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"  Photo: Courtesy of GUM The heels, the legs, the fashion posses: It was only a matter of time before Russia received attention for its luxurious burst into the fashion world, for its first-name basis street style stars like Miroslava and Ulyana, and more recently, the massive 30-by-100 foot Louis Vuitton trunk that sat in Moscow&amp;#039;s Red Square. Yet, the most historically significant symbol of fashion in Russia is the famed department store GUM, which just celebrated its 120TH anniversary. Pronounced &amp;quot;goom,&amp;quot; the almost-300,000 square foot mall with a Versailles-esque facade and a glass dome is juxtaposed with St. Basil&amp;#039;s Cathedral and Lenin&amp;#039;s Mausoleum. In a retro Soviet-meets-luxury snow globe of furs, cafes, vertiginous heels, and babushkas, GUM is Russia&amp;#039;s answer to the heydays of Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, when department store were not just about shopping, but the experience. &amp;quot;Rather than a normal department store, it turned into a lifestyle where people can have ice cream or go to the movies,&amp;quot; says Aliona Doletskaya, the editor-in-chief of Interview Russia. &amp;quot;You can have fun and pop into the shop and get a Burberry bag or if you want Chanel powder, you can get that, too.&amp;quot;  Photo: Liana Satenstein Yet, it was not always possible to &amp;quot;pop in&amp;quot; and get that Burberry bag or even eat GUM&amp;#039;s famed ice cream (it still uses the same recipe from the turn of the century): The department has survived multiple closures and was almost destroyed by Stalin in 1935. Nevertheless, GUM&amp;#039;s past was always dotted with luxury. In 1959, Dior sent over a set of Parisian models for Moscow&amp;#039;s first foreign fashion show, who posed next to awed citizens in the Soviet store. It even had a secret atelier for the wives of high-ranking officials and a made-to-wear shoe service during the era of the Soviet Union. In 2005, the Russian company Bosco di Ciliegi gained principal ownership and injected a full swing of Western luxury into GUM&amp;#039;s three floors, lining it with brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, MaxMara, Moschino, and Herm\u00E8s. On the day of the anniversary celebration, the Louis Vuitton suitcase had been dismantled and removed from the Red Square. GUM, the legend, the luxury, and the lifestyle, on the other hand, still stands. That&amp;#039;s something to chew on.  Photo: GUM "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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