the town in her homeland.8221;

Her first U.S. store opened in New York, recently. In the U.S., the goal is 50 Kira Plastinina stores in the next three years, and eventually 250.

Part of the first, post-Communist generation, Plastinina 8212; who speaks almost perfect English, attends an international school and adores TV shows Gossip Girl and The Hills 8212; represents a new fashion identity for Russia. Her clothes, with an average 48 price point, are fast fashionnbsp;targeting teens that live their lives online, where image is reality and international borders are nonexistent.

When Plastinina staged her first fashion show in March 2007, it looked like a Soviet-era parody with 8216;80s throwback T-shirts, short-shorts, outsized bows and winged models. In October 2007, she had Hilton in her front row 8212; for a reported 2 million fee. By March 2008, she was showing a full collection of sweet teen clothing in a slickly produced runway production that was documented in a MTV Russia special, A Day in the Life With Kira.

Not that any of it holds water with the fashion folk. 8220;If there is any demand for her line,8221; sniffs Alyona Isayeva, fashion editor of Russian Harper8217;s Bazaar. 8220;It8217;s mostly in the far-flung provinces.8221;

Last week, in LA Plastinina looked completely at home. She was wearing her own line, as she usually does, including a 34 rhinestone studded denim miniskirt and a cobalt blue patent leather bag with tortoise handles that packed a lot of style for 48.

Just weeks shy of her 16th birthday on June 1, Plastinina still carries herself like a girl, not a woman. She would rather talk friendship bracelets 8220;One of my friends has the same birthday as mine on the same hour!8221; and pet miniature pigs 8220;I want one for my birthday8221;, than designer clothes and marketing strategy.

One day, Plastinina hopes to attend fashion school in London or New York, but this summer, she8217;ll be working in L.A.
-Booth Moore