This concept of this bunch of pictures entered my mind unexpectedly as all inspirational ideas… These photos symbolized the echoes of leftover USSR culture but from an African view of life. It means foreigners can see things very differently from the way native people have been keeping them in their minds for generations.

My models are from Nigeria and Ghana. I gave them an opportunity to pick the outfit for themselves dependant on what they feel USSR’s fashion is. Also I added some pieces from my mama’s cupboard and made the look of my models as in the 80s in USSR. It was mixed with different styles: sport, disco, military, punk etc which competed between each other. So we ended up like that. The textures looked bright and different but still in harmony.

Another part of my idea brings out the history of samovar and carrying goods on the head in Africa, Asia and South Europe. Let’s start with samovar. I know that people from Africa don’t know what it is and how to use it. Samovar is an olden day mechanism for boiling water and making tea. It was very popular in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20 th century in royal Russia. The writers of the time mentioned samovar in each composition as a symbol of home comfort and generally it was a Russian way of life even though it was adopted originally from Chinese culture. Anyway samovar was a luxury item and it was fancy to have it in your house.

About 2500 bc in a tomb in Egypt was captured a bas-relief of a woman with the weight on her head making an offering to the tomb. It seems like it was very long time ago but funny enough nothing has changed since that time for many people. It is tradition and a very smart one. Because this type of carrying weight saves your energy and strength and you can carry much more weight and for a much more longer time than when you put something heavy on your back or take it in your hands. This feature was also inherent for Russian people before the revolution in 1917. But it has stopped and have never came back again in our region. Carrying goods on the head spawned the ideas of turban as protective accessories for the head but later as fashion headwear.

Back to my concept and idea… Post-soviet era is well reflected in Ukraine and was shown in art a lot, so this concept is a singular reflection of how people with different mentality would live and try to fit to reality of different region. That’s why my models are carrying the samovar on their heads, wearing the mix of fashion styles of 80s and waiting for the train to go back home… of course, they would use airplane to fly back home but it is just the allegory.