There was a time when it was the East that looked west for cultural inspiration. From the mid-60s onwards, Russian youth culture enacted its own form of aesthetic Glasnost. And despite the miles of concrete that divided Europe in two, the elements of Western culture that did make it beyond the so-called ‘Iron Curtain’ were consumed and copied with fervour. Real American jeans soon became an expression of rebellion in Eastern Europe and also a form of currency, with smuggled denims exchanging hands for the equivalent of a month’s wages. But at some point over the past decade, the longing glare that was once directed westwards started being mirrored back. The inimitable style of a post-Soviet world has become a fixation for many, with its cold, imposing Brutalist structures and nostalgia-led sportswear acting as visual shorthand for what many consider to be the singular aesthetic of Russia. The irony of this supposed cultural homogeneity is not lost on Russians,...