Behind the Iron Curtain: Making Fashion in Soviet Ukraine, 1945–1991
Schedule
Wed Apr 15 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, 49 Linden Gardens, London W2 4HG, UK | London, EN
About this Event
What did fashion look like behind the Iron Curtain? Far from the stereotype of a grey and monotonous Soviet everyday life, post-war Soviet Ukraine developed a vibrant fashion industry shaped by designers, fashion houses, factories, state institutions and international ambitions.
This event combines a public lecture with a screening of rare archival documentary films from Ukraine, offering a unique insight into fashion production, visual culture and identity in Soviet Ukraine between 1945 and 1991.
The lecture will explore how Ukrainian Soviet fashion was designed, produced, promoted and controlled. The talk will examine the work of fashion houses, designers, sewing and shoe factories, and the broader mechanisms through which fashion functioned within the Soviet system. It will also address how Ukrainian fashion was presented internationally and how questions of national identity emerged in tension with central Soviet authority.
The screening features rare archival films from Ukraine, accompanied by commentary and analysis. The programme includes footage of fashion houses in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv; fashion shows staged in both urban and rural settings; factory production and everyday life, with special attention to the Darnytsia Silk Factory; collaborations between Ukrainian factories and Western companies; and a film created by the Kyiv House of Fashion Design for Expo 67 in Montreal.
Together, the lecture and screening offer a rare opportunity to discover the history of fashion in Soviet Ukraine through both scholarly interpretation and original moving-image sources.
About the speaker
Dr. Olha Korniienko is a historian of modern Ukraine specializing in fashion and culture. She is the founder of the Ukrainian Fashion History Digital Archive and currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for Ukraine (MSCA4Ukraine) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and is currently working on her book Fashioning Freedom: Ukrainian Soviet Fashion from World War II to Independence, 1945–1991.
More details: olhakorniienko.com
Where is it happening?
Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, 49 Linden Gardens, London W2 4HG, UK, 49 Linden Gardens, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
