Winds of Change: From New Fashion Wave to Tide of Terror

stadion_xx_warszawa_pap.jpg, default, Winds of Change: From New Fashion Waves to Tides of Terror, Jarmark Europa next to the 10th-anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, 1994, photo: Maciej Belina Brzozowski/PAP, center, #000000

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The year 1989 in Poland was when everything changed – from dress to the codes of law. Polish style of the 1990s reflected not only the fashion trends of the time but also the dreams and aspirations of the citizens. Especially the latter.

Fashion from the 1990s is like old high-school photographs. People looked fresh and enthusiastic, but you can see that deep down, they were filled with fear and anxiety. Whilst posing to photographs, they usually imitated stars from the big screen. Seeing photos like these awakens mixed feelings. Clearly, youngsters expressed themselves through their clothes. They did that to stand out, but also not to be worse than the rest. Does that sound familiar? In 1989, that was a very common phenomenon in Polish society. Everything was changing. People tried to get used to capitalism, and most important – to get rid of the uncomfortable homo sovieticus (Soviet man) costume. According to some researchers, new fashion trends from the 1990s portray the creation of middle-class. Anna Konieczyńska wrote in the article Moda Okresu Transformacji (Fashion From a Time of Transformation) in Twój Styl (Your Style) magazine:

The message was very simple: we have enough money, luxurious clothes, good taste – so it all symbolises our success in the free market.

Trans. SS

The change in the dress code was fast, unpredictable and dynamic – just like all of the other changes at that time. What started as a new fashion wave ended as a tide of terror. However, we still recall brick-like mobile phones, security-coded suitcases and white socks with a tear in our eyes.

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Photo session of the outfits (Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions), 1987, Warsaw, photo: Andrzej Wiernicki/East News

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Culture expert Magda Szcześniak wrote the book Normy Widzialności: Tożsamość w Czasach Transformacji (The Norms of Visibility: Identity in a Time of Change), she describes how fashion influenced the society through the example of socks:

First, white socks symbolised modernity, sophistication and business potential, but over time, they became kitschy and lame and were worn only by those with no sense of fashion.

Trans. SS

‘In dress codes you could recognise social identity. For instance, the “real” businessman from the 1990s knew that under no circumstances should you wear white socks’, writes Szcześniak.

Uma for the bold

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Still from ‘Pajęczarki’ by Barbara Sass, 1993, photo: Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych (WFDiF)

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We can analyse such things after many years, but in the 1990s – it was a hit. New clothes were finally available. You no longer had to wait in giant queues to Hoffland – a fashion house made by Barbara Hoff, the iconic designer and Przekrój journalist. There was no need to go to the Rembertów marketplace, nor to visit komisy – shops with clothes from abroad. There was also no longer any need to pay with miraculously obtained foreign currency at the Internal Export Company (PEWEX). So the first attraction was that you could buy clothes, and the second that you could have a lot of them for everyone to notice and admire. Maybe that’s why the 1990s style is sometimes called cheesy or motley.

Years later brand names became very important. In the 1990s, the Polish market was full of cheap imitations. Yet, nobody called them kitschy clothes or rule-breakers. Szcześniak analyses a film by Barbara Sass – Pajęczarki (Arachnids) – in which Adrianna Biedrzyńska plays the role of a student of the School of Physical Education. In one scene, she is thrilled when she gets a pair of sport shoes by the unknown Uma brand with a black cat in the logo. The costume designers didn’t mind that a few scenes later, the actress appeared in Puma sport shoes.

The film portrays people’s changing attitude towards the brand name. In the next years, attitudes changed drastically as international sports and clothes brands entered the world of fashion. Logos became extremely important. Brands aimed to make clients believe that some products should be regarded as better than others. They wanted to persuade people that original products were not only more appealing but also of a better quality than the cheap imitations.

Trans. SS

The fight with cheap imitations wasn’t to encourage snobbism. It was about spreading the rules of capitalism, according to which competing was valuable, but having a business on the fringes of the law – not really. In Poland it was also about the competition of East and West. Everybody knew that anything that came from the West was original, modern and better than the Eastern products. This was the time when non-material values started to be praised.

In her book Życie Rzeczy w Powojennej Polsce (The Life of Things in Post-War Poland), Agata Zborowska wrote that at the time, nobody knew what brand names were. They came to Poland in 1991 with a new Polish-Italian partnership – Deni Cler. Other Polish companies also made collaborations with international investors. This is visible in their foreign names, like Hexeline (1989), Big Star (1990), Leo Lazzi (1991), Gino Rossi (1992), Americanos (1992), or Simple (1993), which influenced the image of the higher quality of Western products.

French elegance from Bytom

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A destroyed Ludwik Grohman’s factory, post-war Textile Factory Complex in Łódź, photo: Tomasz Stanczak/AG

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In the 1990s, fashion was being established little by little, but as the designer Joanna Klimas says – it didn’t exist yet. At least not in the way as we know it today. There was no real fashion; it was rather a fashion marketplace. ‘An average Polish person had clothes to wear, but for designers, stylists and journalists – clothes available in Poland had nothing to do with fashion’.

Thumbnail — Jarmark Europa next to the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, 1994, photo: Maciej Belina Brzozowski/PAP

The vast majority of products was available at the 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. ‘At the stadium, you could find clothes of low quality made by small companies that produced little, but earned a lot. The most resourceful sellers exported their goods to the East’, says Klimas. Some companies converted clothes or worked for Western companies. A very successful company from Bytom made clothes for an elegant French brand – Guy Laroche.

Suits from Bytom are worn by businessmen from Western Europe, the USA, Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. They make clothes from polyester, fake silk and microfibres, namely from synthetic fibre.

Gazeta Wyborcza, Waldemar Szymczyk, 19th August 1991

Polish shops had only a fraction of the great uniforms, but they didn’t attract any interest – clothes from the West were expensive, and nobody wanted to wear them.

Klimas used to adapt clothes before she started her own business. It was a great way to earn money and influence Polish women’s style. She recalls:

The owner of the brand where I worked would visit me very often. She wanted to show me how she made jackets: in one place she would add a patch or a button; she would order hundreds and then sell every single one of them. When she saw my projects, which from the very beginning aimed at converting Polish women to minimalism, she said: ‘Listen, I really like you, but you need to choose what you want: either fulfilment or money. You can’t have both’.

Trans. SS

Klimas didn’t take the advice, but she still managed to achieve what she wanted. Her success came right away. To this day, she is considered the most representative designer of the 1990s. Fashion newspapers like Twój Styl or Elle also had a mission of educating and giving advice. Twój Styl was first released in July 1990. According to Konieczyńska:

it offers insights on both fashion and the changing social realities from that time. The editorial calendar of the newspaper’s first issues overlaps with the key dates of the early transformation.

The editorial office led readers through the twists and turns of changing their style. They told people what to wear – mainly at work. However, a formal dress code was brought to Poland by foreign corporations. There were many rules people had to obey. At work, men couldn’t wear jeans nor sweaters, and women couldn’t wear short dresses. Some companies didn’t permit wearing clothes with polka dots. Order prevailed when the Dynasty series appeared. The series established the elegant business style. Today, see it as the producers’ kitschy fantasy of how insanely rich businessmen would dress. This rags-to-riches story was a trend taken from the 20th-century capitalism.

Pierre Cardin was the first designer to visit Poland. His biggest success was achieved in the 1950s and 1960s, so in the 1980s, he only had to reap the benefits. Evidently, fashion, economy and sociology went hand-in-hand at the time.

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Pierre Cardin’s collection show in the Warsaw’s Congress Hall, 2001, photo: Albert Zawada/AG

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What remains from that time? Nostalgia, mainly. A few years ago, 1990s style had its big comeback in music, film and fashion. We can see that in The Woods – a Netflix series based on a novel by the American writer Harlan Coben. Almost half of the plot takes us back in time to 1994. The producers, including one of the best Polish costume designers – Katarzyna Lewińska – recreated the style of the 1990s. Even though the adults wear neat clothes, they look as if they’ve been borrowed from somebody else. The youngsters create their own style, copied from issues of Bravo or Popcorn, or MTV. One of the characters wears a hoodie with a Seattle logo – it probably couldn’t be Nirvana for copyright reasons. The characters are young, happy and optimistic – so let’s try to remember the times that way and forgive the fashion peccadilloes.

Originally written in Polish, translated by SS, May 2021

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Reason & Flair

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