How the crimson blazer became a status symbol in 1990s Russia
What do roosters have to do with fashion? And how did Tolstoy’s perfume smell? Fashion historian Marina Skulskaya traces ancient myths into their manifestations in modern style, from spacesuits to miniskirts. In her latest piece for Gorby, she turns to a less glamorous but iconic garment: the crimson blazer, explaining how it became a badge of wealth and power among Russia’s nouveaux riches in the ‘90s.
Pelevin’s 1996 cult novel Buddha’s Little Finger features a “stunningly beautiful crimson double-breasted jacket with gold buttons.” By then, the look of cashed-up “New Russians” was already fading. But leather pouches (borsetki), Rolexes (kotly), and chunky chains (goldy) clung on a little longer, Skulskaya adds.
The crimson blazer – once a bold banner of ‘90s success – has now vanished. (For the best, Translator dares to suggest.) But why crimson? How did the colour come to symbolise the new Russia? Skulskaya takes us on a wild ride through the mythic past of red, from Homer to post-Soviet TV shows.
Since Minoan times, red has symbolised the sun, immortality, luxury, worship – and sex. Odysseus and Agamemnon wore purple robes; Penelope “delicately spun threads of purple.” In Ancient Rome, red meant power – a privilege reserved for men. Senators wore crimson. And tyrants.
Rome’s cult of purple lived on in Byzantium, now symbolising Christ’s blood. Dyeing a single kilo of red wool took 30,000 cochineal shells. No wonder Louis XIV strutted in crimson heels. The red sole vanished with the “Sun King” – until Louboutin revived it in 1992, painting his first pumps with nail polish, inspired by red-light districts, matadors, and the Moulin Rouge.
And Russia? Until the 15th century, red dominated folk dress and embroidery. Under Alexander I, ageing dandies still wore red heels, imitating French aristocrats. After Peter the Great’s reforms, red was for everyone except the servants. Colour still meant class.
In 1829, The Moscow Telegraph spotted a woman at the theatre in a crimson velvet beret with white feathers, ringed in diamond grapes. Chic or cringe? While Pushkin praised the red beret in his poetry, Lermontov mocked it in A Hero of Our Time, describing a gaudy red beret fluttering with ostrich feathers.
The first crimson blazer was imagined by Gogol. In Dead Souls (1842), Chichikov dreams up a “lingoberry-coloured caftan” and begs his tailor: “Make it brighter… more sparkle, so the sparkles stand out.”
Russian literature is red: Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita dresses Pilate in “a white cloak with a blood-red lining”; Chekhov’s general flaunts his coat-tails “like wings, showing off the redness” with pride; and Ostap Bender, Ilf and Petrov’s Soviet-era con man, sports crimson boots with rubber heels “fastened like a gramophone record.
But back to crimson blazers. In the 1820s, colourful tailcoats began to fade, replaced by elegant black. But red made its comeback in the 1990s, when Russians embraced the crimson blazer as the flashy uniform of business success, seen in Balabanov’s comedy Dead Man’s Bluff (2005).
The rise of the crimson blazer was sparked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, border openings, foreign currency – and Versace’s spring collection, Skulskaya notes. It first appeared on the iconic television game show What? Where? When?, where the host introduced it for the top player.
Capitalism brought a new elite: entrepreneurs and gangsters, all dressed in shades of purple. The crimson blazer became their jacket of choice, “a matador’s muleta teasing the bull,” as Skulskaya puts it. Like all status symbols, it was worn until it wore itself out.
Original article (“Малиновый пиджак: Почему именно этот цвет стал символом преуспевания в новой России? Объясняет историк моды” (Crimson blazer: Why did this particular colour become a symbol of success in the new Russia? A fashion historian explains)) by Marina Skulskaya was first published in Russian in April 2025.
It is available here.
Gorby is a magazine featuring new thinking. Founded in August 2023, it is published in a limited run of 999 copies.
Summary by IJ.
