When you think bout the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s in America, there are very clear and distinct styles associated with them (mainly fashion, popular culture, and technology). Was there a similar evolution of style in the Soviet Union? Did it evolve alongside with US?
Soviet Fashion was definitely a thing. I would argue that it more closely mirrored Western Europe than America, but there was some American influence as well.
Djurdja Bartlett's book on the topic is quite good, if you are interested in finding out more. It's called FashionEast. The book is organized by era/decade.
[1926] (http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5507/107487115.1b/0_5c594_77319b43_XL.jpg)
1970s (not sure on exact date)
Of course, there was some tension over the topic. There was a fine line to ride between fashion being a fine part of socialist life and fashion being a feature of capitalism - particularly because much of Soviet fashion was linked so closely to the fashion of the West, particularly by the 1950s. Groups like the Stilyagi were seen as dissidents for their adoption of American style, music and culture. There certainly was a black/grey market for Western fashion, and this was illegal.
But the politics of the Cold War were certainly as big a factor (or more of a factor) than ideology by this point. It was more about the poles of the Cold War than about an ideological argument based in socialism. Not that such things were never mentioned or argued. They were simply not as prevalent as they had been in the early years. As you can see from the examples above, fashion magazines were printed, new collections came out, etc. The trends are recognizable to European and American eyes.
Lastly, keep in mind that shortage was a really issue (generally speaking) in the Soviet Economy and even though things like fashion magazines existed it did not mean that such fashions were readily available for a lot of people.
