Editing Varvara Stepanova (section)

==Clothing design and textiles==
[[File:1924. Режиссер Виталий Жемчужный Варвара Степанова и Александр Родченко во время подготовки представления.jpg|thumb|Theater director [[Vitaly Zhemchuzhny]], Stepanova and Rodchenko, 1924]]

In 1921, Stepanova moved almost exclusively into the realm of production, in which she felt her designs could achieve their broadest impact in aiding the development of the Soviet society.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lavrentiev|first=Alexander|title=Amazons of the avant-garde : Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Udaltsova|year=2000|publisher=Guggenheim Museum|location=New York|isbn=0810969246|page=[https://archive.org/details/amazonsofavantga00exte/page/241 241]|author-link=Varvara Stepanova|editor=John E. Bowlt and Matthew Drutt|url=https://archive.org/details/amazonsofavantga00exte/page/241}}</ref> Russian Constructivist clothing represented the destabilization of the oppressive, elite aesthetics of the past and, instead, reflected utilitarian functionality and production. Gender and class distinctions gave way to functional, geometric clothing. In line with this objective, Stepanova sought to free the body in her designs, emphasizing clothing's functional rather than decorative qualities. Stepanova deeply believed clothing must be looked at in action. Unlike the aristocratic clothing that she felt sacrificed physical freedom for aesthetics, Stepanova dedicated herself to designing clothing for particular fields and occupational settings in such a way that the object's construction evinced its function. In addition, she sought to develop expedient means of clothing production through simple designs and strategic, economic use of fabrics.<ref name="Lodder 148">{{cite book|last=Lodder|first=Christina|title=Russian constructivism|year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven [Conn.]|isbn=0300034067|page=[https://archive.org/details/russianconstruct0000lodd/page/148 148]|edition=4. print.|url=https://archive.org/details/russianconstruct0000lodd/page/148}}</ref>

=== Clothing designs ===
Stepanova, thus, identified clothing as occupying two groups: ''prozodezhda'' and ''sportodezhda''. Within these categories, she attended to logical, efficient production and construction of the garments.<ref name="Adaskina 1987 149">{{cite journal|last=Adaskina|first=Natalia|title=Constructivist Fabrics and Dress Design|journal=The Journal of Propaganda Arts|year=1987|volume=5|page=149}}</ref> However, war-induced poverty placed economic restrictions on the Russian Constructivists’ industrial fervor, and their direct engagement with production was never fully realized. Thus, most of her designs were not mass-produced and circulated.<ref name="Lodder 145">{{cite book|last=Lodder|first=Christina|title=Russian constructivism|year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven [Conn.]|isbn=0300034067|page=[https://archive.org/details/russianconstruct0000lodd/page/145 145]|edition=4. print.|url=https://archive.org/details/russianconstruct0000lodd/page/145}}</ref>

[[File:History of Russian Design 03.jpg|thumb|"Prozodezhda" designed by Stepanova in 1920s]]

The first, ''prozodezhda'', or production/working clothing in basic styles, included theater costumes as well as professional and industrial garments.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lodder|first=Christina|title=Russian constructivism|year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven [Conn.]|isbn=0300034067|edition=4. print.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/russianconstruct0000lodd}}</ref> In the early 1920s, Stepanova entered the clothing industry through her costume designs in theater, in which she translated her artistic affinity for geometric shapes into functional, emblematic clothing. Made of dark blue and grey material, the graphic costumes allowed actors to maximize the appearance of their movements, exaggerating them for the stage and transforming the body into a dynamic composition of geometric shapes and lines.<ref name="Lavrentiev 1988 79">{{cite book|last=Lavrentiev|first=Alexander|title=Varvara Stepanova, the complete work|year=1988|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0262620820|page=79|edition=1st MIT Press|editor=John E. Bowlt}}</ref>

Within this category, Stepanova began designing ''spetsodezhda'', or clothing specialized for a specific occupation.<ref name="Adaskina 1987 149"/> In doing so, she designed clothing for men and women in both industrial and professional capacities with meticulous consideration of seaming, pockets, and buttons to ensure each aspect of the costume maintained a functional intention. Regardless of the occupational context, her working clothing carried a distinctive geometric and linear edge, rendering the body into a graphic composition and boxy, androgynous form.<ref name="Lavrentiev 1988 79"/>

The second category, ''sportodezhda'', or sports costumes, also presented bold lines, large forms, and contrasting colors to enable and emphasize the body's movements and allow spectators to easily distinguish one team from the other. Stepanova even rendered the team's emblem into a graphic design.<ref name="Lavrentiev 1988 79"/> The sports arena offered a context for Stepanova to realize an idealized bodily neutralization, and her uniforms were often unisex with pants and a belted tunic that obscured the human form.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kiaer|first=Christina|title=Imagine no possessions : the socialist objects of Russian constructivism|year=2008|publisher=MIT|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0262612210|page=114}}</ref>

=== Textile production ===

Stepanova carried out her ideal of engaging with industrial production in the following year when she, with [[Lyubov Popova]], became [[designer]] of textiles at the Tsindel (the First State Textile Factory) near Moscow, and in 1924 became professor of textile design at the [[Vkhutemas]] (Higher Technical Artistic Studios). As a constructivist, Stepanova not only transposed bold graphic designs onto her fabrics, but also focused heavily on their production. Stepanova only worked a little over a year at The First Textile Printing Factory, but she designed more than 150 fabric designs in 1924. Although she was inspired to develop new types of fabric, the current technology restricted her to printed patterns on monotone surfaces. By her own artistic choice, she also limited her color palette to one or two dyes. Although she only used triangles, circles, squares, and lines, Stepanova superimposed these geometric forms onto one another to create a dynamic, multi-dimensional design.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lavrentiev|first=Alexander|title=Varvara Stepanova, the complete work|year=1988|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0262620820|page=80|edition=1st MIT Press|editor=John E. Bowlt}}</ref>