>> Yesterday when I landed into Moscow, I had a minor (ok, major) scare where I was sitting in customs in the airport wondering whether I’d be allowed into the country because I thought I had lost my passport. So far, so very dramatic and Russian. Fast forward more than 24 hours and I’m in and thoroughly enjoying what will be a brief but fruitful trip to a city that I haven’t been to since 2011.
I’ll be summing up my Muscovite experience but for now I have to indulge in this Throwback Thursday moment and repost these brilliant photographs by Howard Sochurek for LIFE Magazine, taken in 1959 when Dior, shortly after Yves Saint Laurent had taken over the house brought their New Newer Look to Moscow. The skirts were short, the shoes more kittenish and the blazers less structured. Still, in their shades of powder pink, vermillion red and emerald green, they caused quite a stir wafting through the passages of the department store GUM. They’re a brilliantly glamorous foil to the shoppers and Moscow folk who embody a contrasting sort of beauty in their ditzy florals and headscarves. Or you can see parallels of elegance running between the Dior trio’s sinuous lines and that of a passing by sailor or gentleman in a flatcap. Either way, Western haute couture in a about-to-thaw Khrushchev-era USSR is a sight to behold.
All photographs from Dovima2010 Flickr
By the by, the reason I’m out in Moscow for two days is because I was invited by the department store Tsvetnoy to do a talk, chaired by Vogue Russia. The talk has been and gone and I want to thank everyone who came and asked some extremely interesting questions but I did want to flag up the way the Tsvetnoy team have “Russian-ified” the Style Bubble logo.
Awesome!
Shall We Sasa
It’s like going back in time! Such cool pictures!
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Amazing photos, and the colouring are very stylish (tried to think of another word…). Anyway, great blog post. Viewing more soon. Take care.
Amazing event! Love all of those vintage pictures!
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Honestly, this has always been one of the most heartbreaking things Dior could have ever done. 🙁 Whenever I see these photos, my Russian (and Soviet-born) soul bleeds… Unfortunately, this is something only Russians would understand… The rest of the world would find it “awesome”….
Of course, I’m not ignoring the disconcerting juxtaposition between Soviet Era poverty and haute couture frocks being paraded around. I wasn’t saying how “awesome” it was but rather that it’s a poignant and memorable precedent, that came long before Russian oligarchy’s high-spending, high-rolling relationship with high fashion if you look at Moscow today (despite the current recession…). The images are also brilliant as a capture of the way fashion intersected with the Cold War. But I’m absolutely not condoning them in their historical context.
All style are cool. These are nice photos … These pictures are bearing historical culture That was a beautiful moment some girls enjoy and some people celebrate ….
Fabulous pictures.. Every picture is glowing in own way…!!
Nice Captures. We have some solutions for all our clients from Moscow.
Cheers