Cultural Studies paper by Medvedev, Katalin
The Transformation of Budapest Fashion and Retailing over a Century
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Budapest from its beginnings in Buda around the early 19th century until the early 1950s. It aims to bring to light that even though today Budapest does not register as an important European fashion center, before World War II, its fashion consumption and retail scene were significant. The development of its fashion industry infrastructure and the fact that by the turn of the 20th century it was the fifth most recognized fashion city in Europe after Paris, London, Vienna and Berlin, was a crucial component of Hungary’s modernization process. This paper contends that Budapest’s fashion industry momentum was intended to demonstrate that Budapest was a true equal of Vienna, its co-capital in the Austro-Hungarian Empire that existed from 1867 to 1918. It also argues that Hungarian fashion deliberately followed French fashion to culturally and visually distance itself from Austria’s influence. It discusses how in this effort the Hungarian retail scene began to flourish from the 1910s onward and describes the critical retail institutions in Budapest that were mostly established by the Jewish minority. In closing, it addresses the ideological and economic reasons Budapest’s robust fashion scene disappeared after the Communist takeover of Hungary in 1948.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Katalin Medvedev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors at the University of Georgia, USA. Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Women’s Studies Quarterly, Fashion Practice, Dress, International Journal of Fashion Studies, Clothing Cultures, Paideusis-Journal for Interdisciplinary and Cross Cultural Studies, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education, as well as in book chapters published by Berg, Fairchild, Pennsylvania University Press, Springer, Purdue University Press and University of Minnesota Press, among others. She is currently co-editing a book on Dress and Empowerment for Bloomsbury.