ABSTRACT
In April 1961, Mrs Zaja¸czkowska was very busy. As head of the production department of the Polish Association of Clothing Industries (ZPO), her task was to organise a competitive and attractive export collection of Polish ready-to-wear clothes consisting of 800 designs within just a few months. 1 The major function of the state organisation ZPO was to control and coordinate the Polish clothing industry as part of the planned economic structure. Consequently, Zaja¸czkowska wrote to clothing factory directors that it was of the utmost importance that the Polish collection looked consistent ‘taking into account the serious competition of other countries currently presenting their collections in Moscow’. 2 Thus, in order to be competitive in the Soviet market, Polish clothing export professionals considered it important to pay attention to the product’s image. They used competitive practices that are understood to be part of marketing in the contemporary Western context.
