La Diabla

The 1903 Ball at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia wore the raiments of the first wife of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich, Empress Maria Ilinichna.A Ceremonial dress of a Russian "platno" dress of gold brocade with embroidery in metallic thread and sequins in a stylized floral design over the entire surface; loose with wide sleeves to below the elbow; fastened with hooks and buttons; trimmed with strips of silver brocade covered with artificial pearls on the center of the front, hem and lower sleeves; head-dress of gold brocade decorated with artificial pearls; high heeled shoes of gold brocade embroidered with sequins, artificial pearls and large green glass inserts. length of dress: 158 cm. This dress is a copy of one that the Empress Maria Ilinichna had.

The costumes were made from designs by the artist Sergey Solomko, in collaboration with historical experts which took many of months.

📌 Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya Мария Ильинична Милославская 1 April 1624- 1669 was a Russian was the first spouse of Tsar Alexis of Russia.

Showers of bombs in the megalopoles: our feral wolves emerge from the shadows and destroy the capital.

May they crumble, your towers of glass and iron. May they topple in a hellish maelstrom on their very creators. And your icons and your crowds, and your merchants adorned with crowns, may they in kind melt like butter and as cream feed the gutter. May they offer us the delicacy of their tender putrefaction. We are La Peste, the faction against the modern world.

With a blow of a bat we’ll fix the technocrat; we’ll pierce the privileged through the heart. From the top we’ll restore the aristocrat, and the Republic: we’ll ravage her corpse.

With a blow of a bat we’ll fix the plutocrat; we’ll bore the speculator through the heart. From the top we’ll restore the aristocrat, and democracy: we’ll ravage her corpse.

My blood is hooligan, and my spirit elitist; by knife and by cane I’ll scratch you off the list. The metropolis is a disgrace: we’re here to restore order. It’ll make me hard to see your body on a stake.

This is my crew, and these are your people, and this is a riot.  Don’t stand in our way: We’re tearing this down.

- Peste Noire, ‘Le Dernier Putsch’, my English translation