Functionality and Democracy: The Evolution of Soviet Fashion

Modern fashion prizes two things above all: functionality and accessibility. In Soviet fashion design, immediately after the Great October Socialist Revolution, the idea of the “New Suit” began to take shape, laying the groundwork for mass-produced clothing. Artists and designers such as Nadezhda Lomanov, Vera Mukhina, Lyubov Popova, Elena Pribylskaya, and Alexandra Ekster—among many others—helped build the theory and practice of Soviet fashion. By 1925, Soviet designs inspired by folk costumes won the Grand Prix at the Paris exposition and attracted international attention.

Unfortunately, many promising ideas never made it into mass production. Fashion was increasingly viewed as a bourgeois extravagance, alien to everyday communist life. Still, the practical needs of the population created an urgent demand for a Soviet center of fashion design to set a unified direction for clothing across the country.

In 1932, a nationwide clothing review marked a shift from declarations and experiments toward improving the quality of mass-produced garments. Between 1934 and 1935, the House of Models opened in Moscow, built on the experimental technical laboratory of the “Mosbitel” trust. N. Makarova, already known as a designer and theatrical costume artist, became its first artistic director.

The artistic council played a central role at the first House of Models. It included not only fashion designers but also leading figures from the Soviet visual arts—artists such as M. Altman, E. Lansere, M. Rodionov, A. Tyshler, V. Favoritsky, M. Saryan, and Yu. Pimenov, along with sculptors S. Lebedeva and V. Mukhina. The council also included T. Vasilieva, secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, L. Sidorova, secretary of the Moscow city committee of the Komsomol, and others. N. Makarova recalled, “Meetings of the artistic council turned into genuine creative discussions; we debated everything—the merits, shortcomings, and viability of each idea.”

The first issue of the magazine “House of Models” in 1936 laid out the organization’s goals. Designers chose two main paths: adopt the best elements of folk motifs and critically rework Western fashion proposals. The House of Models was tasked with defining seasonal directions—silhouette, garment construction, and cut—as well as the types of fabrics and embellishments to use. It also oversaw garment factories and assessed their capacity for mass production. N. Makarova was not only an effective organizer but also took an active part in developing many clothing samples for mass manufacture.

These designs focused on careful construction and austere simplicity—achieved not by accident but through hard work, close observation, and careful study of folk costumes and their logic of cut. From that study emerged the principle of variability: create a wide range of variations from a single base design by changing details like collar shape, sleeve length, and decorative elements. That approach has since become common in contemporary fashion design.

The magazine also highlighted the emergence of children’s clothing as a design priority.

After the Great Patriotic War, the House of Models quickly resumed operations. In March 1948 it was renamed the All-Union House of Models, and in December 1955 it became the All-Union House of Clothing Models. During these years, Houses of Models opened in Leningrad, Kyiv, Gorky, Minsk, Tbilisi, and other cities across the Soviet Union.

The All-Union House of Models entered its first international clothing competition in Prague in 1953. By 1958, at a world competition, designer V. Aralova won first and second prizes for her dress models “Plakhta” and “Suzdal,” and she introduced Russian boots into wider fashion.

Soviet fashion history is full of notable names. The work and ideas of the early designers helped the next generation achieve significant success. At the World Fashion Festival in Moscow in 1967, designers V. Zaitsev, G. Gagarina, T. Osmerkina, L. Telegina, and E. Sterligova gained international recognition.

Artists E. Ivanova and A. Igmand received the Lenin Komsomol Prize in 1986 for developing youth fashion models for the World Festival of Youth in Moscow. Each year, the All-Union House of Models developed more than three thousand designs for women, men, and children.

The All-Union House of Clothing Models maintained broad international connections. Over a 25-year span, the work of its artists was showcased across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year the organization hosted numerous foreign delegations, keeping up regular exchanges with many countries. For nearly 30 years, it maintained permanent contacts with socialist countries.