Post-Soviet Visions: Fashion

Explore the nature of the post-Soviet aesthetic in fashion at a panel discussion to accompany our exhibition Post-Soviet Visions: image and identity in the new Eastern Europe.

In the last couple of years, the fashion world has seen the stellar rise of the so-called “post-Soviet aesthetic”. The influential work of designers Gosha Rubchinskiy and Demna Gvasalia, and stylist Lotta Volkova, has brought post-Soviet culture into the global spotlight and given a platform to new voices from the region. It has also triggered a broader conversation about the notions of local and global in contemporary fashion.  

Join our panel discussion as we explore the cultural significance of the trend beyond Adidas tracksuits and Soviet slogan t-shirts, and examine ideas of an exotic “other” rooted in the Cold War stereotypes, and fashion as a language for politically challenging narratives.

About the speakers

Olya Kuryshchuk is the founder and creative director of 1 Granary, a global support network for young fashion designers that connects, promotes and educates emerging talent from the four most acclaimed fashion universities: Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons in New York, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

Irina Lakicevic is the founder and editor-in-chief of MINT Journal, one of the very few purely digital art destinations in Scandinavia and first of its kind in Norway. MINT is set as a re-interpretation of a classical website, with incisive yet informal content that renders the opportunity to explore the kindred ethos of modern sensibility through a curated approach to art and lifestyle.

Emma Hope Allwood is currently fashion features editor at Dazed Digital, managing the respected title’s online style coverage. Alongside her role at Dazed, she continues to write for established brands and institutions like MAC Cosmetics and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and has consulted for numerous companies and agencies. She has led and taken part in international panel discussions, speaking on topics including identity politics, the line between the runway and the street, and our social media era.

Daryoush Haj-Najafi is currently the Head of Communications at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London having recently returned from a year living in Berlin. A sometime host on NTS Radio and an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, Haj-Najafi created an online streetwear education programme with Virgil Abloh for Mastered and was previously Editor at VICE Style. Haj-Najafi has also written columns for China’s Modern Weekly, thelondonpaper and Nylon Japan and has written in a freelance capacity for the New York Times, Vogue Japan and Dazed & Confused.

Chaired by Anastasiia Fedorova, co-curator of Post-Soviet Visions: image and identity in the new Eastern Europe.

Part of a programme of events to accompany our exhibition Post-Soviet Visions which includes a series of panel discussions exploring New East art and culture and a one-day fashion symposium in collaboration with the ICA and TrAIN: The Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, University of the Arts London.