The Measures Taken

Photographs of male Constructivists like Mayakovsky or Rodchenko usually show the figure clad in black, with cropped hair and frequently a cigarette in the mouth; often in overalls. Overalls became fashionable at the Bauhaus after its takeover by Constructivists like Moholy-Nagy. The wives of the Bauhausler, meanwhile, would be those wearing the dazzling, geometric designs- men as yet unwilling to give up functional or businesslike clothes. Jacques Damase's study of Sonia Delaunay notes how she would design for the wives of Gropius or Brauer, while they themselves would remain in technocratic grey.