Russia's new patriotic glamor

How Vladimir Putin renewed Russian aesthetics

In a new project for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, photographer Evgeny Feldman studies the emergence of a new kind of glamor in Russia. According to the newspaper's chief editor, Dmitry Muratov, a whole aesthetic collapsed in 2008, apparently ending Russia’s craze for anglicizing words, skinny jeans from Dolce & Gabbana, and much more.

Muratov writes that he thought a sense of glamor had left Russia forever, “but it returned,” Feldman discovered. “It returned in a new style that we’ve never seen before. A patriotic sense of glamor has emerged.” Muratov argues that Vladimir Putin is responsible for making “the Motherland” a fashion inspiration to the nation, “giving people happiness, bypassing the state of their well being.”

Muratov says Russia’s new sense of glamor is unique in that it unites the “elite” and the “masses” around a common set of symbols.

Feldman spent several months studying the new symbols of Russian glamor, photographing displays of this new aesthetic everywhere from elite clubs to weightlifting gymnasiums. Muratov says Feldman's photos series is about “the bliss of being in the majority.”

A woman cleans a mannequin dressed in a Putin t-shirt in a gift shop selling Russian Army souvenirs.

A man with a tattoo depicting the fairytale character Sister Alionushka holding a Kalashnikov. St. Petersburg, June 2015.

A woman visits an art exhibit called "The 12 Labors of Putin," dedicated to the Russian President on his 62nd birthday in 2014.

Visitors photograph a room depicting a surgeon's operating table at an exhibit called "The Donbas: Material Evidence." Moscow, April 2015.

Visitors pose for photos and selfies in front of a parade of Russian tanks ahead of military exercises about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Moscow in June 2015.

See the rest of this photo series here.