Dimitry Toukhcher was taking a breather from a weightlifting session in January 2023 when he flicked open his e-mails to find a message from controversial Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson.
Peterson has become a cultural lightning rod in the West since rising to prominence in 2016 over opposition to Canadian laws around gender identity. He has also raised hackles for his views on feminism, climate change, and political correctness. He is a prominent opponent of progressive politics who enjoys vast audiences for his books and YouTube lectures.
"Just gave you a shout-out on Rogan," read the one-line message.
Toukhcher, the 41-year-old founder of the LGFG fashion house, took a moment to absorb the enormity of those seven words, then replied, "I'm going to frame that e-mail and put it on my wall."
The next day, he watched along with millions around the world as Peterson opened The Joe Rogan Experience -- the world’s most popular podcast -- describing the unique "heaven and hell" suit that Toukhcher had designed for him.
News stories, memes, viral clips, and entire analysis videos breaking down the symbolism of Peterson's vivid new outfits followed.
Such guerrilla marketing has its roots in Toukhcher's Soviet upbringing and a subsequent, ferocious faith in the free market.
Toukhcher still has clear memories of his 1980s childhood in the south of Kyiv and the events that were shaking the foundations of the Soviet Union at the time.
"I remember Chernobyl, and I was only 3 years old when that happened," he told RFE/RL. "I remember quite well my grandmother taking me to Odesa during that time. We wanted to head south because the wind was going north."
Toukhcher's grandmother's job as the editor for a state propaganda newspaper meant she "knew something was amiss" before the wider Soviet public became aware of the scale of the nuclear disaster.
Toukhcher left Ukraine with his parents in 1992 amid the economic chaos that was roiling the former Soviet Union. When he arrived in Vancouver, Canada, the young Toukhcher, steeped in Soviet supremacy, stepped into an alternate reality.
"I was a fairly conscientious student, even in the Soviet school system. I really cared about doing well. And doing well usually meant appeasing the teacher, which means being quite a good conformist," he recalled. "I really believed and had a lot of pride in the fact that [as a Soviet citizen] I was from a country that had the best scientists, the best technology, the best people, the most caring government. We were really told that a lot in school."
But faced with Canadian supermarkets filled with enticing food, and cartoons playing around the clock on television, Toukhcher was confronted with the realization that "everything here in Canada is just better, obviously."
The experience, he said, "f****d with me really hard."
Today, Toukhcher says that, largely as a result of that slap-in-the-face lesson on propaganda and the free market, "I'm an unapologetic capitalist."
Because his teams rely directly on sales for their incomes, he said, "We eat what we kill."
Toukhcher has declined in the past to be interviewed about his relationship with Peterson. He agreed to speak with RFE/RL provided he could record the conversation lest he be misquoted.
After listening to an audio version of Peterson's self-help book 12 Rules For Life, which has sold more than 10 million copies, Toukhcher, who had been a fan of Peterson long before the book's 2018 release, took note of the main point of each chapter.
He then imagined a series of 12 suits, one for each of the chapters, with themes such as "Tell the truth -- or, at least, don't lie," and "Stand up straight with your shoulders back." The suits would have the title of each chapter under the collar and be made with symbolic materials. The "stand up straight" outfit was to be woven with fiber from bamboo; another suit, made for the theme "Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world," would be lined with Soviet propaganda posters.
The unusual lining was a nod to Peterson's personal collection of Soviet art -- much of it sourced from Ukraine -- that the psychologist says he keeps as a reminder of the mass murder carried out in the name of Marxism through the 20th century.
Attempts to reach Peterson with his pitch to make the suits a reality failed initially, Toukhcher says. But in June 2022, when he saw that Peterson was going to be in Estonia, where Toukhcher now lives, he says he "did what any crazed fan would do. I bought the VIP ticket to a show and shook his hand."
After the Tallinn encounter, the clothing designer was able to book a 10-minute phone call with Peterson.
"I got right into the imagery [of the 12 suits] and the meaning behind each detail of the suit, and he liked it," Toukhcher said. "He said, 'Let’s go for it.'"
Peterson has said he is well aware of the promotional impact that wearing Toukhcher’s suits has had for the Ukrainian-born entrepreneur but said, "That’s fine," given he "doesn't push it, he plays nice."
Some suits have been more impactful than others. A recent design by Toukhcher bearing religious iconography has been worn by Peterson in several high profile-podcast appearances and public speaking events. Another suit, designed in the colors of the app formerly known as Twitter, was widely panned as making the Canadian look like an "unemployed birthday clown." The suit jacket was lined with screenshots of tweets attacking Peterson's dress sense, apparently anticipating the reaction the blue velvet design would evoke.
In a July 2024 podcast, the Canadian author said of Toukhcher's suits, "He sends me these damn things, and I think, 'There's no way I'll wear that.' Then I put it on and I think, 'Huh, I like that.'"
Today, Toukhcher runs his fashion house from Estonia, where he emigrated from Canada, largely due to his wife's Estonian heritage. His links to Ukraine today are minimal -- just one relative whom he chats to occasionally on Facebook -- but in 2018 the businessman opened a branch of his company in Kyiv.
Decades after the culture shock of leaving Ukraine for Canada, Toukhcher says he experienced a similar disorientation on dealing with wealthy clients in the city of his birth.
"We'd be sitting with a CEO or somebody from government, like somebody that's well-known and in a pretty prestigious position, and they would never pay with a credit card. It was always cash stashed somewhere in a secret place. Like they'd have literally cash behind the painting or cash in their chair," he said.
"And so you realize the society there, the consumer trust in Ukraine, it's like everybody's so untrusting that they just carry like literally thousands and thousands of dollars in cash, and they just hide it around like little chipmunks."
One question Toukhcher knows is coming: Why, in his most recent appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, in July, did Peterson refer to the Ukrainian-born Toukhcher as "the crazy Russian"?
Peterson is aware of the difference between the two countries. In 2022, he sparked fierce debate after posting an article that appeared to portray the Russian invasion of Ukraine as driven in part by Russia's belief that "they have a moral duty" to "oppose the degenerate ideas" of the West.
"I don’t know," Toukhcher admitted when asked why Peterson would introduce him to the world as Russian. Then Toukhcher gives a hint at the kind of relationship he has with the controversial author:
"I think maybe he was trolling me, and it's funny."
