Feminine Image In Fashion Discourse: Soviet Magazines of 1920s and Russian Blogs

Abstract

The paper dwells on the issue of a female image formation in fashion discourse during two transformative periods of sociocultural development of Soviet and Russian society in the beginnings of the XX and XXI centuries. The first period is connected with the turning point in fashion, caused by the changes in the state regime. Fashion magazines almost disappeared after the 1917 Revolution in Russia and were substituted by new feminine press. The second period also demonstrates cardinal changes in the sphere of fashion. Now they are caused by the development of transport infrastructure, science, computer and information technologies, and international contacts intensification, which together lead to the pace of life acceleration and cannot but influence a woman image in fashion discourse. To study the peculiarities of a woman image formation in the fashion discourse of the named periods, we have analyzed Soviet feminine magazines of the 1920s and modern fashion blogs. The allocated discourse characteristics give ground to conclude that during both periods the woman image was characterized by such traits as independence and freedom. However, in the feminine magazines, this image was constructed with an idea to perform a typical Soviet woman, which is made in the fashion discourse in an argumentative and instructive way. In the case of modern fashion blogs, on the contrary, no argumentation is provided, and the woman image is constructed with the use of English loanwords that introduce to Russian a wide range of synonyms that make a woman image mosaic and split.