--- title: Dior Fashion Models in Moscow During the Cold War description: In June 1959, willowy French models put on a fashion show of Dior couture in Moscow. LIFE magazine's Howard Sochurek was there. canonical: https://time.com/3880307/dior-fashion-models-in-moscow-during-the-cold-war/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-28T16:17:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:39.948Z og:title: Dior Fashion Models in Moscow During the Cold War og:description: In June 1959, willowy French models put on a fashion show of Dior couture in Moscow. LIFE magazine's Howard Sochurek was there. og:url: https://time.com/3880307/dior-fashion-models-in-moscow-during-the-cold-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta38b3d7e6a24587e/69884c1ba988ca7c326b2212/140714-dior-moscow-1959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Dior Fashion Models in Moscow, 1959 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dior Fashion Models in Moscow During the Cold War twitter:description: In June 1959, willowy French models put on a fashion show of Dior couture in Moscow. LIFE magazine's Howard Sochurek was there. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta38b3d7e6a24587e/69884c1ba988ca7c326b2212/140714-dior-moscow-1959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Haute Couture and the Cold War: Dior in Moscow, 1959 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 28, 2014 4:17 PM UTC  Fashion models visit the GUM department store in Moscow while in the Soviet Union for an officially sanctioned Christian Dior fashion show, 1959. Fashion models visit the GUM department store in Moscow while in the Soviet Union for an officially sanctioned Christian Dior fashion show, 1959.Howard Sochurek—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 28, 2014 4:17 PM UTC Muscovites who wandered into GUM, the USSR’s premier department store, one weekend in June 1959 were treated to an extraordinary scene: a trio of willowy French models, dressed in vibrantly colored suits, greeting shoppers and posing for commissioned photographers—LIFE’s [Howard Sochurek](http://life.time.com/howard-sochurek/) among them. The models parading through Moscow that day were in the Russian capital ahead of a five-night Christian Dior fashion show. Yves Saint Laurent had recently taken over the brand’s Parisian _atelier_ and reimagined the seductive “New Look” for which the [House of Dior](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/fashion/paris-couture-fashion-review-dior-atelier-versace-and-schiaparelli.html) had been known. Gone were the corseted jackets, crinolined ballerina skirts and towering stilettos, replaced instead with practical blazers, loose skirts and shorter kitten heels. While Dior was undergoing its transformation, so too was the USSR under Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier who envisioned a more liberal, dynamic future for his country. The world of Soviet fashion would not be exempt from “Khrushchev’s Thaw,” as the government brokered person-to-person exchanges with Western design houses to help revitalize the Soviet fashion industry, and French couturiers like Dior were especially coveted as guests. Of all the designers to pierce the Iron Curtain during the 1950s, Saint Laurent’s Dior paired most harmoniously with Soviet reality. After all, the newly refashioned “New Look,” with its functionalist philosophy, embodied the socialist-realist trope that form should follow function, that art should accommodate reality, and that the masses—rather than the elites—should determine what it meant to be “cultured.” [**_Yana Skorobogatov_**](http://history.berkeley.edu/people/yana-skorobogatov) _is a doctoral student studying history at the University of California, Berkeley._  Fashion models visit the GUM department store in Moscow while in the Soviet Union for an officially sanctioned Christian Dior fashion show, 1959. 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