Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova

About museum

Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova – a Russian and Soviet fashion designer and theatrical costume artist. After finishing gymnasium, Nadezhda Petrovna decided to leave her parents' home and earn a living on her own. She enrolled in the Moscow Cutting and Sewing School of O. A. Suvorova. After studying for two years, in 1879 Lamanova began working in the Voitkevichs' workshop and quickly became the lead cutter. In the second half of 1885 Nadezhda Petrovna opened her own small atelier in Tupoy Khlynovsky Lane, in the house of Pompey Batyushkov. In 1898 Lamanova was granted the title of supplier to the Court of Her Imperial Highness Elizaveta Feodorovna, and from October 2 (October 15 new style) 1904 Nadezhda Petrovna became a supplier to the Court of Her Imperial Majesty Alexandra Feodorovna. At the end of the 1890s Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova married the young lawyer Andrei Pavlovich Kayutov, then a well-known amateur actor. The couple lived together for 45 years. 

 In 1919 the former “supplier to Her Imperial Majesty” was arrested. Only thanks to the intervention of Maxim Gorky was she released after two and a half months. From 1921 she worked at the Vakhtangov Theatre. After the October Revolution Lamanova was forced to develop numerous models of simple clothing intended for the broad masses. At the same time she worked on designing dresses inspired by traditional Russian folk costume. In 1922 Lamanova became a member of the State Academy of Artistic Sciences. In 1925 Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova and Vera Ignatievna Mukhina jointly published the album “Art in Everyday Life.” In the same year Lamanova’s designs were sent to Paris for the world exhibition, where her Russian-style dresses caused a sensation – the “à la Russe” style became extremely fashionable in Europe at that time. From 1926 Lamanova created a number of models based on the cultures of the peoples of the North (commissioned by Vsekopromsoyuz) for sale abroad, then developed a collection of fur garments for the Leipzig exhibition, and participated in the New York exhibition in 1929.  

Lamanova became one of the first costume designers in the history of Soviet cinema. She created costumes for the films “Pokoleniye pobediteley” (Generation of Winners), “Circus,” and “Alexander Nevsky,” and participated in creating costumes for the film “Aelita.” Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova died in 1941 and was buried in Moscow, in plot 3 of the Vagankovo Cemetery.