How women from Russia see the world fashion trends
Every visit my grandmother asks: what is in fashion now? Ten years ago I tried to explain plurality of styles, I was excited about but she didn’t understand the idea. Five years ago I picked one-two trends and explain them, but she said that she already used to wear it on 50-s, 60-s, 70-s etc. Now I am showing some photo of it-girls and she again not satisfied: “It’s ugly. Girls are beautiful but outfits are horrible”.
My grandmother is 88 years old, but my clients, young girlfriends and even myself having completely different taste in style comparing with the rest of the world. In the same time we are looking forward to news from fashion weeks, my seminars about psychology and symbolic meaning of trend are always popular, we purchase glossy magazines, we talking about trends, we worried about “are you sure this is not old-fashioned?” and we are not following mainstream trends… Why?
Actually there is several factors. To read about something and to do something with this is completely different stories for us. Fashion news for women, sport news for men, political and economical incidents for both — we are interested in all that like audience in opera. But to enter on the scene and coping the singers?? This is bad taste and vulgarity.
Recently I bought US “Glamour” I was expecting fashion, movies, female advices. But all issue was about feminism: some women already been, some were fighting for their rules. The pursuit of equality is affecting fashion: modest simple suits, dress without waist line, no makeup and hair style. Woman should be look like a human, not on the sexual doll. Listen. We got this “treasures” a hundred years ago. Russian women are strong, powerful and respected not only at home with family, but in army, on factory, even in business. Now there are five generation of women trying to pass back feminism gift. We writing an articles about habits of truly women, we talking about how to show weakness in the first date, we buying a new dress only after key words of sales person: it’s so feminine.
Climate. The last factor in my list, but has a great significance. Now when I am writing this note there are 23 degrees below zero outside. It’s impossible to look like fashion model on the row, we have to create something else. But coldness isn’t a problem, the main challenge is permanent changes. We have to coordinate 4–5 layers, matching 6–7 colors and don’t forget to keep in mind shoes and hat proportion because we will have to take it off. Sometimes it’s fabulous, sometimes frumpy: you never know. We are better in criticism instead of creativity, for us easy to say what’s wrong than to find a better way.
Taking into consideration all this features we could talk about russian way of style: personal (pls look to above: to copy is vulgarity), feminine (remember: we know what means to loose it) and alterable — how to change your outfit quickly when it’s become warm, windy, etc. How to look gorgeous all year long with small amount of money. How to use a needle for making good fitting. How to add trends to wardrobe without shopping. All this knowledge are natural for us and could be quite useful for all world.
Anna Sharlay, presence designer and psychologist
