Figure 1.--Here we see what looks like a Christmas scene, but of course in Soviet Russia, Christmas was no longer celebrated, Rather it is the New Year holiday. Despite the winter season, the publication show cases a variety of short pants outfits for boys. Most are depicted as being worn with tan/beige long stockings. This is a little difficult to see because the same basic color is used for bare legs and the stockings, but if there are no socks drawn than the illustrator was showing long stockings.

A reader has sent us pages from a Fall-Winter 1938-39 publication. It was an expensively produced publication with colored plates. Presumably it was a Moda publication like the Moda Leta publication archived in the 1937 section above. The title of the publication was probably something like Fashion in the Winter. Even so, it included many short pants outfits for the boys and short skirts for the younger girls. Most of the children are shown wearing long stockings with the various outfits, almost all the tan/beige colors that became popular during the inter-war period. Unfortunately the scans are not large enough the read the accompanying text. The publication looks like a Western cartalog complere with back view line drawings that were often included in Western catalogs. There was, however, no way of ordering the clothing or even the patterns to sew the garments depicted. Apparently the idea was to give Soviets mothers an idea of the fashions and left the sewing up to them. As such, while it looks like a Western catalog, it was actually more of a Soviet fashion magazine. Of course this was a little touchy politically as Soviet propaganda denigrated Western fashion. It is a little difficult to assess these pages like we generally do for Western catalogs, because some of the pages include a wide range of different garments. It seems easier to work on individual pages.

Unidentified Publication

A reader has sent us pages from a Fall-Winter 1938-39 publication. It was an expensively produced publication with colored plates. Presumably it was a Moda publication like the Moda Leta publication archived in the 1937 section above. The title of the publication was probably something like Fashion in the Winter. Even so, it included many short pants outfits for the boys and short skirts for the younger girls. Unfortunately the scans are not large enough the read the accompanying text. The publication looks like a Western cartalog complere with back view line drawings that were often included in Western catalogs. There was, however, no way of ordering the clothing or even the patterns to sew the garments depicted. Apparently the idea was to give Soviets mothers an idea of the fashions and left the sewing up to them. As such, while it looks like a Western catalog, it was actually more of a Soviet fashion magazine. Of course this was a little touchy politically as Soviet propaganda denigrated Western fashion.

Individual Pages

We have several pages from this unidentified Soviet 1938-39 fashion publication. There were clothes for women, children, and men. Here are the children's pages. The children's sections also included both dressy and play outfits. Most of the children are shown wearing long stockings with the various outfits, almost all the tan/beige colors that became popular during the inter-war period. It is a little difficult to assess these pages like we generally do for Western catalogs, because some of the pages include a wide range of different garments. We are not entirely sure that all of the pages came from the same publication. It seems easier to work on individual pages.

Page 30

This page shows a variety of outfits for both boys and girls. While we can not read the accompanying ad text, the illustratuins suggest school-age children of various ages. The boys outfits include short pants, knuckers, and long pants, The two knicker outfits seem to be sets with coordinated tops and bottoms. The seem rather rather stylish. We have not see examples of Soviert boys wearing outfits like this or for that matter boys in other countries. The outfits are rather colorful and include -yellow, blue, brown, green, grey, and blue. The girls' outfits are all dresses of various styles. These children are all shown as wearing socks rather than stockings, mostly wjite socks, Strangely, one of the girls seems to be wearing brown long stockings with socks.

Page 32

This page of the Soviet publication faces the subsequent page 33 shown here (figure 1). Both pages share a decorated tree--a Soviet New Years tree. The fashions on page 32 seem for slightly older children than the ones on page 33. We see two short pants outfits and one knickers outfit for the boys. Rather stranfgely, the shorts are very short and the knickers very long. The girls dresses seem like smock dresses but done in various styles. One is worn with pinafores. Both the boy outfits and the dresses have long sleeves but both the dresses and short pants are cut with short hems. The girls outfits are very colorfukl. The boy outfits seem to be done mostly in blue and brown, perhaps yellow. Its a little unclear if the boys are wearing a bright yellow or a yellow-brown shade.

Page 33

Here we see what looks like a Christmas scene (figure 1), but of course in Soviet Russia, Christmas was no longer celebrated, Rather it is the New Year holiday. We see red and blue baby sleepers. Despite the winter season, the publication show cases a variety of short pants outfits for boys. We note both one- and two-piece shorts outfits for the boys. the three boy outfits has a coolar, but all three button at the neck. There are string tie. closures. Two og the girl outfits are short dresses. The third is a romer outfit worn with a pinafore. Most of the outfits are depicted as being worn with tan/beige long stockings. This is a little difficult to see because the same basic color is used for bare legs and the stockings, but if there are no socks drawn than the illustrator was showing long stockings. As we can't read the acoompanying text, we do not know what the sizes and age equivakents were. We would guess pre-school children, perhaps extensuing into the early primary years.

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Created: 9:05 PM 10/26/2010
Last updated: 1:28 AM 10/27/2010