Searching for sportswear for the new Soviet children: 1920s Soviet design between the utopian and the situational

Abstract

This case study of the practice of Soviet social and cultural policy focuses on experimental sportswear targeted at children, teens, and young adults in the 1920s. Besides well-known design projects by avant-garde artists such as Varvara Stepanova, it investigates projects by unknown and less known contributors and “non-creative” professionals such as doctors. From economic and industrial perspectives, it conceptualizes two major branches within the experimental Soviet design of the 1920s: the situational and utopian approaches to project making. Although the intellectual pursuits during the decade were intense and encouraged the multiplication of design variations, the poor economic and industrial environment pushed those who governed and practiced fizkul´tura to adopt the simplest and cheapest designs. Failure to establish industrial connections between stakeholders contributed to the problem. This case study shows how economic and industrial issues structured cultural production, including experiments in material design by the 1920s Soviet Avant-Garde.