Shades and Lengths of Change: Exploring Fashion Changes in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

This paper explores the historical origins and enduring significance of the debates surrounding the color black and the appropriateness of dress length in Azerbaijani society. By combining archival research, fieldwork, interviews, and visual analysis, it was possible to explore the relationship between fashion choices and socio-economic and cultural dynamics. This paper suggests that the preference for black attire and debates surrounding the length of dress are associated with the particular socio-economic and cultural dynamics of the 1990s, set against the backdrop of Azerbaijan's post-Soviet context. This time represents a liminal period in the country's recent history, characterized by ambivalence that enabled a renegotiation of gender roles and dress norms. There is limited existing literature on Azerbaijani dress and this study offers a socio-semiotic ethnographic approach to understanding the complex relationship between fashion, and social change.