The art of the costume is one of the most important and most extensive areas of the Soviet decorative art. On the creation of his works a whole army of artists in the creative labs houses models and special art-design Bureau, art workshops, sewing factories in the country. Creative problems costume many threads related to such diverse fields as industrial Economics and trade, sociology and culture, psychology and ideology.
Soviet art of the costume has a long and complex biography of his outstanding masters, whose names are either forgotten or remained unknown. In public and private archives of interesting material that will take you step by step to restore the stage of evolution of the suit in our country. Equally important "source" of information are still alive and many masters of the older generation - their memories help to recreate the atmosphere of years gone by.
In the history of Soviet costume era after the great October revolution is particularly interesting and the least known. It was in those years formed the principles of the new suit, was born brilliant in their foresight projects of mass forms of clothing, it was planned a specific way of implementation of creative standards in the mass industrial products.The brilliant work of the pioneers of a new suit of Nadezhda Lamanova, Vera Mukhina, Alexandra Exter, Lyubov Popova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Makarova, very different in their personalities, but with one accord sought to implement a single goal, laid a solid Foundation of theory and practice of Soviet modeling.
Activities are described as the first in this series of names Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova is the brightest pages in this story. Unfortunately, this name for many years was undeservedly forgotten. Lamanova, a talented artist and charming man, remembers the older generation of Soviet actors, writers, artists, designers. This book aims to fill to some extent the gaps in the history of Soviet art of the costume to show the originality of her perspective in 20 years, to restore the names of the first masters.
But first a few words about what, in fact, pony toils under the "art of the suit" and what is its specificity? The concept of a "suit" sufficiently conditional, since it incorporates an ensemble of decorative art objects that form the appearance of a man: a suit, hat, shoes, bags, jewelry, accessories. Long these elements showed the tendency to act in unison, combining with each other in shape and color, forming, thus, a unified stylistic complex.Its peculiarity is that it is created not by one person but by the professionals working in isolation in different areas of production.
A leading role in the ensemble of garments, the role of a "conductor" plays the suit is the most movable element, often changing and dictating their conditions to others "item". The evolution of the suit is ultimately determined style the whole system complex. In turn, the development of dress forms is greatly influenced by the structure and pattern textile which is created and does not exist by itself, but as a kind of "prefabricated" designed for life in the suit, the man.Not a chance with the first post-revolutionary years, one of the Central problems is becoming the constant contact of artists working in the textile and fashion designers.
The principles of formation and characteristics of the costume is particularly close to the architecture, where the Foundation of the building is taken to be the ratio of the proportions and scales, rhythms, volumes, the system of the decor. In the analysis of costume forms, different historical periods, researchers often resort to matching them with architectural structures. Subject to the General all the decorative arts law, costume has a pronounced specificity. The object of the artists of the costume becomes the man himself, his appearance.Artists porcelain, glass, decorative textile, furniture create the objects composing the material environment in which man lives. This appeal to humans raises a number of interesting features in the art of costume. First of all, active participation, even collaboration of the masses in the establishment and development of forms of clothing: none of the other types of decorative arts can not compete with the suit on prevalence and mass. This feature manifests itself in the individuality of fashion, the desire of man to accommodate her.
Another distinctive feature of the costume is his commitment to fashion. In any field of work so decisively its influence and role is not affected, as in a suit. The rhythm of fashion has accelerated in the twentieth century, reaching a literally cosmic speed and forcing you to update every season a huge industry in industrial production. Especially strong influence is the fashion factor in capitalist industry. clothing.
The complex processes of formation and movement of fashion can be traced in the development of Soviet art of the costume. But they are here very peculiar, because the new nature of social relations, the new socialist economy, ideology and culture dictate special laws. Formula N. Lamanova "who created the costume and what for what purpose" has been a motto of the work of artists of the Soviet art of the costume.

Photo: 1899. Solemn procession in Nizhny Novgorod on the occasion of 100-anniversary from birthday of A. S. Pushkin. About the social class of the participants to be judged primarily by their clothing - suits commoners, officials, workers, clergy, form students. This is a rare photo made by M. Dmitriev and stored in the Museum of A. Gorky in Moscow.