fashion

Mingling all kinds of historical approaches—economic, social, entrepreneurial and societal mentality—J.-C. Daumas dedicates a fresco to the immaterial perception of consumer goods.

Men and women have been wearing veils for over a millennium in the West. Nicole Pellegrin shows that, far from always being a response to religious or moral precepts, head coverings also tell us about the aesthetic experiences of a Western world hungry for transparency.

What about fashion in the Soviet Union, during Khrushchev’s partial opening to the West? This question frames Larissa Zakharova’s impressive new study, which uses clothing and fashion as a window onto wider economic, social, cultural, and political processes. Above all, Zakharova captures the growing rift between the methods and promises of the socialist economy and the increasingly Westernized consciousness of Soviet consumers.