My most exciting make, a 1942 onein that abstract rayon print, makes use of a peplum and as of late I have been interested in dresses with peplums. Also, it has been awhile since I have done a research post on German fashion. Don't despair though, I have been working them and there will be many more to come. Some of my suits have peplums but this dress is my first one with a peplum that I have made. In my 1949 Der Goldene Schnitt book, there are many peplums in dresses too. For this post in particular, I want to take a closer look at dress peplums in the Frauen – Warte and Der Goldene Schnitt because I want to see how they make use of them. What kinds of dresses are they with? Shapes? Trimmings? How common are they? In what year do they appear in German fashion based on the pages of the Frauen – Warte and Der Goldene Schnitt? These are only some of the questions that I want to analyze on this post.
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
Peplums have been paired with all sorts of dresses based on the guidance of the Frauen – Warte and Der Goldene Schnitt. From fine dresses to casual, peplums seem to be limited to the imagination of the designer or seamstress. Shapes? The most common peplum shape I found was one that was rectangular in shape and that followed the lines of the skirt. I did see some that ended in a point and tapered at different points . . .some were long peplums covering a good portion of the front of a dress or else quite short, being about hip length. My original velvet dress from Germany features a short, hip length peplum.
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| The original velvet dress from Germany |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942-1943 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942-1943 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942-1943 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942-1943 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942-1943 |
Are they trimmed or are in contrast? The peplums can be trimmed or untrimmed or they can contrast with the dress or not. One trend that I found interesting was in suit dresses where the top of the dress (or jacket) had a long peplum that contrasted with the skirt. In this method, the peplums lengthened the tops of dresses and the looks as a whole. Stripes were popular prints to play with in a peplum dress. To have a vertically striped dress and a horizontally striped peplum was seen on more than one occasion. Same too to have a striped dress with a solid peplum and the other way around. Peplums could harmonize subtly or else show case itself.
Do peplums go all around the skirt or do they just cover the front? In my 1942 pattern in Der Goldene Schnitt, the peplum pattern is meant to go all the way around the skirt and in the Frauen – Warte, peplums appear to go all the way around as well. Is that the rule? No as there are some peplum dresses that have the peplum only on the front of the dress.
How common are peplums? When comparing peplum dresses to non- peplum dresses, dresses that do have a peplum seem to be in the minority. Why? I would say these kinds of dresses are in the minority because they require more material to execute.
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1942 |
In what year do peplums appear in German Fashion when looking at the Frauen – Warte and Der Goldene Schnitt?When looking at these two puplications it would appear that peplums appear in the year 1941 to be sure. By 1941, the Frauen – Warte is beginning to offer peplum dresses at the fashionable choice but for the Der Goldene Schnitt, it is not until 1942 that peplums are introduced. For Der Goldene Schnitt, there is only one peplum dress offered in my 1942 supplement and in my 1940 and 1941 book there are none. It is not until my 1949 book do peplums become a little more frequent. In stark contrast, the Frauen – Warte offers many peplums in their pages when compared to Der Goldene Schnitt. Looking at the pages of the Frauen- Warte, by 1943 and 1944, the peplum is almost gone completely with there being none pictured. This sudden disappearance could be due to the war further reducing the materials available to women to make a peplum. Peplums, as I am sure you can guess, take up more material to execute than not having one at all. It is not until the post war period that they appear again. . .
