ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the lifestyle and the formation of class identity among the Russian middle class by investigating its consumption of clothing. It explores how clothing consumption has changed over the past 20 years and how Soviet ideas of consumption continue to inform contemporary practices. Consumption in Soviet Russia emerged as an object of scientific enquiry in the 1970s, mostly among American historians. They were interested in class and consumption during the Stalin era. In western societies, it has been argued that self-autonomy and self-reflexivity is a key feature of the contemporary middle class. The self is increasingly a reflexive project. The chapter identifies the key concepts through which the middle class makes sense of its clothing consumption and how class distinctions are drawn through consumption. A hedonistic consumer, emerging from the consumption accounts of the middle class. The middle class predominantly purchases readymade clothing, and there is no need to produce things manually or use a professional tailor.
