Behind the Iron Curtain: Making Fashion in Soviet Ukraine, 1945–1991

Far from the stereotype of a grey and monotonous Soviet life, post-war Soviet Ukraine developed a vibrant fashion industry shaped by designers, fashion houses, factories, state institutions, and international ambitions. Join us for a public lecture and 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. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Olha Korniienko, a historian of modern Ukraine specializing in fashion and culture. Dr. Korniienko will examine the work of fashion houses, designers, and the broader mechanisms through which fashion functioned within the Soviet system. The presentation 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, including rarely seen footage of fashion houses in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv, fashion shows, and more. 

Dr. Olha Korniienko 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.