When I first started studying women's fashion in the 1940s and even 19th century women's attire, there were certain characteristics that defined each era and look. It was these characteristics that helped make the garment what it was and helped define it as a certain kind of garment. With careful study and application, these characteristics helped make a reproduction more period correct too. The elements like the shape of a sleeve, a cut of a neckline made a good garment into an excellent one . . one that could mimic almost exactly an original. These elements were quite subtle and easily over looked but after much study and intentfull looking, they showed themselves . . .first gradually and then with much more gusto. For today's post, I want to take a closer look at German dress characteristics and show to you my own findings so that you too may find them helpful and put them to good use. How you use them is entirely up to you of course in either building a frock or two for a German impression or else trying to figure out the origin of a certain dress. I hope dearly that this post will be of use to you but know that this study is by no means exhaustive as the more I study this topic, the more I find.
So, what are some of the German dress characteristics that I have found and what have been my sources? First, lets discuss some of my sources. Over the years I have accumulated a nice library of primary sources dealing specifically with German women's fashion from pattern books to magazines to some original clothes. The patterns book are books that you too are already familiar with if you have followed my blog since its birth . . .the Der Goldene Schnitt books. These books are especially important because they reveal not only silhouettes, detailed illustrations, and how to accessorize them but most importantly they have patterns. These patterns are incredibly important because they detail how the garment was assembled and what the pieces looked like before being put together. These patterns remove any guess work in trying to figure out how a ready made garment was made as well. It can be funny how seeing something deconstructed can shed new light on something that is made up. These patterns also offer incredible insight into construction details that an original garment or picture simply cannot.
Besides these pattern books, other more intimate and more available publications were studied too. One such publication was the Deutsche Modern Zeitung or the modern German Fashion Magazine. This magazine was immensely valuable in my study because I believe that the content in this magazine may have been more readily available to the masses than the Der Goldene Schnitt pattern book. I believe this is so because the books had to be ordered while the magazines I believe were more available and more quickly obtainable. These magazines too I think were also more affordable and more often circulated. Other magazines that I took careful study of were the pages of the NS Frauen - Warte. This magazine was the leading women's magazine in Nazi Germany and read by countless women. In this magazine was the usual Nazi propaganda but also many fashion pages that women must have certainly studied and tried to replicate in some way to stay fashionable and current. Thankfully, these images are fruitful and detailed. These images and their accompanying text must have been the most practical too as they detailed how to redo old clothes into new.
In my possession are only a handful of original German pieces, one being a velvet dress. This velvet dress was incredibly valuable in my study because it allowed me to actually wear a piece of history. A period dress, an original dress, allowed me to feel how the neckline, armholes, waist line actually felt. An original dress in my possession meant too I could study the inside of the garment in detail. Also used in this study were photographs of women in Nazi Germany. For ensuring that the women in the photographs were indeed German, I relied in those that included men in Nazi uniforms (I figured that would be a safe bet that the women next to them were indeed German or else French but I managed to weed those out).
For German dress characteristics, there were a few that I noticed that truly stood out to me as I did not see nearly them as often in American or French patterns or dress. These German dress characteristics that I noticed included high or jewel necklines, Vs on the front, back, or both sides of a dress, tight long sleeves or short puff sleeves being more common, button usage quite high. These are only some of the distinctions I have noticed among German fashion and here I plan on discussing them with pictorial evidence to support my claims. Again, these are only some the characteristics I noticed and overtime I am sure I will be noting more.
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| Family Portrait. Note the necklines on the ladies, all are relatively high necklines with the exception of the lady in the center front who sports a shallow 'V' neckline. Look too at the gal to the far left, her sleeves are short puffed ones which stands in nice contrast to the sleeves worn in the middle. |
High necklines, often called jewel necklines, were quite common and found on many German dresses and even some suits and coats. These necklines are very unique to German fashion I think because they show up the most in here than in any other countries publications. Most importantly, I believe that high necklines were the preferred kind of neckline because it could line up more with Nazi ideology. Nazi ideology could almost be described as rather Victorian in bases with women meant to stay at home raising the children, keeping out the working sphere (traditionally a masculine one), and having women adopt rather traditional dress. For more on my research concerning the Victorian influence in German dress, check out my past post here. Although the Nazis never firmly provided any hard and fast rules for how women were to dress, there were some unspoken guidelines (no make up for one which was seldom followed anyway.). Other necklines show up as well and one that deserves some discussion is the slight 'V' neckline. For German fashion, 'V' necklines are popular too but are not nearly as deep as those shown in American illustrations. For those that are a little deeper, there is often something to fill in the neckline such as a dickey, collar, or some sort of creative trimming. These high necklines were shown incredibly often in the pages the Frauen - Warte. . .Another neckline that was that was quite popular was the square neckline. This neckline shows up often in dresses based off of the traditional costumes.
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941 - 1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1941-1942 |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1942 - 1943 |
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| Frauen - Warte , 1942-1943 |
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| Note the high neckline and peter pan collar. |
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| Frauen - Warte, 1943-1944 |
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| Modern German Fashion Magazine, 1940/41 |
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| Modern German Fashion Magazine, 1940/41 Note all the high necklines |
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| Note the higher necklines, this time a shallow 'V' in style. The sleeves worn by the girls are a long tight sleeves and this time a long sleeve gathered into a cuff. This fuller long sleeve shows up from time to time mostly in the earlier years of the war. |
Long tight sleeves seemed to be quite popular based on the patterns in Der Goldene Schnitt. Of course, one could simply omit the sleeves offered in the pattern's illustration and opt for a looser one but it is still very interesting how often that tight sleeve shows up. Why was the tight sleeve so popular? I think the argument for this goes back to the same one for the higher neckline - traditional and Victorian influences in Nazi ideology leaking over into women's fashion. In the mid 19th century, tight sleeves became incredibly popular in women's fashion. Below, a very small sample of pages from Der Goldene Schnitt featuring tight sleeves, and even some high necklines.
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
If a long tight sleeve was not to liking, then the alternative was a short sleeve with a puffing. These are seen a great deal in all of my sources and they do look quite cute albeit almost childish. were these for children or else young adults only then. No, all age groups have been seen in these sleeves to some extent. Were long tight sleeves or short puffed ones the only styles of sleeve available? No, absolutely not but they are the most common ones it would appear.
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| Photograph of Two German Gals. Note the short puffed sleeves |
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| This is an excellent group picture here that shows some nice fashion variety. Of notice is how many are wearing the higher neckline with or with out a peter pan collar. |
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| Another nice group picture. Again, note the higher neckline and the short puffed sleeves. |
One interesting characteristic that I see more in German fashion than in any other country is the use of 'V' lines in the front or back of dress bodices. This large 'V' I think is the result of careful piecing to maximize the material one has at hand. Instead of cutting a bodice out of one large piece of material, piecing allows small to medium scraps to be utilized more fully. Take the illustration below from the 1940 copy of Der Goldene Schnitt. The front and the back of the bodice has a slight 'V' shape to it and further more, the bodice and skirt are pictured cut out of different pieces of material all together. Even more interesting, this 'V' shape shows up often in Victorian fashion.
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1940 |
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1940 |
Below, a look at my original velvet dress with German origins. You can see in the front and back of the dress the 'V' like formation. Here too you can see all the buttons used in the center front. For me, this dress is a particularly exciting find because I can get an idea of how German dresses are meant to fit. The neckline is indeed high and a little tight. It took me a little while to get used to it but now it no longer bothers me. The sleeve is slightly puffed. As for the inside of this dress, it is not lined but faced with the back lining only tacked in at the sides and shoulders. The front is not lined and the neckline is finished with red cotton bias tape machine and hand sewn in place. At the underarms, are small triangles to prevent underarm sweat from getting to the velvet.
Another interesting characteristic for German fashion would be the amount buttons are used. For the front or the back of a dress, it does not seam to matter to much, buttons were incredibly popular and quite common. In all of my sources, there is evidence as buttons being used in great number in either a practical sense or a decorative one. One kind of usage that stands out considerably is back buttoning dresses. Buttons being used to fasten the back seam to be the most popular and show up more in German (and European fashion) more as a whole than in American fashion. Buttons are also incredibly practical too because they could be made from all sorts of materials from wood, paper, plastic, glass, metal, etc. With the war draining recourses such as metal for zippers, buttons became a popular alternative. Buttons too were a cheap method of updating a worn garment.
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1940 |
Tight sleeves, high necklines, the frequent use of buttons are only some of the characteristics found in German dresses during the 40s and specifically the war years. These elements aside, another frequent dress characteristic is that most German dresses and garments were fashioned from synthetic materials such as rayon or ersatz, a synthetic material common in Germany. Germany did not have an abundance of natural resources devoted to fibers and textiles in terms of natural fibers to synthetic fibers were most common. What natural fibers were available were devoted to producing war supplies.
As you can see, German fashion was by no means limited to the traditional costumes or drab fashion. German fashion was vibrant and although it does seem similar to American, French, and fashions rom other areas, German fashion has characteristics and trends all its own. Of course, this study does not cover every aspect of German fashion but instead this is more of an introduction in a way. More study still has to be done, but here is a start towards a more authentic German look. Lean towards long tight sleeves or short puffed ones. Use buttons generously, choose high necklines, and try to use rayon if possible. Relying on period publications such as pattern books, magazines, and photographs offers a good visual understanding of German fashion and how it sets itself apart from the fashions of other countries.
Scholar Irene Guenther in her esteemed work Nazi Chic? argues that there was no true German fashion. In a scholarly sense she has a very strong argument but looking at these subtle details, there is indeed a distinctive German fashion. This German fashion is not necessarily the high fashion that most scholars study but is instead a more home grown fashion. A fashion that was more in tune with the people. A fashion that was actually made and designed by those wearing it. With that said, I believe that there was a German fashion and that is was hiding in front of us all along. . . . .
