{{short description|Elements of popular culture based on Communist symbols}} [[File:Revolution-fh-2014.JPG|thumb|Communist chic clothing for sale at the Fête de l'Humanité event in France in 2014.]] '''Communist chic''' are elements of popular culture such as fashion and commodities based on communist symbols and other things associated with Marxism, Leninism, socialism and communism.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=http://archive.boston.com/yourlife/fashion/articles/2006/04/30/communist_chic/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214064810/http://archive.boston.com/yourlife/fashion/articles/2006/04/30/communist_chic/|archive-date=December 14, 2018|title=Communist chic|last=Jacoby|first=Jeff|date=April 30, 2006|work=The Boston Globe|accessdate=December 10, 2018|author-link=Jeff Jacoby (columnist)}}</ref><ref name="Wilson">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-wilson/communist-chic |title=Communist Chic: Hoisting a few to the ghost of Stalin |access-date=January 5, 2019 |magazine=The Weekly Standard |location=Washington, D.C. |first=John |last=Wilson |date=February 15, 1999 |archive-date=January 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105145320/https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-wilson/communist-chic |url-status=dead }}</ref> Typical examples are T-shirts and other memorabilia with Alberto Korda's iconic photo of Che Guevara.
Journalists Christine Esche and Rosa Mossiah argue that in former communist countries, communist chic originates from disappointment in capitalist society.<ref name="eschemossiah">{{cite web |url=https://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/lost-and-found-communism-nostalgia-and-communist-chic-among-polands-old-and-young-generations/ |title=Lost and Found: Communism Nostalgia and Communist Chic |access-date=September 3, 2021 |publisher=Humanity in Action |date=September 2010 |first1=Christine |last1=Esche |first2=Rosa Katharina |last2=Mossiah |first3=Sandra |last3=Topalska |archive-date=September 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902230732/https://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/lost-and-found-communism-nostalgia-and-communist-chic-among-polands-old-and-young-generations/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
The trend gained some momentum with the 150th anniversary of ''The Communist Manifesto'' in 1998.<ref name="Wilson"/> A 'Modern Edition' was released in New York City that year, and style expert Simon Doonan viewed the book as a desirable fashion accessory regardless of its contents. He argues "People are forgetting the Gulag and Stalin and the negative imagery ... it could be time for it to come back as pure style."<ref name="Heffernan">{{cite magazine |first=Virginia |last=Heffernan |title=Commie Chic |date=February 23, 1998 |magazine=New York |url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/2269/ |access-date=September 9, 2021 |archive-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228043705/https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/2269/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
== See also == *Che Guevara in fashion *Communist nostalgia *Nostalgia for the Soviet Union *Ostalgie *Capitalist realism *Nazi chic *Radical chic
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:Communist chic Category:Communist propaganda Category:Communist nostalgia Category:Popular culture Category:Fashion aesthetics
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