Constructing Feminity and Masculinity during the Thaw: the Leningrad House of Models

The current thesis explores the Leningrad House of Models opened in 1944 with regards to how this institution regulated the appearance of men and women during the ‘Thaw’. The processes during the Khrushchev’s decade brought changes in all spheres in the Soviet Union, including fashion industry. During the 1950s the rules of 'good taste' became one of the important ideas in fashion discourse. Except for that, the Soviet fashion industry also influenced changes of Soviet male and female appearance trough a production and design of new apparel. The current paper focuses on Soviet fashion as space of the construction of masculinity and femininity of citizens of Leningrad and based on the new archival documents from the Central State Historical of St. Petersburg (TsGA SPb) and the State Archive of Russian Federation (GARF) and as well as the fashion magazine, produced by the LDMO. Summarizing all of these mechanisms of regulation and taking into account the concept of kul’turnost, it seems that the LDMO tried to construct cultured forms of masculinity and femininity. Apart from that the thesis concludes that the construction of Soviet masculinity and femininity was rather a part of continuous global process than a production of unique models.