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Florin and his co-students holding Albanian lek banknotes: photo hand-colored by Florin, Elbasan 1990.
« We could never go and have a piece of clothing made the way we liked. We always had to have it made according to the style - the communist style. You had to have your hair cut at this length, exactly like this, not have any hair over here and not have long hair. Your hair had to be cut just so and you couldn’t have a beard. You could only have a moustache if you liked. Your clothes shouldn’t have many pockets. They shouldn’t have pockets behind and things like that. They would chase us. I remember I had a pair of jeans made with a friend, and we asked the tailor to put a pocket on the back, a round pocket right here and in the front there were some red lines. And when we went out, the teacher chased after us and we were running around the city (laughing). And the girls of course shouldn’t wear mini-skirts and those kinds of clothes. No way. In other words, whatever was in fashion outside Albania shouldn’t enter the country. You know, you shouldn’t wear loose cowboy pants. »
« It wasn’t allowed then to have long hair. My hair was the way I have it now, that’s how the state wanted it to be…Once, when I was young, around fifteen, sixteen, I went out wearing a skull cap like the kind all the old men wear. This wasn’t allowed. And they sent me there, to the mayor’s office, and he asked me, "Why are you wearing this?" My hair was also a bit longer than usual. And he said, "Why are you wearing this? Where did you find it?" The first thing he wanted to know was where I had found it. Well, there was an old man in the neighborhood, but it was also the fashion from what we had seen secretly in the videotapes. In America the sheriffs, the police, were wearing it. And at that time we were little kids and we were playing. So, they summon me to the office and he [the mayor] tells me "You’ll take the hat off, and tomorrow you’ll go and have your hair cut." »
