Recently I visited an exhibition called "Modna i już – moda w PRL" ("FASHIONable in Communist Poland") at the National Museum in Cracow. To be honest, I couldn't wait to see it ever since I read an extremely interesting book "To nie są moje wielbłądy" by Aleksandra Boćkowska which studies that subject in details.

Being born in 1984, I don't remember much from the communist period, although I often kept asking my mother, what it was the living like back then. I wanted to know all sorts of things, like what people used to do in their free time, what clothes they worn, what kind of music they listened to and so forth. When my mother was in her twenties or thirties she used to tailor her clothes by herself. Not only because she wanted to but also she had no choice. It was nearly impossible to buy quality clothes in those times. Will you believe me if I tell you that she still keeps in her wardrobe a dress that she made on her own? To tell the truth, she was clearly not the only one who wanted to look fashionable back then. Hundreds of thousands of young women shared the same ability to invent something out of nothing.

The exhibition demonstrates the most remarkable fashion trends in Polish People's Republic from the late 1940s through 1989. However, is also shows the creativity of Polish women who wanted to look attractive and follow the western fashion. For instance, in the first years following the Second World War they sew clothes from military materials like this jacket tailored from a parachute or a blouse made from parachutes ropes.

The Stalinist regime aimed to neutralize an influence of "the rotten West" and thus promoted a functionality and a uniformity in clothing. Nevertheless, women preferred to replicate the feminine New Look style proposed by Dior and so tried to adopt it in their outfits as much as possible.

Not only the average citizens had problems with a lack of availability of products. Even the designers battled for fabrics. It has to be kept in mind while watching the exhibition of projects of many talented Polish designers like Kalina Paroll or Jerzy Antkowiak employed by Moda Polska ("Polish Fashion" – a state enterprise founded to promote new fashion trends and represent Polish People's Republic at the international fashion scene) or Barbara Hoff who established the very popular brand Hoffland as well as Grażyna Hase.

Among street fashion items and the projects of distinguished designers the exhibition shows the creations from dress- and shoemakers, which made the biggest impression on me. For example, take a look at these dresses

And clothes made during the last decade of communism in Poland – the time of the Martial law, when women literally had to create "something from nothing" again.