Diplomatic Wives, Cultures of Dress, and Brita Kekkonen : The New Study on the Cultural History of Diplomacy Has Started

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the private dress collection of Brita Kekkonen (1927–2013), a diplomatic wife, who was a very well-known figure in Finland during the period of the Cold War. Brita Kekkonen was also a very talented dress-maker and a very fashionable figure in diplomatic circles. Some eighty outfits made by Brita Kekkonen have survived to this day, in addition to her volumi-nous pattern collection, containing more than 1,000 patterns from several decades. The aim of my new postdoctoral research project is to identify Bri-ta Kekkonen’s dresses and examine their use, politico-cultural meanings and design in the context of the Cold War, diplomatic etiquette and Kekkonen’s own personal history.