In Russia, At Last and Forever: The First Seven Years of Russian Vogue

Abstract

Vogue arrived in Russia as a representative of the most advanced market capitalism and its advertising and retail strategies in 1998. Yet, many commentators doubted its chances of surviving under the conditions of 1998 economic collapse in an alien and new culture. The arrival of Vogue announced a change in the politics of style, imagery, gender representations and consumption practices. However, the Russian version of Vogue was itself influenced by the former socialist cultural patterns. This article identifies a series of negotiations between the well-established international Vogue brand and post-socialist Russian society, which eventually shaped it into a Russian product. Vogue's politics of style was intended not only to promote its advertisers, but also to protect the allure of their image in socially unfavourable surroundings. Vogue's educational efforts towards its wealthy but un-sophisticated readership were also informed by that task. In order to fulfil it, Vogue connected the new economic capital possessed by the Russian super rich with a new symbolic capital. Vogue's presentation of luxurious dresses and accessories also allowed for a new social context for luxury. The introduction of a type of femininity that would suit the most refined requirements of Vogue's advertisers was a more complex task. Vogue's concept of femininity was established by partially recognizing the influence of the previous cultural patterns on post-socialist practices. Yet, Vogue affirmed a concept of sexualized femininity following its own aesthetics, re-claiming that sort of femininity from the demi-monde world, and granting it respectability and credibility.