Ufa ladies’ fashion (formation of provincial fashion industry in post-reform Russia)

The process of formation of one of the branches of commercial and industrial activity – the fashion industry, which included the sale and production of goods for women in the Russian province in the 1860s–1880s – is considered. The subject of study is gender history, raising the status of a woman who becomes an independent owner or manager of a business. In the post-reform period, the rapid development of trade in women’s goods began for representatives of the "middle" and "upper" classes of Ufa, the capital of a separate province that emerged in 1865. Due to the transport isolation of the region, only during the summer navigation period the river shipping company operated, the delivery of "fashionable" goods from the capitals and abroad through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan sharply increased the cost of products. Therefore, an independent system for the production of women’s clothing, hats, shoes and even jewelry is being developed in Ufa. It was practically the only purely female business in the city, covering about a third to a quarter of all establishments. Either the owners or managers who actually managed the business were women. Initially, the fashion industry of Ufa as an entertainment for wealthy officials and merchants who dreamed of breaking out of everyday life, quickly transformed into a serious business, acquiring the features of small-scale production with a considerable number of employees. Women’s entrepreneurship in the fashion industry was distinguished by a higher socio-cultural level; noblewomen (officials) and merchant women made up 2/3 of the owners of establishments, while the production of men’s clothing and shoes was dominated by the bourgeoisie. This situation persisted for about 30 years, until the railroad arrived in Ufa in 1888. The influx of cheaper imports has dramatically changed the situation.