Fashion graphics and costume design in Ukraine in the 1920s

Results of the research. The phenomenon mentioned in the article becomes clear when analyzing the circumstances of the nearest fashion illustration prehistory. In the 19th and the early 20th centuries, there were published more than 50 illustrated women's fashion magazines in the Russian Empire, which had Ukraine as its part at that time. Among the most popular ones, there were "Ladies' Magazine" (Damskiy zhurnal), "Paper for Secular People" (Listok dlya svetskikh lyudey), "Fashion Mercury" (Merkuriy mod), "Herald of Parisian Fashion" (Vestnik parizhskoy modi), "Women's Herald" (Damskiy vestnik), "New Russian Bazaar" (Noviy russkiy bazar), "Fashion World" (Modniy svet), "Men's Fashion" (Muzhskiye modi), "Fashion store" (Modniy magazin). The magazines focused on different groups of readers: some publications paid more attention to fiction, others paid it to craft, tailoring and sewing. But the greatest value was represented by applications with "Parisian" color engravings. Evaluating the attractiveness of their magazines, publishers emphasized that they borrowed the best drawings and patterns from foreign publications [5].

In the first years of Soviet rule, traditional European fashion began to be perceived as a bourgeois phenomenon in the USSR, and the authorities gave the garment industry the task to create a special format of socialist fashion. This period left samples of original fashion graphics of avant-garde artists, whose creative destiny was associated with Ukraine: Alexandra Exter, Nina Genka-Meller and Evheniia Prybylska [6, 7]. Sketches of costumes and textile ornaments were published in the Moscow magazines "Atelier" and "Women's Magazine" (Zhenskiy zhurnal), the album "Art in everyday life" (Iskusstvo v bitu). Made in a cubo-futuristic manner, they met the demand for comfortable and appropriate clothing for the production function [8]. But in the period of new economic policy (NEP, 1921-1928), the idea of complete separation in fashion from the West was recognized as utopian, and there resumed copying and popularization of foreign clothing models.

Soviet fashion magazines of the second half of the 1920s appeared largely due to the NEP. "Women's Magazine" (Zhenskiy zhurnal), "The Art of Dressing" (Iskusstvo odevatsya), "Home Tailor" (Domashnyaya portnikha), "Fashion Herald" (Vestnik modi), "Latest Fashion" (Posledniye modi) - these are outlets that have shifted the emphasis from political and educational to cultural and consumer ones. The temporary economy liberalization, in particular the transfer of enterprises and trade into private hands, as well as the attraction of Western capital revived the consumer goods industry and raised the living standards of the population. There was a request for information about fashionable clothes. Women's magazines in Ukraine were published in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv. Such publications as "Fashion Magazine" (Kharkiv-Kyiv) and "New House" (Nova Khata) (Lviv) [10] were of a particular interest. The graphics presented in "Fashion Magazine" correspond to the most current trends of graphic art in the late 1920s, when the extreme intensity of avant-garde trends was replaced by new subjectivity. This is the name of the stream in the second half of the 1920s, which representatives looked closely at the details of real life and returned to the traditions of academic drawing. The mobility and technical simplicity inherent in the nature of graphics enabled it to be a harbinger of new style trends. In French graphics, this new trend was superimposed on the experience of lyrical drawings by Henri Matisse and the dynamic harmony of the works of Pablo Picasso. The fashion graphics of those years are distinguished by decorative elegance, sharpness of the captured typical image, lightness of a flexible and moving line. The profession of a fashion illustrator was formed under the focus on high art culture. A fundamentally new type of activity brought applied graphic creativity to a higher level, when the design of a fashionable dress solved the issue of active visual communication, stimulating business and attracting potential customers. Qualitative differences in the new fashion graphics style are in a number of specific features. The relationship between object and space was changing: the human figure then prevailed over the background, which was interpreted amorphously or decoratively. The composition of the centerfolds was predictable, as it was based on a modular grid and the variability of a large number of compositional solutions. The artist- spectator relationship was changing: the schedule was no longer the bearer of the value norms; it only broadcast relevant information. However, remaining in the background of the design process, the fashion illustrator then opposed their anonymity. The names of the Frenchmen such as Paul Irib, Georges Lepap, Georges Barbier, the American Kohl Phillips, the Spaniard Eduard Benito, and the Russian- born artist Erte (Roman Tyrtov) are the best examples of fashion graphics of those years. Each of them had their own creative taste, style and favorite techniques, but most of them worked in the shooting format: sketches of a ready-made model on a fashion model. Their drawings are not designed sketches, but a fixation of a sewn product, a sketch from nature. Similar tasks were already solved by photographers with whom there collaborated such leading fashion magazines as "Harper's Bazaar", "Vogue", "L'Officiel de la couture". But the dominant position was occupied by graphics with its ability to capture a sharp fleeting impression and increase the emotional impact. This was also facilitated by the appropriate level of printing technology, which allowed high-quality color reproduction. "Fashion Magazine" was published for only a few years, first in Kharkiv (1927-1928) and then in Kyiv (1928-1929). Its regular editor was L.Ya. Hurevych. All issues were printed in Kyiv's "1st Photo-Summer Printing House", which was subordinated to "Kyiv-Druk" Trust (Fig. 1). Black and white and color images had good printing, because the technique of photolithography allowed to obtain high- quality images. Each of the issues contained more than 100 models of women's and children's clothing, the description of each model indicated the purpose, features of cut and decoration, recommended materials.

There were no sources of copying and authorship of drawings, but it was obvious that drawings of models were borrowed from foreign editions and belonged to different authors, as it was possible to define six-seven different authors' approaches to graphics stylistics. Modern methods of using search engines on the Internet have allowed to establish a number of original images from American catalogs of those years, but the establishment of authorship requires further more in-depth research. Comparative analysis has showed that the original images were changed and adapted to Soviet realities, in particular, the signs of "bourgeoisie" disappeared from them: expensive hunting dogs, mouthpieces, and a monocle in the women's hands; landscape backgrounds were partially replaced.

Much of the models presented in the pages of "Fashion Magazine" correspond to the Art Deco style, most relevant in the decorative arts of the 1920s and 1930s. At first glance, Art Deco is perceived as a reincarnation of Art Nouveau with its ornamentation, complex polychromy, the tendency to use expensive materials, and exclusive handicrafts. But figurative language becomes more complex and eclectic: playfulness is combined with elegance, grace is combined with monumentality, soft streamlined forms do not contradict the classical symmetry and restraint. Fashion responds to Art Deco with allusions to antiquity and the idealized aesthetics of the East. Intricate exquisite draping becomes an important feature of a fashionable dress. All tools that enable to decorate clothes acquire value, such as: embroidery, painting, applique, ribbon, and lace. There were a large number of models with hand embroidery in "Fashion Magazine", and in some cases, it looked like stylized Ukrainian embroidery, as stated in the comments to the models. Images of young elegantly dressed beauties created a dramatic idealized world of women's sensual experiences. A woman did not want to wait for the mythical "bright future", she ccould easily separate herself from her proletarian origins and realize her potential in a variety of roles: a feminist, a flapper, a romantic heroine or a tennis player [11].

Most of the models presented in "Fashion Magazine" correspond to the key fashion trend of the twenties, i.e., the style of "waiter" ("la garconne" is translated from French as "a boy"). The term was associated with Victor Magritte's novel "La Garconne" issued in 1922, which soon became a bestseller. The heroine of the book is a modern young woman, who challenges traditional society with all her behavior: she indulges in entertainment, disregarding public opinion, and professes free love, makes a career and dresses in a masculine manner. Her appearance is like a woman-a boy, she is thin and active, wears a short haircut and a shortened dress (Fig. 2a). This image was extremely in keeping with the spirit of the times. The First World War changed women, forced them to treat their destiny and their appearance differently.

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Fig. 1. Graphic design of "Fashion Magazine": a - a magazine cover, 1928; b - models for the autumn season, 1927; c - the magazine address on the last page of the cover, 1929

Many of them have learned to live without male support, to earn for a living, to be free and independent. The topic of feminism in such circumstances has become more acute. In Western Europe and America, this movement was against legal women discrimination and for equality of the sexes. In the USSR, the struggle to give women full economic and civil rights was combined with other social transformations, when work became mandatory for all members of society, and women received the right to vote in 1917. The costume for a working woman shall be rational and practical. This costume has long been created for men - comfortable and ergonomic, divided into "top" and "bottom" (pants and a jacket), which can be combined with each other and combined with frequently changed fresh shirts (Fig. 2b).

The 1920s changed not only the standards of physical beauty, but also attitudes toward bodily practices [12]. Diet and exercise became mandatory for those who sought to keep up with the times. New trends took organically root in Ukrainian sports traditions. It shall be noted that the first Olympic Games in the Soviet Union were held in Kyiv in 1913, where about 600 people took part, including women. During the Soviet era, the country's leadership paid special attention to the mass development of physical culture and sports, promoting the establishment of sports schools and communities. Sport was seen as means of educating young people ready to work and defend revolutionary conquests. Cardigans, sweaters, vests in combination with skirts, sports dresses, tunics, silk scarves as accessories - all these were signs of a new sports style. It was formed against the background of the first large knitwear enterprises for the production of the jersey - a knitted fabric of machine production, so named by analogy with the name of the English island of Jersey. Small private enterprises for the production of knitwear existed in the twenties in Ukraine too, the models recommended by "Fashion Magazine" show the availability of knitwear for domestic fashionistas (Fig. 2c).

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Fig. 2. Models of clothes from "Fashion magazine": a - models of dresses made of fine wool, 1928; b - classic costume and light coats, 1928; c - summer sets in sports style, 1927

In the figures, you can see the elements of complex structures with draperies, folds, goffering (the description of the models uses the term "puffs"). For decoration, there was offered a stripe of ribbon, silk ribbon, soutache cord, leather, suede, as well as various embroidery techniques: lace, smooth surface and artistic surface, openwork embroidery and embossed embroidery on coats, mantle and costumes (Figs. 3а, 3b). Elegant summer dresses and lingerie were often decorated with lace, there was an application, complex in motifs and composition. All these tools created a feeling of refined luxury, which was enhanced by the list of fabrics that were recommended in the description of the models: awning, muslin, chiffon, veil, velvet, taffeta, velour. To sew coats, it was recommended to use furs: astrakhan, mink, fox, marten, fur seal, Arctic fox, as well as such exotic furs as monkey and American skunk (Fig. 3c). There was also a cost-effective version of the plush coat, but the range of this fabric was quite wide, including plush "like Karakul", "like chinchilla", "like monkey". It shall be noted that the NEP's policy opened up opportunities for the free exchange of goods throughout the country. By the mid-1920s, domestic textile factories had resumed operations, and a market for imported fabrics had opened up.

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Fig. 2. Models of clothes from "Fashion magazine": a - dresses made of light patterned fabric, 1927; b - light dresses with embroidery and applique, 1927; c - coat made of seal fur, 1929

"Fashion Magazine" had a circulation of textbook for an army of craftswomen who up to 18,000 copies and was a kind of possessed extremely complex "couture

The featured fashion style of the twenties, described above, in the West ended with the beginning of the Great Depression, in the Soviet Union it ended with the establishment of an authoritarian regime and the course of industrialization of the country. For the consumer goods industry sector, this meant the creation of large enterprises and a reduction in the share of small cooperatives and private studios. The political course in the country changed, the use of samples of models from foreign publications became impossible. Against this background, a new system of domestic fashion began to form gradually and its traditions in the field of fashion graphics.

Conclusions. Ukrainian "Fashion Magazine" is a bright artifact of the national fashion history, which opens its hidden pages. The fact of its existence testifies about the returned traditional notions of fashion to Ukraine as a phenomenon that does not recognize political and ideological boundaries in the late 1920s. At the same time, the models published in the magazine speak of the peculiarities of the consumer demands, which are quite far from proletarian asceticism. The NEP's policy contributed to the creation of sophisticated and modern women's clothing by encouraging private enterprise and reviving international trade. The significance of "Fashion Magazine" is not only that it enabled to keep in touch with the current European fashion, but also contributed to the formation of the Ukrainian fashion graphics school.