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Author Topic: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg  (Read 6967 times)

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Offline Cosmonaut

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RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« on: April 30, 2011, 10:22:10 AM »
This gallery is related to a discussion about the impression women´s dressing style would have on a Western visitor in SPb, but should serve also as a standalone sneak and peek into the city centre femalescape. The pics are gathered on one hour walk at evening on the main street (Nevskiy Prospekt).

If I would have to pick one typical or most common street view of SPb women, it would be this:

ila_rendered

I found that young female style comes mainly in four categories.

1) Quilted or wool jacket, jeans or other trousers [About 40% of 20-30 yo women]


ila_rendered

2) Blouse or leather jacket, jeans [About 40%]



I wonder if this style of keeping shirt untucked and showing between jacket and trousers is an American quirk to display casual style. Unfortunately it has spread over Europe.

ila_rendered

3) Leather jacket, mini-skirt, pantyhose, (long boots) [less than 2%]

I guess this style in public is an FSU specialty (elsewhere women dress like this for only night clubs etc.) But it isn't that common even here, but it stands out of the masses.



ila_rendered

ila_rendered

ila_rendered

4) Some fancy dress [less than 1%]



There is also about 5% which could be classified as punk, "indie" or "enfant terrible" style but I didn't bother to picture those.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2011, 12:48:05 AM »
Nice to see some 'real' pictures and not some pavement perv's photographic fantasy!  tiphat
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Offline JeanClaude

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2011, 01:12:55 AM »
No high heels? I St Peter is becomming more and more Westernized,...,before you know it we will be seeing baggy shorts and flipflops!
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Offline Manny

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2014, 06:04:39 AM »
Most of those shots could be anywhere in England.
Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

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Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2014, 06:09:46 AM »
Of course they could. People are people, there is no earthly paradise filled with gorgeous young women. That's just a fantasy peddled by marketers and lapped up by the lonely and desperate.

About the only difference is that there is a little less obesity among the middle aged that one sees, but that's all.
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Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2014, 06:12:53 AM »
Of course they could. People are people, there is no earthly paradise filled with gorgeous young women. That's just a fantasy peddled by marketers and lapped up by the lonely and desperate.

About the only difference is that there is a little less obesity among the middle aged that one sees, but that's all.
So your saying there is no difference, in how women dress in the majority of FSU cities.
Compared to western cities?
There is nothing permanent except change.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2014, 06:22:15 AM »
Of course they could. People are people, there is no earthly paradise filled with gorgeous young women. That's just a fantasy peddled by marketers and lapped up by the lonely and desperate.

About the only difference is that there is a little less obesity among the middle aged that one sees, but that's all.
So your saying there is no difference, in how women dress in the majority of FSU cities.
Compared to western cities?

Read what I wrote.
...everything ends always well; if it’s still bad, then it’s not the end!

Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2014, 06:27:01 AM »
Of course they could. People are people, there is no earthly paradise filled with gorgeous young women. That's just a fantasy peddled by marketers and lapped up by the lonely and desperate.

About the only difference is that there is a little less obesity among the middle aged that one sees, but that's all.
So your saying there is no difference, in how women dress in the majority of FSU cities.
Compared to western cities?

Read what I wrote.
you should visit here  :chuckle:
There is nothing permanent except change.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2014, 06:28:51 AM »
you should visit here  :chuckle:

Illiteracy is not usually considered an asset as a tourism attraction.
...everything ends always well; if it’s still bad, then it’s not the end!

Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2014, 06:43:22 AM »
you should visit here  :chuckle:

Illiteracy is not usually considered an asset as a tourism attraction.
Neither is fat, bald and ugly, but hey, all have pluses and minus in life :)
There is nothing permanent except change.

Offline redroo

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2014, 06:45:04 AM »
Hey, JC, nice to see you back

Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2014, 06:46:17 AM »
Hey, JC, nice to see you back
That post is May 2011 :)
There is nothing permanent except change.

Offline Pkeel

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2014, 08:21:03 AM »
It will be like this place only when they are wearing flannel pajamas.

Offline Manny

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2014, 10:50:25 AM »
Of course they could. People are people, there is no earthly paradise filled with gorgeous young women. That's just a fantasy peddled by marketers and lapped up by the lonely and desperate.

About the only difference is that there is a little less obesity among the middle aged that one sees, but that's all.

Togliatti and Samara streets look more appealing than that.
Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

Look what the American media makes some people believe:
Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2014, 11:00:47 AM »
I am sure that the scenery is more pleasant in better weather, but in the end folks are folks. People are clustered around 'average'.

If one wanders around some parts of central London, some bits of Moscow, or Saint Petersburg one would expect that the average might shift a bit. Same in New York, in some places, but not everywhere.
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Offline TomT

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #15 on: March 08, 2014, 11:15:43 AM »
People are clustered around 'average'.

Did you see a lot of drop-dead gorgeous women when we visited NYC?

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2014, 03:38:10 PM »
People are clustered around 'average'.

Did you see a lot of drop-dead gorgeous women when we visited NYC?

In some places, yes, but mostly they were average. That's the point.
People are average. There may be reasons why there might on occasion be a preponderance of attractive women in one place but they are always exceptions. So, in Knightsbridge in London one might see more well dressed, well looked after and attractive women than in my home town. In Helsinki one saw quite a lot of attractive women (girls really) in the early and late summer on Esplanadi the view is great because it is a lovely place for students from the universities to hang out on the grass, listen to free live music or drink coffee in the coffee shops. In the summer up at Pirita beach in Tallinn the view is lovely. But go a few meters along the road to the Selver supermarket and the view is very different.

So, there is always a reason why somebody might think they are seeing something exceptional - maybe is is a figment of imagination, what one wants to see, rather than what is really there. Or there is a localised reason, but the locale will be limited and the reason is exceptional.

I can understand how Americans might be misled a little given that for many, but not all, American men, any woman who is slender is attractive. But, of course, that is not true and there are many women who are not slender who are very attractive.
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Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #17 on: March 08, 2014, 03:57:35 PM »
Women in this part of the world tend to be on average, bigger.
Even more they don't tend to take care of themselves and most certainly
do not dress good, for the most part. Yes you can see attractive women.
Some dress nice and take the time, most do not.
When I see an attractive women, who does not take care of them selves, from dress to personal appearance, It gives you thoughts towards their personalities also. When in the FSU, what I notice most, is even the average girls, take the time to look good and dress nice. If you like a well dressed women ( I do) then odds are higher of finding this in the FSU, compared to most places I have lived in the west.
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Offline Manny

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #18 on: March 08, 2014, 04:01:37 PM »
One of the things that first got me into this was my first trip to Tallinn.

In the late 90's the style of dress was very feminine and the women all somewhat different to what I had seen elsewhere in Europe. Some of it was slimness and bone structure and classic Slavic looks, much of it was how they dressed, their attention to detail and the way women in the street met your gaze with that part interest/part amusement expression as women in that part of the world do.

In short, back then, my chin hit the floor and I thought, "Wow, that is what women are supposed to look like".

When I first went to Russia a few years later that was greatly amplified. Even otherwise quite average women became interesting as they embraced their femininity more than the average western woman and the presentation was - although not expensive - keen with attention to detail.

Much has changed in Estonia since then, and the typical style of dress has morphed into a more casual central European/Scandinavian style. The old Russian slightly tacky porn star look is less popular now. It vanished along with the pointy nails and guys pointy shoes.

But nowhere yet have I seen scenes quite as drab as those. So yes, I think it must hit he big cities first.

Those pics also show the weight gain that comes with greater affluence. I noted this in Russia in a TR quite a few years ago and even now see overweight women in Estonia - which was reputed to be the slimmest country in Europe.

The axis of men looking abroad will change as long predicted. And now Ukraine is looking uncertain, it may be faster than we think.
Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

Look what the American media makes some people believe:
Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Offline TomT

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #19 on: March 08, 2014, 04:45:07 PM »
In some places, yes...

You should have nudged me; I didn't see them.

Online andrewfi

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #20 on: March 09, 2014, 01:52:30 AM »
In some places, yes...

You should have nudged me; I didn't see them.

You only have eyes for one beautiful woman!
On a cold winter day, one is not likely to see anyone looking their best in the chill, windy canyons that are Manhattan's streets! Just as in those early spring pics taken by Cosmonaut above.
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Offline Mikeav8r

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #21 on: March 09, 2014, 03:33:47 PM »
In some places, yes...

You should have nudged me; I didn't see them.

You only have eyes for one beautiful woman!
On a cold winter day, one is not likely to see anyone looking their best in the chill, windy canyons that are Manhattan's streets! Just as in those early spring pics taken by Cosmonaut above.

Agreed.  However, I was in St. Pete in July and the scenery was very much the same.  It was difficult (other than signs and language being spoken) to determine I was in a Russian city and not another European city based on what was being worn.   

Moscow wasn't much different, even though it was Winter, in the sense that there was very conservative dress (flats, basic boots, Uggs, jeans, long dresses, etc.).  Yes it was Winter, but in Sumy, there were many women wearing short skirts and heels under the long fur coats and in Poltava, late Spring/early Summer, I saw lots of the short skirts and heels roaming the city.  I did not see this in St. Pete or Moscow and I was in both cities considerably longer.

So, I agree with you in that it is wishful thinking (dreaming) that the FSU is overrun with Victoria Secret models around every corner.  It simply isn't the case.  Walking around the city, eating at various restaurants, riding the metro, wandering nice shopping malls does not produce these droves of beauties.  They are very much like the west except they do actually dress better before leaving the house (no sweats of dirty hair pulled up in a bun or pony tail) and are visibly slimmer.

Now, if one wants to find these quality ladies, as described here, they can be found.  I am guessing they are at the posh clubs and establishments where they would want to attract a man (usually one with a fat wallet) which is really no different than the west, but there are higher numbers and better quality in the FSU.....this, in my opinion, is where it is different than the smaller cities like Samara, Ufa, Perm, Tomsk, Sumy, Poltava, etc.
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Offline NS1

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #22 on: March 09, 2014, 03:58:34 PM »
Never been to Russia, under the circumstances not likely to be anytime soon.
But In Ukraine, I never seen women dress as the picks about, unless the were very young.
I was never interested in very young so, all was good.
There is nothing permanent except change.

Offline Manny

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #23 on: March 09, 2014, 03:59:31 PM »
Now, if one wants to find these quality ladies, as described here, they can be found.  I am guessing they are at the posh clubs and establishments where they would want to attract a man (usually one with a fat wallet) which is really no different than the west, but there are higher numbers and better quality in the FSU.....this, in my opinion, is where it is different than the smaller cities like Samara, Ufa, Perm, Tomsk, Sumy, Poltava, etc.

Having spent quite a bit of time now in Togliatti (Samara), I can tell you that when there is no snow on the ground, any red blooded guy can sit on a bench watching people walk by and be bowled over by the quality of the women he will see.

Lets say walking around the streets of central Manchester [or insert any UK city here] in the daytime on a weekday, as a guy, a woman might really catch your eye once every 30 minutes? In Togliatti it is more like once every three minutes. Tallinn is similar. There in the supermarket you will see women every day that you might see similar at a home supermarket three times a year.

The OP's photos might be Manchester, Berlin or Amsterdam. So I dunno whats going on in St Pete. Tourists maybe?

I've been all over Europe and to the US many times. Generally speaking, in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Russia, there are many more prettier women who take better care of themselves and dress well. And many more of them than I saw in western Europe and America. Indeed, the raison d'être for the site here.
Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

Look what the American media makes some people believe:
Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Offline Konfushus

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Re: RW Springtime Street Apparel from St. Petersburg
« Reply #24 on: April 18, 2014, 01:56:21 AM »
That's St. P. for ya. Fashion and appearances in St. P. have always seemed more like Northern Europe than the rest of Russia to me.

Go to Moscow and the scenery is better. Go away from Moscow into the provinces and it's as Manny describes.