The feminist label Narvskayadostava is among the first of its kind in Russia. Olga Shapovalova and Lolja Nordic, two former DJs known for throwing underground parties in Saint Petersburg, started the company about a year ago after wanting to create the kind of clothes they “dreamed of,” Nordic says over FaceTime. Their line of T-shirts, socks, and underwear is inspired by typical feminist influences like the Riot Grrrl music scene in the early 1990s as well as metal music and underground Russian culture during the ’70s and ’80s.
Like many feminist labels, Narvskayadostava’s pieces have a bit of cheek. Their underwear, embroidered with the Guns N’ Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle,” highlights body positivity. “We wanted to show a girl with heavy pubic hair. We think it is okay to be what you are,” says Nordic. “I think it [the underwear] has a bit of humor in it.” Riot Grrrl culture is always a large influence, echoed in pieces like “Girl Power” socks. “I think that the Riot Grrrl movement inspires us to be strong and artistic and fight for what we want to do with our lives, bodies, and future,” says Nordic. Their Cyrillic pieces, like the ACCA and Курьер T-shirts, are inspired by movies about the Soviet Union’s youth culture during the ’80s and ’90s, which was also a period when underground feminism was on the rise.
Though Narvskayadostava’s views on feminism are hardly new—they coincide with the trending pro-women fashion in the United States and Western Europe—creating and wearing feminist-forward clothing is far more difficult in a country like Russia. “We think, for us, feminism is the right to choose. Every boy or girl, every transgender or queer person can be what they want to be. They have to have equal rights and everything,” says Nordic. “But in Russia, according to our government laws, it is really hard to be who you want to be here.”
In today’s Russia, the current wave of feminism is not widely accepted or promoted, even by women themselves. There is often an emphasis on patriarchal values while the Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, imposes a strong, traditional influence on the culture. Earlier this year, Russia’s machismo attitude came to a warped head: The country ruled to decriminalize first-time domestic violence against family members unless it causes serious medical injuries. “The whole political situation forces you to be very traditional, a very nice calm daughter, wife, and lady,” says Nordic, adding, “They think that to be a feminist is to hate men. Ordinary women think [feminism] is bad, something negative.”
Blowback from the general public isn’t unexpected, but the label also isn’t always accepted by other Russia-based feminist groups. “There is a lot of discussion about fashion and ‘glamour’ feminism. Some radical feminists think that because we do clothes we are from some glamour world that is bad,” says Nordic.
Beyond the message that their fashions send, the designers are using the brand to help women in a more direct way. Their recently released F is for Feminism tote bag has a strong message inside as well as out. “People buy those tote bags with a paper inside that has different women’s crisis centers that they can call,” says Nordic. “The [centers] are really helpful. They are the only way for you to get support, free psychological help, and help from lawyers who go to the police with you to fight for your rights.”
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