When I was still working in big media and a bizarre story would cross the wires, someone would invariably shake his head and mutter, "You just can't make this stuff up". So it is with a story that appeared in The New York Times yesterday.

Apparently, nostalgia for the Soviet Union is so strong in Russia that fashion designers there are incorporating its iconography into their clothing lines. The New York Times says that one designer, Denis Simachev, is selling coats with hammer-and-sickle buttons and shirts decorated with the Soviet coat of arms. For $2,100 and $600 each, respectively, no less. (If you want to see what Simachev is doing, check out his Web site.)

According to the Times' reporter, today's Russians are yearning for the days when their country was a superpower and they spent their summers singing Pioneer camp songs. Oh, and one other thing: After spending the last decade buying up clothes from every foreign designer that opened a store in the revived GUM, young Russians want to make a purely Russian fashion statement.

I wish I had saved some of the photos I took in GUM during my 1980s trip. They might persuade these young trendies that the clothing of the Soviet era could hardly be called fashion.

Still, I understand the pull of the past, whatever its flaws. I once knew a guy who was a fairly credible gourmet but would periodically make himself a Velveeta sandwich because that's what his mom used to make. But I find myself wondering if Simachev is toeing too fine a line by putting images of Russian President Vladimir Putin on shirts in a style that evokes the Lenin personality cult passion of the Soviets.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find those Lenin pins I picked up during my 1980s trip. They sound like prime eBay material now.


Image credit: drotmalac at Morguefile.com