DRESS & SVETA

Sveta found this dress in a pile of her childhood clothes in the attic of the family dacha in Strizh, 30 miles south east of Moscow. She was visiting her parents from London where she lives. Her mother, Elena, had the dress made in the early 70s by Nadezhda, a local seamstress working in the Vykhino-Zhulebino district of Moscow. Elena can now appreciate just how short the dress is, but at the time this was how they were commonly cut, the exposure of too much leg exasperating older generations. Sveta tried it on, it fitted perfectly, she said wearing her mother’s dress immediately gave her an ‘all around good feeling, pure happiness out of nowhere.’ Sveta is wearing it for her birthday, she is 34 today, exactly twice the age that her mother was when she first wore it at 17.

09 Oct 2011