Stilyagi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Stilyagi (Template:Lang-rus, Template:Literally "stylish, style hunters") were members of a youth counterculture from the late 1940s until the early 1960s in the Soviet Union. A stilyaga (Template:Lang-rus), was primarily distinguished by snappy clothing—preferably foreign-label, acquired from fartsovshchiks—that contrasted with the communist realities of the time, and their fascination with zagranitsa, modern Western music and fashions corresponding to that of the Beat Generation. English writings on Soviet culture variously translated the derogatory term as "dandies", "fashionistas", "beatniks", "hipsters", "zoot suiters", etc.
Today, the stilyagi phenomenon is regarded as one of the Russian historical social trends which further developed during the late Soviet era (notably the Stagnation Period) and allowed "informal" views on life, such as hippies, punks and rappers.
See also
- 1950s youth fashion
- Hep cat, another Western counterpart to the Stilyagi
- La Sape, a similar movement that originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1980s
- 1980s in African fashion
- Swenka, a South African variant in the 2010s
- 2010s in African fashion
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein describing a similar fictional subculture on the Moon