What is it about?
Romanian society between the two World Wars constantly moved between opening itself to Western modernity and closing itself to protect itself from anything foreign. Bucharest, Romania's capital, reflected this duality as a border space between East and West, modernity and tradition, austerity and glamour. This paper explores the dynamic negotiation between restriction (Monitorul Oficial, the Official Gazette of Romania) and expansion (Calea Victoriei, Bucharest's most famous boulevard, at the capital's heart, the best place for walking, shopping, having fun and, most of all, showing oneself to the world. Women's fashion is an important lens to filter the story of interwar Bucharest because it envelops everything connected to the fashion system, women's stories and aspirations, as well as social, economic, ideologic, cultural and artistic histories.
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Why is it important?
This article shows how, in a darkening time of Romanian history, women used fashion as a means of self-assertion and a breath of fresh air. As the current online and offline interactions tend to veer towards the extremes and promote autocracy politically, culturally and creatively, interwar Bucharest women's fashion negotiating on the contraction-expansion spectrum can be a blueprint for potential solutions in the present and future beyond the current situation in Romania, Europe, and beyond.
Perspectives
My hope is that this article offers a much-needed panoramic perspective about creativity as a means of surviving and overcoming a polarised society. I demonstrate that a liminal city like Bucharest existed in-between the two extremes (Monitorul Official for autocratic state control and Calea Victoriei for optimistic expansion towards the future) and used its interwar lessons as model to keep its identity through Communism. It is important to note that both polarities existed, both generated ideas, debates and subsequent events but they could not subdue an inherently fluid population like Bucharest's.
Dr. Sonia Doris Andras
Gheorghe Sincai Institute for Social Studies and the Humanities
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From
Monitorul Oficial
to Calea Victoriei: Decoding 1930s Bucharest through Women’s Fashion, Journal of Romanian Studies, April 2023, Liverpool University Press,
DOI: 10.3828/jrns.2023.3.
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