Let me tell you about what was worn in the USSR in the 80s. And, although the fashion of the 80s, in my opinion, cannot be called very feminine and sophisticated, it deserves to be noticed.
The fashion of the 80s is characterized by a riot of colors and, I would say, aggressiveness, and in everything - in clothes, shoes, make-up. Clothing of an inverted triangle silhouette, with wide shoulders, wide belts and belts tied at the waist, outfits are decorated with asymmetrical triangular inserts, countless pockets, batwing sleeves, boat neckline.
But in this post I would like to talk not about the general trends in the clothes of the 80s, but about the iconic things of the 80s in the USSR.
Bright trousers - bananas wide at the top, with folds or gathers at the waist and narrowed down. They were either plain (pink, neon, yellow, light green), or multi-colored (flowered, polka dots, various stains). There were no such things in the store, so I often had to sew. Teak was bought in a fabric store - a fabric for sewing pillowcases, strong enough, mostly pink, blue or light green, usually available, and such trousers were sewn from it.
Overalls.
Clothing with batwing sleeves. This style of sleeve was very popular in those years.
Somewhere since the mid-80s, the fashion has become denim jeans. Of course, they were not widely sold. Boiled jeans could be obtained from the marketers, but it cost a lot of money, and not everyone could afford it.
Therefore, atthe deficit that existed in the late 80sonthings were invented several ways of turning ordinaryjeans (or, as they were called pseudo-jeans - jeans produced in countriessocialist community: "RULA" (Bulgaria), "Tver" (USSR), "Gold Fox" (GDR)or in India) boiled.
To make the pseudo-jeans look like a fashionable "varenka", they were boiled with bleach, tied with knots to give the fabric a characteristic pattern, boiled with soda and bleach, and then washed in washing machine together with stones, or they rolled (a special roller dipped in "Whiteness" was rolled over jeans and stains were obtained - a "rolled" dumpling was obtained).
Later, jeans appeared - "Malvins" - Indian "dumplings", which no longer had to be made on their own.
Very fashionable thing in the 80s were wide belts. The belt could be made of leather (leatherette), or rubber-based, worn on dresses, blouses, sweaters, skirts.
In winter, the ultimate dream was puffy jackets. Dutik jacket (puffed)- a quilted nylon jacket (nylon is thin and soft, almost does not rustle) with insulation, zippers + buttons, bright colors, from lilac to bright yellow tones, the shape seems to be pumped up with air, reminiscent of a skier's suit. They appeared in the Soviet Union in 1984, production was mainly Finnish, there were also more "western" specimens - Japanese.
Women's hats "pipe" or "stocking". Such pipes-stockings were knitted independently in a circular knit on four knitting needles, and combined both a hat and a scarf at once.
And some just knittedheadband.
By the way, these coats were also very popular.
Toward the end of the 80s, such a cult thing appeared as pyramid jeans. These light blue jeans were especially desirable. They were voluminous at the top and narrowed down and tucked at the bottom with a cuff. At the sunset of the USSR, literally everyone “cut through” in legendary light jeans with a camel on the back pocket.
Colored tights and fishnet tights.
Jeans in the Soviet Union were a forbidden fruit, and therefore especially sweet, fashionable and hard to get. They personified freedom itself, that mysterious and forbidden secret hidden from the Soviet people by the Iron Curtain.
In the USSR, jeans were not sewn in factories, they were not sold along with other things in stores. People invented them, imported them, bought them up and altered them.
We have collected four interesting facts about jeans in the era of the Soviet Union.
Fact one: Jeans were smuggled!
The eighties, the peak of fashion for jeans, and getting jeans for oneself was an extremely difficult task, of course, because they were secretly imported into the union, under pain of imprisonment.
Sailors, athletes, actors wore jeans, everyone who traveled abroad tried to come home with jeans on themselves and for sale, it was possible to earn very decent money on jeans.
And if more than one pair of jeans was found at customs in a suitcase, then the person was immediately declared a speculator, and this was oh, how not good in the Soviet Union.
So many managed to put on five or six fashionable pants at once in order to safely pass customs.
And the sailors, before arriving at the port, put on sailor trousers over a dozen jeans, which perfectly hid the truth.
And only through such tricks did overseas fashionable jeans fall into the expanses of the USSR.
In 1978, the coach of the USSR national team, Tyagachev tried to smuggle 200 jeans into the country. He hid them in boxes with ski boots, but the scam failed, unfortunately they were found.
Thanks to influential friends, the enterprising coach was able to avoid trial, but, alas, the jeans were confiscated, and probably, as was customary, they went to completely different people.
Fact number two: Jeans were very expensive.
A pair of jeans could cost about 200 rubles!
While the average salary in the union was 70-80 rubles, it turned out that not everyone could afford jeans.
Realizing the benefits, all sorts of cunning people, or, more simply, hucksters, figured out how to fool people and make good money at the same time. They bought imported canvas pants, repainted them, and sold them as branded jeans. Scattered such jeans as a rule at the moment.
Among the Soviet youth, brands were valued: Lee Riders, Levi Strauss and Wrangler: it was these labels that businessmen sewed onto products most often.
But the "coolest" jeans were of course "Montana", going out in such jeans was like climbing Everest or flying into space.
Very often, jeans were sold in closed bags, and if the buyer wanted to look into the bag and check his jeans, there was a cry “atas, cops” and everyone fled in a panic in all directions, because selling and buying jeans in the country was a criminally punishable matter.
Arriving home, the buyer, unfortunately, very rarely found jeans in his package.
It’s hard to imagine what students and schoolchildren didn’t go to, wanting to get the cherished jeans, graduating from schools and institutes with excellent marks, getting hired, unloading cars, wagons, and much more, in order to earn money or receive beautiful, fashionable jeans as a gift from their parents. .
Fact number three: Washed jeans are just super!
Real branded jeans were slightly worn.
These were worn by cowboys and beautiful ladies from the wild west. Western stars and fashionistas.
This is what everyone dreamed of.
Many spent hours tinkering with their "jeans" to create these scuffs, wet jeans scuffed with washcloths or bricks on their knees until the paint was wiped off.
With all these manipulations, the color of the jeans had to remain blue, a difficult task, but the Soviet people succeeded in everything.
Good jeans had to be oak, or as they said then, they had to "stand up". Tight-fitting jeans were especially appreciated.
Not everyone could fit into such jeans, they were wetted, zipped in a horizontal position, and they dried right on the body.
Buying jeans that fit was a stroke of luck beyond the real, so they took jeans even a few sizes larger.
We sat in a hot bath and waited for the fabric to sit down to the desired size.
Maybe someone else remembers, there were jeans that people called "varenki", yes, yes, we even boiled jeans. To get such a fashionable effect.
Fourth fact: The birthplace of our jeans, Odessa.
Domestic jeans came to the union from Odessa, since Odessa has always been a city of extremely resourceful and enterprising people, and besides, with access to the sea.
And it was in Odessa that the first underground factories for the production of jeans appeared.
Soviet jeans were sewn from smuggled fabric brought from abroad.
In the same way, all accessories for fashionable pants were secretly imported.
Such jeans cost less than branded ones, but Soviet people bought them less willingly, although they were sewn, they say, not even badly.
Jeans were not just clothes for a Soviet person. It was a symbol of freedom and success. Not everyone could afford to buy branded denim. They saved up for jeans, they speculated, they went to jail for them.
Sailors-festivals
The first jeans appeared in the USSR in the 50s. The official start date of the "denim fever" can be considered 1957, when the International Festival of Youth and Students took place in Moscow. It was then that the Soviet people joined the denim.
Since that time, jeans have become not just clothes, they began to symbolize everything that was not in the USSR, they became a simulacrum of the cherished freedom. You could walk in anything, but if you had branded jeans in your wardrobe, it means that life has developed.
They fought with jeans, they were banned, for wearing the "capitalist infection" they could be expelled from the institute and from work. However, these measures only fueled interest in the "forbidden fruit".
Sailors, children of diplomats, and pilots were the first to wear jeans. They brought jeans from abroad, often they had to carry them literally on themselves, putting on several pairs under wide trousers. Somehow even Leonid Tyagachev got caught on such "smuggling".
Jeans later became associated with hippie culture. Stripes were attached to them, triangles of fabric and strings were sewn into the legs, fashionable flares were made from jeans. It was anti-systemic, it was cool (although such a word was not yet known in those years).
scuffs
The most important unofficial sign that distinguishes the real "company" from the counterfeit was that the real jeans were worn out from wearing, scuffs formed on it. When they chose jeans, they checked them for firmness with a wet match - they ran it over the fabric. If the match turned blue, it meant that the jeans were real. If not, it's counterfeit.
Of course, this method of verification was frankly wrong, since real denim was not determined by a bad dye at all, but by the fact that denim (from the French "from Nimes") had dyed outer threads, but not inner ones. It is because of this that scuffs appear on jeans from long socks. The longer you wear them, the more valuable and unique they become.
Soviet jeans, of course, did not stain matches. GOST standards did not imply the use of cheap dyes. But the "guild workers" for this "quality check" adapted to paint the jeans with easily washable paint, and also learned to specially age the jeans with pumice.
fartsa
Soviet propaganda made the swindlers almost the main enemies of the Soviet trustworthy person. For their activities, they could not only be subjected to public ostracism, but even go to jail. In 1961, the scammers Rokotov and Faibishenko were sentenced to death. One of the charges was "gips speculation".
However, forbid, do not forbid, but the black marketers did their job, and in order not to have serious problems with the law, they often did not resell the rare goods, but exchanged them for something else, no less scarce. Barter in kind was not banned in the USSR (unlike foreign exchange transactions).
Fartsovschiki were the first "sharks of the free market" in the USSR. Regular buyers knew them by sight, the traders themselves also "scanned" the crowds in the markets, near hotels, train stations in search of wealthy people. Many well-known businessmen (from Tinkov to Aizenshpis) were engaged in fartsovka jeans.
It is interesting that the story of Rokotov and Faibishenko's denim farts has been continued in our days. In memory of them, Rokotov & Fainberg jeans are produced in America.
Varenki
Jeans in the USSR began to be boiled not because people liked to breathe the smell of whiteness, and not even because spectacular divorces were obtained from cooking. main reason jeans were still in short supply. There were not enough "firms" for everyone, and wearing Soviet jeans, which desperately did not want to be worn out and become like foreign denim, was not serious. Then the technology of cooking came to the aid of Soviet teenagers. Its essence is simple. Because of the bleach treatment, there were stains on the jeans.
How it's done:
1) We twist the jeans and tighten them with elastic bands and all kinds of clips (very tightly and often not worth it, because otherwise there will be few divorces).
2) Pour whiteness into warm, but not boiling water (about 1 cup per 5 liters).
3) We lower the twisted jeans into the water and boil for 15-20 minutes.
4) We rinse the newborn "dumplings" several times and admire the work.
P.S. Observe safety measures: use gloves and open the windows.
Cult
The most popular brand of jeans in the late USSR was Montana. Although such a label does exist in Germany (registered in 1976), the origin of the Soviet "Montana" is disputed by fashion historians. Most likely, our "Montana" was sewn by the same "guild workers" somewhere in the south of the USSR, and then entered the market. The "chip" of Montana was that they could literally be put in a corner.
Also popular brands were "Levis", "Wrangler", "Lee". They were not cheap, from 100 rubles. Those who did not have enough money for them could buy Indian or Polish jeans. Their quality was different from the "firm", but the pairing of labels reconciled fashionistas with reality.
In the late 80s, Soviet jeans "Tver", "Vereya" began to appear on sale, but their quality left much to be desired. However, they were not sewn from denim. But the so-called "self-string" flourished - skilled craftswomen could "pile" almost branded jeans from denim directly at home.
This page is for those who understand the meaning of the phrase "Jeans as before", if you are under 45, then you can safely leave this page, go to the nearest boutique and buy yourself what you think are "Good Jeans". This article is for those who remember what "Real Jeans" are, who immediately understood the meaning of the phrase "Jeans like in the USSR."
Who was fond of music in the 70s and 80s. they remember very well that their idols dressed, and they dressed in jeans. In the early 70s, having a denim set was about the same as owning a private jet today. In the 80s, good jeans could already be bought by anyone who was ready to pay a monthly salary for US pants. And after 1990, real tight jeans disappeared from the country. And so, where did the tight jeans that you wore until the mid-80s, for which you gave crazy money at that time, 150-250 full-fledged Soviet rubles, disappear? It was the monthly salary of a well-paid lead engineer. You would probably still pay a month's salary for quality jeans from the 80s, but ..... they are not (or practically not) in retail. Of course, you searched, went to the most expensive boutiques, looked at modern jeans, which, compared to those you wore 30 years ago, look like a doormat, although they cost from 10,000 rubles. Of course, you asked consultants, "Do you have jeans like before? Jeans like in the USSR? Jeans like in the 80s?" But the consultants do not understand you, of course, because they were born later than 1990, when there were no real jeans anymore, but there were all possible dumplings, "Malvinas" and other junk. You asked if you have Wrangler, Montana, RIFLE, Levi Strauss jeans. Here the consultants perked up when they heard the names of such respected firms, of course they have such jeans, but they look the same as all the denim stores are stuffed with and have nothing to do with the hard jeans of the 80s. In fact, all well-known companies have long switched to sewing jeans from lightweight cotton, and only Montana has not withdrawn one model for lovers of hard jeans, for true connoisseurs of jeans from the 80s, this model is now being sewn in Hungary and Poland, but cotton, quality and the labels remained Montana and remained virtually unchanged. Of course, the market is full of fakes for this model, they offer different styles and different colors with the Montana label, and Montana itself. sews all possible modern lightweight models for youth, but remember, jeans are like in the 80s, there are only classic cuts and only indigo colors. New jeans after washing, when dry, can be easily put in a corner if they are straightened.
So where do you buy tight jeans? You can buy in our online store. By ordering these jeans from us, we guarantee you that these are "the very jeans", the very tight jeans that take the shape of the owner's body even when he is not in them.
And be prepared for the fact that on the street you will sometimes be approached with the question where did you buy "Those same jeans?"
Attention for those who forgot:
1) Real jeans definitely shrink after washing. Along the length of 1.5-4 cm ( if you need to hem in length - hem only after three washes). There is also shrinkage in terms of volume, but as soon as you start wearing jeans, they will take on the shape of the owner’s body, where you need to stretch and “sit down” according to the owner’s figure, for which, in fact, they are appreciated by lovers of real jeans.
2) Real cotton gives off extra color, so the water will be bluish during the first washings. Jeans should be washed inside out, fastening all locks and buttons, at a temperature no higher than 30 degrees.
3) New jeans will acquire a light branded wear not earlier than in a month. no need to rush this process.
This page is for those who understand the meaning of the phrase "Jeans as before", if you are under 40 years old, then you can safely leave this page, go to the nearest boutique and buy yourself what you think are "Good Jeans". This article is for those who remember what "Real Jeans" are, who immediately understood the meaning of the phrase "Jeans like in the USSR."
Who was fond of music in the 70s and 80s. they remember very well that their idols dressed, and they dressed in jeans. In the early 70s, having a denim set was about the same as owning a private jet today. In the 80s, good jeans could already be bought by anyone who was ready to pay a monthly salary for US pants. And after 1990, real tight jeans disappeared from the country. And so, where did the tight jeans that you wore until the mid-80s, for which you gave crazy money at that time, 150-250 full-fledged Soviet rubles, disappear? It was the monthly salary of a well-paid lead engineer. You would probably still pay a month's salary for quality jeans from the 80s, but ..... they are not (or practically not) in retail. Of course, you searched, went to the most expensive boutiques, looked at modern jeans, which, compared to those you wore 30 years ago, look like a doormat, although they cost from 10,000 rubles. Of course, you asked consultants, "Do you have jeans like before? Jeans like in the USSR? Jeans like in the 80s?" But the consultants do not understand you, of course, because they were born later than 1990, when there were no real jeans anymore, but there were all possible dumplings, "Malvinas" and other junk. You asked if you have Wrangler, Montana, RIFLE, Levi Strauss jeans. Here the consultants perked up when they heard the names of such respected firms, of course they have such jeans, but they look the same as all the denim stores are stuffed with and have nothing to do with the hard jeans of the 80s. In fact, all well-known companies have long switched to sewing jeans from lightweight cotton, and only Montana has not withdrawn one model for lovers of hard jeans, for true connoisseurs of jeans from the 80s, this model is now being sewn in Hungary and Poland, but cotton, quality and the labels remained Montana and remained virtually unchanged. Of course, the market is full of fakes for this model, they offer different styles and different colors with the Montana label, and Montana itself. sews all possible modern lightweight models for youth, but remember, jeans are like in the 80s, there are only classic cuts and only indigo colors(they always cost about $ 100 and if you are offered pants much cheaper, then you should think about the quality). New jeans after washing, when dry, can be easily put in a corner if they are straightened.
New jeans
So where do you buy tight jeans? You can buy in our online store. By ordering these jeans from us, we guarantee you that these are "the very jeans", the very tight jeans that take the shape of the owner's body even when he is not in them. (price about 5,600 rubles, cash on delivery)
And be prepared for that. that on the street you will sometimes be approached with the question where did you buy "Those Jeans"?
Attention for those who forgot:
1) Real jeans definitely shrink after washing. 1.5-4 cm long (if you need to hem in length - hem only after three washes). There is also shrinkage in terms of volume, but as soon as you start wearing jeans, they will take on the shape of the owner’s body, where you need to stretch and “sit down” according to the owner’s figure, for which, in fact, they are appreciated by lovers of real jeans.
2) Real cotton gives off extra color, so the water will be bluish during the first washings. You need to wash jeans inside out, fastening all the locks and buttons, at a temperature not exceeding 30 degrees.
3) New jeans will acquire a light branded wear not earlier than in a month. no need to rush this process.