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Ilya Rozanov's top 10 best f1 paddock outfits 2024-2004
In dedication to this hockey legends long standing f1 obsession I thought lets do a deep dive into the last twenty years worth of paddock outfits. Plus with some added bonus interviews and call backs from designers and Ilya Rozanov himself.
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Andrea Borsay
(head of fashion industries)
June 15th 2024
If you're an f1 fan or a hockey fan or just a fashion enthusiast, the likely chance is that you're aware of Ilya Rozanov. He was voted People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2019, is a featured brand ambassador for Cartier, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, was featured in vogue best dressed at the met article on four separate occasions.
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Ilya Rozanov is a recurring and defining figure in the world of men's fashion, his unique and well-rounded style has inspired millions of trends for the last decade and a half. Whilst opinions about the man are mixed most can admit that he is a very beautiful man and a very charming one at that. When asked about fashion as a way of self expression, Ilya Rozanov admitted he was largely inspired by his mother. “When I was a lot younger growing up in Russia was hard, money was scarce and so a lot of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my older brother and what wasn't my mother made, she was an amazing seamstress, she'd take me to all of these charity shops and spend hours digging through the racks and she'd find the most awful dresses and take them home and turn them into beautiful dresses. I thought she was magic because how someone could take something so gaudy and make it beautiful I never understood”
Ilya Rozanov is certainly well known for his almost gaudy fashion sense, if you take most of Ilya Rozanov's outfits off of Ilya Rozanov and put them on anyone else you'd cringe at the absurdity. Except he pulls it off, he knows how to tailor to his strengths and how to define his best features, because that's another shocking fact about Ilya Rozanov. He styles all of his outfits. I asked him after our interview who his stylist was and how long they'd been working together.
Ilya Rozanov turned his iconic smirk on me and said “I have no stylist, I'm not Shane Hollander. I don't need someone to help me pick out which socks look best with which pair of ugly Reeboks I wear. If anything I am stylist, I made Shane fire the last one and took over” I'm gonna guess Ilya told him about this little dig because ever since Shane has tagged Ilya under his every Instagram post and has hashtagged it styled by rozanov.
So in dedication to Ilya Rozanov's birthday I decided why not make a catalogue of his best f1 outfits and in doing so discovered his long time fandom for the sport is also having a birthday this year, twenty years of grand prix attendance and twenty years of stunning in the paddock.
1/10
the 2024 Canadian grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanov in the Canadian GP paddock walking with Lily Muni He, as he holds an umbrella high over their heads, he's wearing a deep navy turtle neck with a cable knit pattern stopping mid way down, tucked into wide leg pin strip trousers. Perched on his nose are circular sunglasses. His bright pink paddock pass and vip passes the only pop of colour to his otherwise dark outfit ]
Ilya Rozanov stunned this year in Bruno Cucinelli cashmere, and husbands Paris penny loafers. The two inch heel setting the already six foot giant that little bit higher. This well-dressed casual number was the perfect outfit for the unpredictable rain showers that blew in throughout the day. Whilst standing in the McLaren garage Ilya raised his jumper to the camera to show off the red bull merch hidden beneath. This playful gesture made an outroar amongst the crowds in the ongoing fight for the title between McLaren driver Lando Norris and red bull driver Max Verstappen. Ilya had a lot to say about the invite to the mclaren garage “I don't know why mclaren invited me. I mean I'm a very vocal Red Bull fan, have been since two thousand and ten, so when the invite hit my inbox I thought well this could be fun. That's one of my favorite things when it comes to fashion, not just the making a statement but getting angry reactions, the team thought it was funny at least, the fans were outraged”
2/10
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanov is walking alongside red bull driver max verstappen, Ilya is waving at the camera, Ilya has on a red bull zip up hoodie, the red bull logo embroidered on the side, the large red bull stretching across the front the big yellow sun big on the side and tucked under his arm. The hoodie is zipped up midway atop a white dress shirt and obscuring a thin tie. He is wearing old faded blue jeans cuffed at the ankle and navy racing boots ]
This one caught some attention because its a coveted red bull racing hoodie that was never released to the public only distributed amongst red bull employees and red bull talents. Notably both Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel have worn these jackets. When I mentioned this to him and asked where he got his from, Ilya told me it was vettels. “I wanted it, so I asked if he told the team he lost it would they give him another and he said they might, and they did so he gave it to me. This was way back in the day too, i think in 2011” of course the racing boots are authentic as well from a guest appearance he made as a red bull driver in the 2019 f1 movie, lights out. Red Bull had the suit custom made for him to wear in the movie.
3/10
The 2019 Chinese Grand Prix
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanovs waves at the camera, he is wearing a dusty pink qipao style tailored top with cord ties running from the high neck down to the crease of his arm and shoulder before continuing down the side of his ribs. The top is tailored beneath his ribs to accentuate his narrow waist; this is contrasted by the sloping sleeves that broaden his shoulders, he is wearing high waisted extra wide leg palazzo pants pinched at the upper thigh by twin darts ]
Ilya Rozanov was possibly his largest in 2019 and yet somehow the delicate qipao style top worked to make him look delicate. The soft colour worked wonders against his golden complexion and the tailored waistline paired with the high waisted trousers and extra wide leg only made his hourglass figure even more outrageously gorgeous. Whilst many thought the front of the outfit was the show stopper, it was the back that made fans go wow, the intricately embroidered cherry blossom detailing made many stop and stare as he walked through the paddock.
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanov walking away from the camera, one hand in his pocket the other clutching at his passes, the oval lace back is adorned with intricate cherry blossom detailing curling around the border and stretching up his spine. The hundreds of small pink, red and yellow beads catch the light beautifully and reflect it across his skin in a mix of shades ]
This piece was custom made for him by Chinese designer Robert gong who said he found it a unique experience trying to take feminine silhouettes and put them on such an incredibly masculine form, “there is a balance to maintain with such soft and elegant femininity that can't just be made wider and taller because then your shapes turn boxy and they lose those qualities. It was hard, I spent a lot of time with Ilya pinning and pinching and taking in actually more than I let out. Ilya is almost perfectly hour glass in a shoulder to hip ratio, but his waist is extraordinarily narrower than his hips. In the end we used zips either side of his waist otherwise he would have had to be sewn into them”
It's a well known fact that Ilya Rozanov has an iconic ass but to know that it's paired with a mathematically impossible waist as well that makes getting into trousers an impossible feat makes it all the more funny. We laughed about this for many minutes during the interview and he admitted that all of his trousers are fitted with this same pair of zippers because if he buys trousers for his ass then the waist is far to big and he gets massive gaping, and if he buys them for his waist then he can't get them past his thighs. Oh what a problem we all wished we had.
4/10
The 2017 united states grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya is smiling around a cigarette, a handful of gift bags in one hand. He's wearing a denim jacket with a white fleece neckline and a pair of wide leg denim jeans. His belt is light brown hermes with a golden H buckle. The cowboy hat has fallen hooked to his back by the strap that cuts into his neck. Across his hip is a small square bag ]
2017 was a very active year for Ilya Rozanov in the F1 paddock; he attended nine of the twenty F1 races that year. Because of this we got a lot of good outfits. Thankfully this isn't a tier list because choosing between them all would have been impossible. This one caught my attention over the others not because this one is much different to his regular every day style. The difference was because it was his regular day to day street style. At this time of Ilya Rozanov's career he was starting to branch out, he was appearing everywhere for so many luxury fashion houses. Always dressed up and perfectly styled. Seeing him so relaxed and just so happy was nice. It stood out. I asked him what changed in 2017, and his answer floored me.
“I fell in love” That was the shortest yet most meaningful answer he gave all afternoon. We all know the relationship between shane hollander and Ilya rozanov, they have been married for two years and come out shortly before but before that they never really gave a timeline to when things started. Ilya gave a little more insight into that. “Me and Shane had been seeing each other many many years before that, but twenty seventeen we go to his cottage and i tell him i love him and he says it back, and suddenly everything that had felt hard and impossible before became so clear”
There was a noticeable shift in 2017 for Ilya Rozanov when it came to fashion and presentation. Whilst he is still a very masculine figure the way he moved in the world became softer it became easier. He smiled more frequently for cameras, and took more photos with fans. Of course appeared for more campaigns and adverts but he did so in a way that was meaningful to him and his personality. I guess we have his husband to thank for all the amazing outfits twenty seventeen presented us.
5/10
The 2017 monaco grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya is blowing a kiss at the camera as he struts through the paddock in an oversized white cashmere v neck sweater, his one hand help up is adorned with a delicate vacheron watch in silver and green with an encrusted diamond rim and the other clutching a small bag to his stomach long flared sleeve draping down. His white linen trousers are loose, blowing lightly in the wind. Draped long around his neck is a silver van cleef and arples white twenty four motif necklace with three diamonds dotting between each motif, and all of his fingers are adorned with silver rings ]
Now if this was a tier list of Ilya Rozanov's 2017 outfits this one would be first place. Ilya stepped out in the Monaco paddock wearing custom loro piana cashmere that draped elegantly on his figure. Whilst the sweater itself is modeled off their women's line it was made slightly differently for Ilya rozanov, narrower and shorter v neck line, longer sleeves that he could drape over his hands and a more crisp bright white colour. As well as custom loro piana he was in vintage vacheron and constantin featuring a green jade dial with a bezel set in diamonds. This look was elegant and classy and inspired a lot of men's casual wear that year and for many years to come.
6/10
The 2016 abu dhabi grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya smiles tiredly over at the camera, both hands shoved into the pockets of his grey pin strip trousers, he's wearing a short leather jacket zipped up to his throat, the collar hung open, cross necklace peeking out laying on the zip. He's got the passes clipped to a carabiner on his hip ]
This outfit did numbers on tumblr at the time, it was posted and reposted a few hundred times across all fandoms, i swear it was the outfit in every bad boy x reader romance and i wont lie im almost sure i wrote about it as well at the start of my career in fashion journalism. This is a simple but elegant outfit that just works. It combines the structured suit with a bad boy's tight biker jacket. Of course it helps that Ilya Rozanov is jacked from head to toe, so you can see both the cling of the trousers around his thighs but also the stretch of the jacket around his broad shoulders and massive biceps. “I didn't actually get my motorbike till twenty twenty I think, in twenty sixteen I was considering it for all the wrong reasons but i didnt buy one. A friend talked me out of it. This outfit was a complete accident though. I was on a call with my team and well i thought i cant show up in a tshirt so i put my suit on, only thing is i was so tired from the flight i forgot about time zones so when i checked the race it was close to starting. I just grabbed my jacket and ran out the door”
So even when he isn't trying he's more fashionable than most could dream to be. To know that he became an icon across pinterest and tumblr with an everlasting mark to this day because he was running late.
7/10
The 2014 belgium grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya is in the Mercedes garage watching one of the screens. He's wearing an oversized dusty blue sweatshirt. Embroidered on the front of the sweatshirt is Ayrton Senna's championship winning F1 car in a dark shade of blue, his white collar poking out from underneath. His cross necklace hung down across his chest. He's wearing large white jeans with a tan leather belt, a mercedes hat with six embroidered on the bill ]
Ilya attended two races in the twenty fourteen f1 season, abu dhabi and the belgium grand prix and in both of them he was wearing something Artyon Senna related. I asked him if Senna was his favourite driver when he was a child and he admitted that whilst he couldn't quite remember much of seeing him live on TV as he was three years old when Senna passed he'd been given cds of the races later on in his youth. “I used to watch those CDs all the time, I had a portable cd player and I'd carry it with me everywhere. I was too young to really understand that Senna wasn't around and when my mother told me he'd passed years ago I was devastated. He was my favourite. He still is. I'm a fan of other drivers as well of course, Raikkonen, and Prost, and Schumacher and Vettel and Verstappen. Senna was something else, something real special”
8/10
The 2010 Canadian grand prix
Photo ID [Ilya is standing in the garage with Sebastian Vettel, the short German looking up at him with a grin, Ilya is smiling as well, baby faced and eager. Ilya is wearing a skin tight black sweatshirt with a bowl neckline that's been stretched, a printed crocodile pointing towards the neck, jaw unhinged and ready to snap. He's in baggy blue jeans with scuffed converse trainers and attached to the loop of his jeans is his paddock pass and a red bull hat, Vettel's signature stark white against the brim. Ilya's untamed curls were at an all time long ]
This was the first race Ilya attended as a celebrity guest with a vip paddock pass. He was invited by red bull after mentioning he was a big vettel fan in a presser. He of course was introduced to the man that same afternoon after the race and they formed an easy and fast friendship that has lasted many years. His tight sweatshirt accentuated his impressive physique and in certain photos if you stare long enough you can count every single one of his abs. “This outfit was a hot mess. I wanted to make a good impression but I didn't want to be a try hard and then I thought I should wear a suit for a good twenty minutes before chickening out and stalking him online. He had very casual style and wore a lot of merch so I didn't really get anything from it. Eventually my best friend Svetlana took pity on me and put me in this and I was forced to figure the rest out” for an outfit Ilya Rozanov would rate a two point five out of ten i think a majority of people would call it a ten. This was for the time an amazing outfit with hints of past iconic schumacher outfits we were all fawning over.
9/10
The 2006 german grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanov is standing besides f1 champion michael schumacher and jenson button in the pit. Ilya Rozanov is softer in the face, his long messy bright blonde hair pinned down by a vodafone hat. Michael Schumacher is making a motion to his hip with one hand and a motion to Ilya's head with the other as they both grin. Ilyas got scuffed cowboy boots on and dark grey baggy cargo pants, with thick frayed fabric embroidery stretching up from the ankle to his knee with a wide cord tied belt. A long sleeve v neck t shirt that laced over his chest wide collar pulled open and the cross necklace hung low. He's got the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a decent amount of muscle. Around his wrist is a tangle of handcrafted fabric friendship bracelets in a variety of colours ]
This was the last photo I found of early Ilya Rozanov. Whilst chatting with a colleague of mine I mentioned this article i was writing and she mentioned an instagram that posted early images of Ilya collected from Russian publications and other media. Whilst scrolling through that instagram i happened to come across this collection of images. Ilya was at the time fifteen years old and largely solo travelling for his hockey career around most of Europe and clearly whilst he was on his travels he picked up quite the interesting style. This was a popular if slightly eccentric style around this time in parts of Spain and western Europe. Vastly different to the much more militant and practical style occurring in Moscow, the cowboy boots are a statement piece paired with baggy cargo pants. A similar pair now resells on second hand auction websites for tens of thousands of dollars as they are vintage chrome hearts but when asked Ilya told me he got them in a thirst store in Belarus. “I still have them, they no longer fit me but i've gotten shane in them a few times” his shirt was similarly thrifted the one hundred perfect silk was an ideal choice for the otherwise scorching weather conditions.
10/10
The 2002 hungarian grand prix
Photo ID [ Ilya Rozanov is young, cherub sweet, and awe struck as he looks up at the world champion Michael Schumacher as he makes conversation with the woman at his side. She's tall and thin with curly blonde hair that's swept over one shoulder, soft cardigan worn over a mid length blue dress. Ilya has tucked himself against her leg as he looks on at the pair. He is wearing an olive green knitted sweater with long sleeves and a race car on the front of it. His baggy jeans are cuffed at the ankles and caked with mud, matching olive green wellie boots, his mother is holding his backpack and Ferrari hat both signed with bright white marker ]
The first and earliest race Ilya Rozanov ever attended. The pair were in Hungary for a karting championship and were invited last minute to attend the formula one grand prix after the young racer won. Ilya says that he has always been well dressed even as young as eleven years old. I'm inclined to agree, he looks like a small gentleman. How this cherub grew into such a demon we will never know. “I begged to wear that jumper, she said no ilyshuka it's raining you'll ruin it, she made it for me, spent hours on it, was my nicest sweater with the good wool from the market that she'd saved up to get just for me. I thought I was so cool in my race car jumper” Ilya did look pretty snazzy for a kid of eleven, most kids his age are starting to rebel against their parents but nope Ilya Rozanov is a certified mama's boy. His rain boots and cuffed jeans combo were certainly on trend for the time period.
So to recap, Ilya Rozanov has and always will be a style icon taking inspiration from the classic and timeless styles of his childhood racing heroes but also incorporating them into his own flamboyant yet elegant wardrobe. This is a man who figured his style out young and has evolved alongside it over the years, his wardrobe and the outfits he chooses to wear are reflections to his inner mind and when Ilya Rozanov is at his best shape then his outfits are too. As proven by what an amazing year 2017 was. I hope to be able to update this in ten years time with a whole new list of top ten outfits from his guest appearances at the track. (maybe we can do a joint article with Shane Hollander)
A special thank you to Ilya Rozanov for taking the time to sit down with me and an extra special thank you to all who stuck around to read this article.
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