Ukrainian Soviet Fashion During the Cold War

The project is devoted to a thorough exploration of the history of Ukrainian Soviet fashion in the context of ideology and everyday life during the Cold War. The Ukrainian SSR is considered as one of the main centres of fashion development in the Soviet Union. The research traces the construction of Ukrainian identity and culture through the lens of fashion. It highlights the history of international cooperation in fashion across the Iron Curtain, while also exploring tensions arising within the Soviet Union, especially between the fashion houses of the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet central authorities. 
She uses a wide range of sources, including archival documents, interviews, and periodicals. The materials contain documents from the Ministry of Light Industry, fashion houses, garment and shoe factories, tailor shops, department stores, and other institutions directly involved in the development and production of fashion goods. 

Olha Korniienko is involved in Department I: Communism and Society during her stay as Visiting Fellow at the ZZF Potsdam.

Olha Korniienko is a PhD in History, fashion historian and head of the Ukrainian Fashion History Digital Archive. She explores the international history of material culture in the second half of the twentieth century with a focus on the history of fashion in the Ukrainian SSR. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, she studies Soviet Ukrainian fashion in the context of ideology and everyday life in the 1940s-1980s. She combines approaches and methodology from various disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, and digital humanities. She also has experience organizing fashion exhibitions. Before coming to ZZF she was a research fellow at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Currently, she is working on her monograph entitled Ukrainian Soviet Fashion During the Cold War.