Russian artist and textile designer Varvara Stepanova once told the members of her studio: "Do not put any ornamentation on the dress: the seams which are essential for the cut give the dress form: expose how the dress is put together, the zips and so on, just as such things are visible on a machine."
Stepanova reached great results using fabric as a canvas and creating precise geometries based on avant-garde designs. Her bright and exciting Modernist designs created together with Lyubov Popova for the First State Textile Print Factory, could be considered as visual experimentations based on Constructivist principles, that managed to become popular also in the West.
Popova and Stepanova both supported a practical and versatile fashion based on simple components and functionality and devoid of any kind of decorations, but employing pockets, seams and buttons as decorative elements. Indeed, as Stepanova stated: "Aesthetic aspects must be replaced by the process of sewing itself".
Some of the collections seen on the London runways seem to hail a return to Constructivist principles such as the derivation of form from the combination of function, material and construction. Roksanda Ilincic's could be filed among such collections.
The opening looks called to mind Stepanova's graphic textiles characterised by iterations of geometric motifs. In some cases bright colours - in particular neon yellow and vibrant orange - were juxtaposed to black to create colour-blocked dresses with rigid forms and silhouettes or structured pieces that hinted at the principles of Constructivism.
Though the closing designs with their appliqued crystal flowers on sheer tops were more romantic, boxy looks, voluminous stiff skirts matched with ample jackets with curved shoulders that hid away the feminine forms, and panelled dresses that came in one colour on the front and in another at the back, prevailed.
Looks like the Spring/Summer 2014 season may be about pairing two or even more panels of colours together in a Constructivist kind of mood. Be prepared to do so, but remember that you can save some money by doing your own little research about the Russian Constructivist principles in a library near you.
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