Author Description

Underwear has been a marginal object in the humanities until recently. This book presents a view of soviet society through the prism of its relation to underwear. According to the author, soviet underwear personifies the monstrosity of the state in its own way: it demonstrates all the characteristics of mass production and its indifference to human individuality. Contents: Origins of soviet underwear; Ideology of the body and symbolic production of a soviet man; Underwear in the context of fashion and technology; Production and sale of underwear; Home made things: from collective body to individualization; Classifying underwear. Clothing, everyday consumption and social structure; Underwear in public and private spheres; Memory of the body; Bibliography. 64 illustrations.