We use cookies on this website, you can read about them here. To use the website as intended please... ACCEPT COOKIES
UAL Research Online

In Russia, at Last and Forever: The First Seven Years of Russian Vogue

Bartlett, Djurdja (2006) In Russia, at Last and Forever: The First Seven Years of Russian Vogue. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, 10 (1-2). pp. 175-203. ISSN 1362-704X

Type of Research: Article
Creators: Bartlett, Djurdja
Description:

Vogue arrived in Russia as a representative of the most advanced market capitalism and its advertising and retail strategies in 1998. Yet, many commentators doubted its chances of surviving under the conditions of 1998 economic collapse in an alien and new culture. The arrival of Vogue announced a change in the politics of style, imagery, gender representations and consumption practices. However, the Russian version of Vogue was itself influenced by the former socialist cultural patterns. This article identifies a series of negotiations between the well-established international Vogue brand and post-socialist Russian society, which eventually shaped it into a Russian product. Vogue's politics of style was intended not only to promote its advertisers, but also to protect the allure of their image in socially unfavourable surroundings. Vogue's educational efforts towards its wealthy but un-sophisticated readership were also informed by that task. In order to fulfil it, Vogue connected the new economic capital possessed by the Russian super rich with a new symbolic capital. Vogue's presentation of luxurious dresses and accessories also allowed for a new social context for luxury. The introduction of a type of femininity that would suit the most refined requirements of Vogue's advertisers was a more complex task. Vogue's concept of femininity was established by partially recognizing the influence of the previous cultural patterns on post-socialist practices. Yet, Vogue affirmed a concept of sexualized femininity following its own aesthetics, re-claiming that sort of femininity from the demi-monde world, and granting it respectability and credibility.

Official Website: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/jdbc/2006/00000010/F0020001/art00009
Additional Information (Publicly available):

The article, in a leading refereed journal, is the first to study post-socialist fashion in Russia. While some researchers have analysed post-socialist concepts of gender and post-socialist women’s magazines, there has been no previous analysis of these themes taken together within the framework of fashion studies.

Publisher/Broadcaster/Company: Berg Publishers
Your affiliations with UAL: Colleges > London College of Fashion
Date: 1 March 2006
Digital Object Identifier: 10.2752/136270406778051094
Related Websites: http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/research/staff/a-z/drdjurdjabartlettseniorresearchfellow/
Related Websites:
Date Deposited: 07 Dec 2009 09:28
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2015 14:26
Item ID: 1035
URI: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/1035

Repository Staff Only: item control page | University Staff: Request a correction