During the Soviet times fashion was first and foremost, an instrument of propaganda of hard work attitudes and education of good taste. Therefore the way people were dressed was very strictly regulated – just like anything else, fashion had to be “planned” and “approved”.
Officially the most popular designs were the classic ones. Not only were they set out to promote the good taste of the clean cut and reserved elegance, it was also a very convenient way of production: once designed and approved, the classic dresses and suits were not as responsive to changes in the trends and hence inexpensive to maintain. The often boring-looking pieces of clothing were labelled as never going out of fashion and promoted as “eternally youthful”.
Eternally youthful, isn’t it?
The Soviet era catwalk model — not too skinny, is she? C1960.
Such clothes were meant to also have a disciplinary influence over the regular folk, as they would set the “right” attitudes and lines of behaviour. That, in 1960s, had developed into the state regulations over the school uniform, which was standartised across the country.
School boys
But back to the adults now. Generally, due to the lack of new designs and the limited stocks of the department stores, most Soviet people had more than a humble wardrobe, compared to their Western counterparts. Usually it consisted of two parts: the winter one (had to be solid, warm and inextricably expensive):
Pupils and mother with child
Another queue. Even winters never stopped the Russians from queuing up.
… and the summer wardrobe. Presumably these ones are dressed up for the occasion.
A group of graduating highschool students celebrate graduation by singing and dancing in the Red Square.
A good half of summer clothes anyone owned could have been handmade.
Oh, DIY was very popular in the USSR. Literally everybody would dream of owning a sewing machine and then the patterns of standardised garments would be shared among many and treasured for generations. The apt ones would make everything, from aprons (pictured) to bras and swimsuits. Note: this is not a modern-day pattern collection, those Soviet ones were scaled down so you’d have to reconstruct it to the real size.
Oh well, no wonder every second Soviet was an engineer.
The most suffered were, understandably, the younger ones, as their fashion ambitions and desires often went unnoticed. Since in the late 1960s it was decided that jeans are unwelcome in the USSR, the practicality and comfort of the denim garments were outlawed. However, the denim failed to become ostracised – quite to the contrary, it was well sought after: often a pair of jeans could cost as much a month’s salary.
This is obviously a later photograph, when the regulations were loosened and the “fashion neighbourhood watch” became less vigilant. Scary, really.
The younger ones
As the Iron Curtain was lifting, the Western ways of dressing were getting more exposure through the movies and tourists. As you can see the envious faces on the background, foreigners did stand out.
Foreigners in Moscow
The funniest thing is that the Soviet fashion is very hard to break into time periods. Apart from separating the pre-war era fashion from the post war (the later one being non-existent), the bulk of it stretches for over 40 years right up to the 90s. Since then fashion has taken the form of a sexual competition — just like anywhere else in the developed world.
With regards to school uniform, there were some exceptions. It was not standardised across the whole country. Most of it, but not all. For example, pupils in lithuania wore a different style of uniform. For boys, it was actually a quite nice dark blue two-piece suit. It didn’t look anything like the army uniform and had no chevrons or shiny buttons.
I should add, perhaps, that those baltic republics were living quite differently from the rest of the country even in soviet times
Ребят, то что вы делаете — это здорово!
Спасибо.
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I think the information in the article above is very narrow-minded and overly critical. It is “filtered” and twisted in a big way. The question is WHY?
The info in the article above is very narrow-minded. There are so many things wrong with it that it’s almost impossible to comment. The question here is WHY the author twisted the truth. Complete rubbish if I may say.
Thank you for your comment, however bitter it is.
Can you please just kindly point out a few things which are actually untruthful?
I’d say this article is one of the most objective ones on this blog. The only thing I am a little unhappy about now, 7 months after I wrote this post, is the image of two student girls (courtesy of byaki. net). I do not think it was necessary to include it — I wouldn’t have done it now.
However, if you are open to the dialogue, I am more than keen to write about “Fashion in the USSR. Updated”.
Kind regards,
Eva
I did not mean my comment to be bitter:)
I do not agree with the most of the article so I cannot argue point-by-point. It is not that the info is not true, it is so patchy, that it doesn’t portrait the true picture. I have seen hundreds of pics from the USSR times by different ppl, different republics, generations etc., and most of them are nearly not as unattractive as those published here.
I f I remember correctly USSR did not stop to exist in 1960’s. The picture of foreigners is there “illegally” — ppl in any country would “envy” rich individuals. Try to compare close of ppl from same social backgrounds…
This is only to point few… It is like picking the works out of a poem.
We could discuss in further if u r interested.
Regards,
RAks
I actually don’t find these photos (or people on the photos) unattractive. I think what is pictured quite neatly reflects what was happening.
(Although I do think the winter clothes are a bit dull, but that was the reality — to own a winter coat was good enough, and it did not really mattered what it looked like, especially if it had fur on the collar).
As for the summer clothes, they were quite typical for that epoch — and by that epoch, I mean a long stretch of time between late 1950s till late 1970s, as the fashion was quite rigid.
If you have any information that differs from my point of view — please, share! I intend to have at least two articles about the Soviet fashion in the near future, so I always welcome a conversation.
Regards,
Eva
Cannot agree…
The only thing that I agree with is that this truly is only a point of view and not a properly researched article.
May be because of the articles like this, this is the perception about the USSR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CaMUfxVJVQ
All the best!
RAks
It does seem a bit short-sighted and cliched to me!
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Thanks for information, I’ll always keep updated here!
gajje’
Thank you for this article. I’ve read several places about sewing machines in the Soviet Union – that they could be bought on installment plans (how? through whom?), that everyone wanted one, that eventually everyone had one, etc. I’d be really grateful if you could write something about the sewing machine in the USSR. What brands were available? Were they imports or USSR-made? Do you have photos of any? Thanks!