Dress code and democracy

Do you think women in Russia can dress like this (chose the right option):

•           to the office;
•          to a party;
•           for a date;
•           to a night club;
•          to take out the litter;
•           for a journey by train.

The answer is – all the options are possible: in Russia women can wear (and they do wear) short skirts and high (very high) heels everywhere.

When I asked one of my ex-colleagues what he thought was special in Russia and different from abroad, the first thing that came to his mind was women’s dress code. In his opinion, no matter what a woman wears (mini skirt or long dress, etc.) – she wants to be attractive. I promised that if I write about this topic I will tell the criteria how we girls chose what to wear. I was planning  to investigate the issue thoroughly and to draw a detailed decision tree after the investigation. And you know what… I got up this morning, opened my wardrobe, realized (again!) that I have nothing to wear and chose something more or less suitable to my mood.

I was getting dressed for the office, and well, I would have probably chosen a mini skirt, if it had not been snowing (yes, it is November 3 and it snows in Moscow). Oh, sorry. Snow do not stop us from wearing mini skirts. Did I think about the dress code? Well, apart from banks and some other places which have some special strict regulations about dress code, dress code is an elastic term. If you go to a conference for lawyers, you will see men wearing jeans and shirts, not so often – suits, and women wearing all kinds of skirts, dresses and trousers of all kinds of cuts, colors and prints (flowers, deers, Mickey Mouse, etc. are OK). 

So, mini skirt, suit or jeans, it all depends on the mood. And (with some exceptions, like, maybe, gym) there are no occasions or places or time when it is inappropriate to wear high heels in Russia. This is democracy. 



Photo by Ksenia Zasetskaya