Drapes of eggshell rayon silk, fully a verst of it, hung from the ceiling to the floor. Behind the table stood a large portrait of Stalin, edged in red. There was no soft music, no suave couturiers. The mannequins (rather plump) sported no fancy make-up or nifty hairdos. Commissars, scholars, artists faced the circular platform. Paulina Semionovna Zhemchuzhina (Madame Molotov), head of the Soviet Cosmetics Trust, was there, chatting brightly with Textiles Vice Commissar Dora Moissevna Khazan. In Moscow's House of Fashions, tailors and dressmakers of the state were displaying what the well-dressed...
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