Alexander Vasiliev: Fashion in a time of change

Lecture by fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev

The age of change is in full sail. Anxious. The stable ground is getting out from under our feet. And what does fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev, who studies and describes epochs of change in his books, think about it?

Fashion is a mirror of history, and changes in history, of course, are very much reflected in the change in the image of women in the first place.

The First and Second World Wars, the Revolution and the Civil War in Russia, huge flows of refugees and the disappearance of entire empires and social classes in the first half of the twentieth century, pandemic and social distancing at the beginning of the XXI century - all this was reflected not only in women's appearance, but also in the manner of behavior, finally, in the emergence of a different type of sexuality. And now, in just 100 years or so, the place of crinolines in fashion was taken by the unisex style. And were there positive sides to this process? Was such an evolution predetermined or is it possible to go backwards?

The answers to these questions historian and fashion collector Alexander Vasiliev looks for and finds in the previous periods of turbulence. And we are waiting for the answer to the most important question - what will we wear after the “end of history”, and isn't it time to look for new models?