The dedication and enthusiasm of the builders of the new society, devotion to revolutionary ideals shake even more, if you remember the situation in those years. Destroyed that shocked by the war economy, a terrible famine, lack the most necessary goods - all this could not affect the external appearance of people. People were forced to alter clothes blankets, tablecloths, drapery, wearing old things. The sewers worked on military orders, but also outfits for the army was not enough.Range of civilian clothing of the early 20-ies was very small and consisted mainly of items appearing in the pre-revolutionary era. Now they have acquired a different meaning in the form of new people. So, the leather jacket, known first as the apparel of the drivers, became a kind of uniform of Commissars in the army, leaders of workers ' organizations. Continued to wear hoodies, tunic, tunics, boots, wide leather belts, dresses from the soldiers ' cloth. Have become very popular red scarf, which became a symbol of women activists.
In the very nature of the forms of the clothes flashed exactly those elements that were in keeping with the spirit of the revolutionary time, the military situation. Despite the poverty and lack of materials in the form of the people reflected the revolutionary fit, the status of the alert, when any minute it was possible to switch from peaceful labor to fight with the enemy. Items of clothing, as in other historical periods, was a single ensemble. This is vividly felt in the photographic era of the civil war in paintings B. Grekov, B. Johansson, K. Petrov-Vodkin, Deineka.
The years flowed in an atmosphere of acute ideological struggle on the cultural front, the struggle, which was faced not only enemies, but some people political beliefs, people of advanced views. The spirit of destruction of the old world, and with it the old culture permeated many speeches of major figures of literature and art. Characteristic for them was the identity of the old culture in General, whether progressive or reactionary, bourgeois ideology which is alien and hostile to the socialist.
Statements about the ways of development of the Soviet women wore even more dramatic. Here are closely intertwined and contradictory impact largely intricate and complex sociological problems of the suit. To the concept of "fashionable clothes" then resolutely took all kinds of pre-revolutionary costume. Even the word "fashion" has come to mean bourgeois prejudice, embodying something very reactionary, hostile to the spirit of the Communist way of life.A grain of truth in such statements proletarian cultural figures undoubtedly were: denying the fashion of a bygone society, thus they rejected the dysfunction of the costume of the past, their design principles are far from the requirements of practical expediency. However, the denial of fashion in General led to almost a decade the word "fashion" was branded as bourgeois.Fashion suit, was seen as absolutely non-utilitarian form, allowing for decorative "excesses" in the discharge of which hit the ties, bright colors of men's suits and shirts, trim dresses women's lace and ruffle. Even caps and briefcases, as belonging to the bourgeoisie, at this time, was ostracized. Extremely modest, puritanical formal suit matched the proletarian view of socialist forms of clothing.
The situation was complicated by the fact that there is a wide variety of interpretations of "true socialist" forms of clothing - interpretation, often diametrically opposed, and actually not related to these specific problems. Often a fair assessment of the development of types and forms of clothing were mixed with naive and even comical statements.
There were many various companies, proclaiming their special principles in the field of clothing. The most radical of these was the society "Down with shame!" - the prototype of modern nudists. Strange and bizarre looked "Alechinsky" outfits of the futurists, who sought in literature and in life to carry out their innovative "ultrarevolutionary" program. Encouraging nihilistic attitude to the entire artistic heritage, they put forward new slogans and in costume.However, colorful attire of the futurists, like the extravagant innovations of many of these advocates of new clothing, only served to draw attention to one or another artistic or literary grouping, not bringing anything serious to the development of a new household costume.
But in real life there was a new principles of Soviet costume. They were born in the most revolutionary medium of expressing quite precisely the requirements that were considered paramount in socialist clothing. A small article in the newspaper "Life of art" vividly recreates the atmosphere of the time and formulates the main ideas regarding the new costume: "In the premises of the Commissariat of health held its first meeting on the issue of creating a new work suit that meets modern requirements. The meeting was attended by representatives of art, medicine, technology, etcD. a Group of persons with the primary goal to create a new work suit, proceeds from the assumption that the current working suit - working blouse is insufficiently rational. The great Russian revolution must exert its influence on the external shell of a man. A new suit should be not only comfortable and elegant but it must also be in full based on current economic conditions and to meet the hygienic requirements"1.
Here the intended direction, which was to develop new forms of costume, is practical and functional, meeting the requirements of each profession. Living conditions largely determined the structural bases of the first examples of costume in post-revolutionary years.
The idea sports a new type of clothing most often appears on the pages of Newspapers and magazines of the early 20-ies. They felt the desire to break away from the old dysfunctional forms, especially female costume, bound with the human body and hindering his movements, unhygienic, ukrashatelskih serving more purposes than utilitarian.Dedicated to the issue of new forms of costume the article is "Organization of body" abhorrence sees the futility of the forms of the old suit, the harmful effects on the human body tight and uncomfortable shoes, bulky, covering all body, women's dresses, ridiculous forms of breeches: "the costume is dictated by fashion, "beauty," custom, but in any case not expediency... Exercise can and should go beyond athletic fields and is already out. Last summer I went in shorts in the city, not only in the procession (organized) but also some friends. The first onslaught of the costume are made"2.This article, largely true, largely naive, reflects one of the major trends of the year - the search for new forms in athletic and professional clothing. The artists proposed for implementation in industrial mass production a lot of projects but, unfortunately, they are almost never found implementation.

On the photo: Not enough fabrics for the new uniforms, so the clothes of the red Army represented a rather motley picture. In the same regiment as you can see a red army coat next to a leather jacket or cloth jacket, budenovka near the cap, hat and cap.
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1 business suit.- "Life is art", 1919, No. 142, p.1.
2 T. Hawkes. Organization of the body. - "October thoughts", 1924, № 2, pp. 60 - 62.