Self-Sewn Clothing in Socialist Yugoslavia

Abstract

The paper examines the practice of self-sewn clothing in socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1991) in order to determine the conditions that enabled it, the extent of its spread, and the social strata where it was common. The spread of self-sewing practice was influenced by several factors: the availability of Bagat and other sewing machines; tailoring and sewing courses; the selling of Burda magazine with practical instructions on how to make fashion pieces using cutting sheets; the circulation of other domestic and foreign fashion magazines; the publication of Burda: Perfect Independent Tailoring and Sewing; an effort to improve the quality of the yardage, patterns and color spectrum produced by the Yugoslav textile industry; and the increased import of foreign fabrics. A change in attitude towards fashion also played a significant role. Following the Second World War, fashion was seen as a bourgeois practice in socialist Yugoslavia, but since the beginning of the 1950s, following fashion through self-sewn clothing regained social desirability. Unsatisfactory clothing offers in Yugoslav stores such as poor quality, limited colors and designs, inadequate ready-made sizes, and high prices, also led to the prevalence of this practice, as did the opportunities to earn income by sewing for others. The most common way of acquiring clothing was to purchase garments produced in Yugoslavia, with self-sewing as the second most frequent method. Workers and middle-class members were engaged in self-sewing most extensively, as it enabled access to clothing at lower costs and contributed to leading a lifestyle determined by social status and the resulting material position, thus functioning as a form of creative everyday activity of the ordinary people. Self-sewing represented subordinates’ art of coping with the available by creating their own popular culture using the resources, goods and materials given to them by the ruling system in socialist Yugoslavia.