On Friday 31 October 2008, Fashion in Film presented a new programme for French Connection Friday Late at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in conjunction with the exhibition Cold War Modern: Design 1945–70.

The programme of newsreels and documentaries exploring the rhetorics of “socialist fashion” were screened again as part of the V&A Cold War Culture International Conference, which took place through 21–22 November 2008. Supported by the Council of Europe, this major international conference brought together many exciting thinkers on this post-war period to reflect and offer new perspectives. Ariel Dorfman was the keynote speaker; other speakers included Alice Friedman, Jean-Louis Cohen, Michell Provoost, David Crowley, Branislav Jakovljevic, Victor Misiano and Richard Barbrook.

Beyond Espionage was presented in a new rendition on Thursday 8 January 2009 at the BFI Southbank, in association with Central Saint Martins. A selection of eloquent newsreels and documentaries from post-war East Germany and Czechoslovakia were interspersed with conversations between Djurdja Bartlett, expert on Eastern-European fashion history and the author of the book Fashion: the Spectre that Haunted Socialism (MIT Press, 2010), and Marketa Uhlirova, Director of the Fashion in Film Festival.

Fashion under socialism was essentially an anti-fashion: anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist. As a “clothing culture” it was supposed to aid the “all-round development of the socialist personality”. Yet, the clothing produced within a centrally planned economy often didn’t fit the desires. This selection of some of the most eloquent newsreels and documentaries from post-war East Germany and Czechoslovakia explores the rhetorics of “socialist fashion”. From displays of restrained modernist taste to the majestic International Fashion Congresses, fashion espionage and the mockery of ‘Western’ extravagance, this programme reveals complex issues and tensions, showing fashion as a key player in the Cold War propaganda.

Curated by Renate Stauss and Marketa Uhlirova and presented in association with BFI Southbank.

With thanks to Progress Film-Verleih GmbH and Kratky Film Praha.

→ Read curators Renate Stauss and Marketa Uhlirova’s interview for DAZED Magazine.