Opening of a new exhibition in the Retro Museum Prague on the theme of jeans from the 1980s in Czechoslovakia, May 29, 2023, Prague.
Prague – The phenomenon of jeans in the former Czechoslovakia before 1989 is brought closer by a new exhibition at the Retro Museum Prague. Since last year, it has been operating in the Kotva department store in Prague 1. The exhibition mainly focuses on how children and young people, in particular, tried to get clothes that were almost unaffordable in the socialist system, and thus brings the phenomenon of money order dealers closer to us.
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The exhibition of original pieces of jeans from the 1980s will show three dozen denim fashion pieces such as trousers, skirts, jackets, slacks from the then and global brands.
Wearing original jeans has been the dream of many young people around the world since the mid-20th century. In Czechoslovakia, under the previous regime, they could be found almost exclusively in Tuzex, in the currency shops of the state-run foreign trade company. The donated jeans could thus have a story behind them on the edge of the law at the time, when fraud with foreign currency and purchases with vouchers, i.e. vouchers for purchases at Tuzex, played a leading role.
In addition to Tuzex, the sources of jeans used to be acquaintances or relatives in Western Europe or America, who sent their worn pieces of clothing to Czechoslovakia, where their recipients awaited them with great interest, incomprehensible to today's young people.
At Tuzex, they were the most desirable Levi's jeans. Jeans have been available in Czechoslovakia since the 1960s – that is, jeans from the Italian brand Rifle, which gave this piece of clothing a common name in the country.
“Of course, even in our country, companies tried to catch up with fashion trends and produce jeans. However, in Czechoslovakia there was no technology for their production until the 1980s. Until the end of the regime, Tuzex goods were perceived as exclusive, and this also applied to jeans. Other attempts at denim clothes were perceived rather as a ridiculous substitute and the regime's attempt to be modern,” said Michal Petrov, curator of the Jeans from Tuzex exhibition.
In the 1980s, however, denim fashion completely flooded the streets and especially discotheques. Hardly acquired original pieces, products of Czechoslovak fashion houses, skirts, bags, jackets, trousers of various patterns made of denim were not missing in the wardrobes of young people in particular.
This year, jeans are celebrating 150 years since on May 20 In 1873, they were patented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in San Francisco in the United States. The organizers of the exhibition state that Václav Neckář apparently wore some of the first jeans in Czechoslovakia in 1965, when he filmed a song in them on the Charles Bridge.
Retro Museum Prague shows design, trends on the fourth floor of the Kotva department store and everyday life in the 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia.
