Unexpectedly Beautiful Women’s Fashion in the Soviet Union from the 1960s and 1970s

The sociopolitical climate of the 1960s and 1970s affected fashion in the Soviet Union.

In a time of political rigidity, the women of the Soviet Union discovered a stunning means to imbue style with a special appeal, therefore producing a singular and shockingly gorgeous fashion.

Fashion had not been a major focus for Soviet ideologists in past generations and was sometimes seen by these circles as a “anomaly in socialism.”

But around the turn of the Second World War, during the Khrushchev Thaw, authorities started to see fashion as a “natural force” in society; especially as more women become concerned in dressing well.

Fashion thus became a means for the Soviet Union, principally, to rebuild a war-torn country and revive the initiatives of encouraging pro-Party sentiment.

Thus, the emblem of the post-war “New Soviet People” would show stylish young people helping to build the modernist image of a new communist utopia and then supporting counterculture movements like the style from the front of popular culture.

With thirty regional fashion firms employing over 2802 designers, the USSR would build the biggest system of fashion design and marketing in the Socialist World from the early 1960s until the late 1980s.

The state’s revised attitude to fashion was deliberately thought out. Public dissatisfaction resulted from the encouragement of extravagant Stalin era fashion and the contrast with real availability.

The state-owned apparel sector still lacked mass production of stylish apparel in the Khrushchev era.

But high prices, rejection of excess, and streamlined designs let the business regulate consumer demand.

Early in the 1960s, middle class standards of appearance had evolved such that Moscow street fashion almost matched that of a Western city.

Concurrent with this, counterculture fashion trends emerged among young people from privilege. Originally basing their appearance on media representations of Western clothing, the stillage, sometimes known as “style seekers,

Men wore Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, thin pants, and pointed shoes; women stillage wore miniskirts and kept a playful manner.

These fashions were called “excessive,” and Komsomol forces would occasionally raid stillage hideouts and cut off pant legs and hair.

By the end of the 1960s, Soviet fashion establishments—such as the centralized fashion bureau ODMO (All-Union House of Prototypes)—were adopting even more avant-garde ring Western designs.

Simultaneously, it was still necessary to create distinctly Soviet styles. For instance, “space fashion” honors a success of Soviet science, therefore directly fitting state ideology.

Still, the reality was different from what ODMO intended. Supply in USSR stores was worse than in other socialist nations; Soviet industry could not match the demand for trendy products.

Since Western fashion was visible but not readily accessible, the middle class grew more and more idealized about it. This period produced a monument to the creative ability of Soviet people.

Soviet women turned to their own inventiveness when their access to Western pleasures was restricted, particularly in dress. Sewing machines pulsed with vitality, turning limited materials into shockingly gorgeous clothing.

(Photo credit: Natalia Zventova via VK / Pinterest / Wikimedia Commons).