I was reading through this Wikipedia article recently - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_in_the_Soviet_Union

Very thought-provoking article, GW, thanks a lot for posting. My girlfriend and I talk a lot about how toxic the fashion world can be - not only in terms of racial insensitivity, encouraging unhealthy beauty standards, etc., but also in how destructive it is environmentally. She tries her best to buy from ethical companies, and I buy most of my clothes used, or made by small USA-based companies which follow ethical labor practices. Still, we're all complicit I suppose.

Twenty-seven kilos of clothing annually? I find that very hard to believe! I very rarely throw out any clothing unless it is completely worn out or ruined. My wardrobe culls usually go to the Goodwill. Some shirts are passed on to friends. T-shirts that have had their day end up as cleaning rags.

https://rco.on.ca/the-average-person-throws-away-37-kilograms-of-textiles-annually/

I recently watched this movie "Battle of Warsaw 1920" and it was interesting how the wardrober made the Polish uniforms nice and the Bolshevik uniforms were filthy. Actually, it does make sense considering most of the Bolshevik soldiery were bottom rungers. I have heard Poles before speak of the Russians as unspeakably filthy.

In any case, Marx' model of revolution usually saw an anxiety ridden, jealous bourgeoisie using the proletariat to help them supplant the aristocracy. Important for us because they were key copiers of the fashions being worn by the class above them; at once slavering to be them and angry that they were envious of an idle class without their hard working virtues.

However, the bolsheviks had their own fashion identifiers, Trotsky's red guard wore red leather outfits, Kommisars (Political officers who served with the soldiers in the field and who kept an eye on regular army officers) wore black leather jackets as did the crew of armoured trains who became feared in their own right chiefly by their gear.

Fashion affects everyone even revolutionaries; where would Che be without his beret!?

Now unsustainable fashion beyond it's environmental footprint is interesting because it is definitely both Fashion in fast-forward and the destruction of Fashion. Fashion is generally about status which partly involves the "new and different" but to be identified with status a new and different fashion element or look has to have time to gel. Unsustainable and insta-fashion (Beyonce wears it on Instagram at 6pm and you can buy it and have it delivered next day) have revved the usual cycle of fashion to such a speed that it's dissolving the concepts of status in favor of simply "new and different". Basically, if an item or look hasnt been given a chance to gel, it never gets associated with status and thus, ironically, makes wearers all the more unsatisfied and drives them to seek the next possible status look. It's like a new vicious cycle and thus Marx' observation that fashion is a tool of capitalism to keep us all broke starts to make some sense.

Yes but, is Tintin Ivy?