The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-11
The New Russia No. O.
NEITHER SHAPES
NOR MODES CAN
BOTHER RUSSIA
Soviet Women Don't Care
Whether They Are Fat
or Thin.
BY JULIA BLANSHARD
STAFF Writer for NEA Service and The
Times, Sent to Soviet Russia Especial
" for This Series
lCnngrighl la3I NEA Service. Incl

Itmea. sent to soviet RUSSIA ESpeciai-
" for This Series
Copyright. 1881. NEA Service. Incl
If you lived in Russia
What the well-dressed woman is
wearing IN ParIs, nos she fixes her
hair and makes up her face would
make little difference to you.
You can wear anything you have.
Everybody does. Moscow has no
fashion seasons and only two kinds
of clothes-clothes for hot weather
and clothes for cold.
Frost came one night late in Sep
TENDER and Miss Sophiana, a neigh
Dor who the day before had gone
picnicKing with us, dressed in her
sleeveless white dress and no hat,
stopped in to see me. She looked
like an utter stranger, dressed in a
tall, black astrakhan cap, long,
worn fur coat and high shoes. This
is her September-to-May costume.
She has no in-between things.
If you lived in Russia, you would
not care whether you are fat or
thin.
Nowhere in Russia do you see a
smartly dressed group of women.
Once a year the foreign Office gives
formal reception when every one
invited has to appear in evening at
tire. The conglomeration of OLD
and new styles makes it safe for
you to wear any color, any length,
any lines, any style.
BlOuses Are Missing
Russia has no fashion magazines
nor are there any style or beauty
articles in the daily papers. No
store advertises clothes. Radio
hours for women never touch any
thing as inconsequential as personal
appearance.
They explain Russia's economic
aims, her need for more co-opera-
tive kitchens to release home
women for industry, or give the
latest figures on production from
the Stalingrad tractor plant, which
thrills all Russia.
Gay, embroidered peasant blouses,
additionally Russia, are missing
from the Russian scene. had been
there a whole. month before saw
one. Mikitina, a Ukranian girl
student at a college near Moscow,
wore it as she sat in the yard
studying.
We stopped the car and APP
preached. "See if she will trace
that blouse for something" I re-
ouested the correspondent with me.
He told Mikitina that the American
woman admired her blouse.
And the Trade Is Made
I raised my white dress and
showed her an apricot colored sip
with lace edging. She registered
immediate interest and when I sug-
gested adding silk stockings, it was
a bargain.
We went into her dormitory, and
while eighteen girls watched the
trade, 1 peeled off my dress ana
gave Milzitina the slip and stockings
and she took off her blouse and gave
it to me.
Russian women always would pre-
fer goods in trade, rather than
rubles. There is an actual scarcity
of practically every kind OF APP
parel and material. Their rubles
can buy little. A gift or trade OF
foreign clothing is so welcomed.
Probably you would not wear SILK
stockings if you lived in Russia to-
day.
Fond of Any "Silk"
Most women wear the Soviet
made. rather sleazy cotton ones,
usually light gray, beige or oead
white, or the heavy-ribbed black
ones. They don't know the differ
ence between the cheap rayon ana
the full fashioned silk product.
But they are fond of any silk.
Rayon hosiery costs about SO pair.
You can't buy full-fashioned SILK
ones for any price. Rayon boomers
are the newest addition to the Rus
sian wardrobe. Many peasants are
discovering that they are the perfect
gift to take home to their sweet
hearts. 49,,
Berets are fast supplanting the
great national headgear, the ker-
chief. You will see gaudy rayon
berets and some worsted ones that
the Soviet government is manu1ac-
turing now. But it is the foreign
beretS that the Russian women like.
Progress Over 1925
Everybody in Moscow seemed to
have shoes this summer, which
means progress over 1925.
Then it was no oddity for me to
see y group of CHEEKY Komsomol
Girls. dressed in printed calico
dresses. their heads bound up IN
red kerchiefs and their feet and
legs bare. Many girls wore sneak
ers this summer or comfortable OK
fords.
However. it will surprise you to
see how much a sturdy Russian girl
likes dainty, high-heeled, lmprac-
tical slippers.
Communist leaders wives dress
no differently from the rest. When
YOU see a woman on the street.
there is no way of telling from her
costume. whether she is Stains
wife, a postoffice employee or Sas-
cha, the maid.
There is no such thing as keep
ing up with the Joneses" in Russia.
There aren't any Joneses. Compe-
tition between women over their
personal appearance would be
considered by everybody as bour-
geoiS.
Men Wear Blouses
If you were MN In Russia you
would wear a blouse. Russian men
uniformly look more becomlngly
dressed than women.
The Russian blouse IS a natterilg
InDnrnfn6 With