Nadezhda Lamanova and Russian Pre-1917 Modernity: Between Haute Couture and Avant-garde Art

Abstract

Nadezhda Lamanova was the only well-established Russian pre-revolutionary fashion designer who declared her loyalty to the new regime following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The juxtaposition of the extraordinary glamor of her pre-1917 designs with her dedicated post-revolutionary service to the Bolsheviks has contributed to Lamanova’s mythical status in Russia, in which facts routinely mix with fictional accounts. Relying on a meticulous reading of pre-1917 arts and applied arts journals, as well as contemporary memoirs, the paper contextualizes Lamanova’s pre-revolutionary fashion designs, and her personal life, within the social, cultural and artistic avant-garde of her times, thus offering a new reading of Lamanova’s pre-1917 activities.