Everyday culture of Tsarist Russia in photographs and on the example of children’s fashion.
The massive album contains photographs of children taken between 1860 and 1917. This is only a small part of the collection that fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev has been collecting for the past 35 years. From the very first pages, faces, costumes and interiors immerse us in the atmosphere of the past, perhaps familiar to many from photographs from family albums. “A girl in a schoolgirl dress with an apron; in the hands — an album with photographs. St. Petersburg. 1866″. “Boys in tanned sheepskin coats and Russian hats. Pinsk. First half of the 1890s. The signatures read the warmth and respect with which Alexander Vasiliev treats the everyday culture of Tsarist Russia, where «clothing as the main element of education was given great importance.» The album, dedicated to the children’s fashion of the past, evokes mixed feelings. Bright sadness for the grace of a bygone era. And the joy of touching your story on smooth, dense pages, placed in soft fabric binding.
Alpina non-fiction, 230 p.