Constructivism is an avant-garde movement that began in 20th-century Russia, which was rapidly turning into an industrial society. One of the most experimental art movements, it wanted to be at the center of social and political-ideological change and...
Constructivism is an avant-garde movement that began in 20th-century Russia, which was rapidly turning into an industrial society. One of the most experimental art movements, it wanted to be at the center of social and political-ideological change and pursued a unique style, which laid the essence of art and humanity bare. The avant-garde art movement, which began before and continued after the Russian Revolution, shows a new world of formative art that transcends the long span of art history, which had evolved around Western Europe.
Russian constructivism has greatly influenced modern fashion and suggested a new artistic standard for it. Especially considering that in today’s fashion, great interest is shown in structural or special forms rather than in two-dimensional compositions, the artistic forms of constructivism can be said to have foretold the forms and concepts of the present fashion.
The purpose of this study is to illuminate the meaning of constructivism by presenting an overview of the historical and artistic background of Russian art, and to search for cases where an artistic trend spreads into and develops fashion into a unique work, by examining the formative features found in the works of constructivists.
The following is a summary of the results of this study:
First, the artistic elements of Russian constructivism include photo montages, geometrical structures, color abstraction, and an asymmetrical order, through which the ideals of the Russian Revolution were substantiated, idealized, and materialized into an artistic form.
Second, the different forms of Russian constructivism have such artistic characteristics as popularity, spatiality, structuralism, decorativeness, and mobility, which were then expressed in modern fashion as elaborated below.
Popularity points to the blending of industry and art. It is related to visibility and universality, both of which serve to infuse societal ideas into the masses. Its design elements are meaningful and valuable purposes or social phenomena, which are expressed in an easy, entertaining, and artistic way through real pictures, computer art, graphics, or pure painting.
Spatiality involves the ways in which fashion is influenced by special structural and architectural formations, and how fashion shows a sense of space and volume, for example, in T-silhouettes, which emphasize the shoulders with angles and structures, and in X-silhouettes, which amplify the shoulders and cuffs. Here, the shapes are simple (with sculptural cuts and precise fits), with nary an unnecessary detail.
Structuralism shows in the way that structural and three-dimensional shapes are expressed by the harmonization of modified shapes (e.g., circles, triangles, and squares) and of spatial formations.
Decorativeness has to do with geometric shapes and the harmonization of color. Color density and visual power are created through graphic color combination and striking color contrast.
Dynamicity is expressed via a sense of movement and rhythm in the overall coordination, asymmetrical silhouettes, asymmetrical layers, asymmetrical details, etc. Even a simple contrast, such as between large and small, bright and dark, heavy and light, vertical and horizontal, angles and circles, closure and openness, and single and multiple colors, creates the effects of visual formation and unlimited possibility for change.
This study intends to reconstruct the meaning of Russian formalism and to reflect it on fashion, thereby reconsidering the characteristics and meaning of Russian constructivism in the context of today’s fashion. This will broaden the meaning of constructivism and will suggest a new direction for modern fashion to pursue.