Research project
Funded by the MSCA4Ukraine Postdoctoral Fellowship
The project disentangles the many strands that make up the history of Ukrainian fashion production, products and consumption, casting Ukrainian fashion as a colonizing as well as colonized actor within the Soviet Union and as an agent of Ukrainianness acting on a global stage. It draws and impacts on a variety of on-going discourses including Soviet cultural and nationality politics, the role of art, design and consumption under authoritarian rule, Cold War soft diplomacy, and the role of the Ukrainian diaspora. The examination of Ukrainian Soviet fashion reveals the mechanisms of inter-republican relations, the pivotal role played by the Ukrainian SSR within the community of Soviet republics, and the influence exerted by the West. In essence, fashion pertains to a number of questions that have shaped Ukraine into what it is today while offering clues about the factors that guided Ukraine along its path toward independence.
