Florals, plaids, stripes, or solids . . . all of which were popular in the 40s in the United States and to study the fabric prints that were available in the States does not take much research as many images are readily available. What about in German fashion? What kinds of fabric prints and colors were around for German women to chose from? Were they just as vibrant and colorful as those in the States? What kind of prints were there to chose from? These were only some of questions I had in mind for this post about fabric prints in German fashion.
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1940 |
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| Der Goldene Schitte, 1940 |
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
According to Sonya Siedschag in
Memoirs of a Simple German Girl, she recalls the clothes her mother made her as " . . flowery, striped or solid, but . . . usually fresh and cheery looking." This account also lines up with the prints illustrated in
Der Goldene Schnitt and in my copy of
Deutsche Moden Zeitung as both sources offer their designs in vibrant plaids, stripes, and florals in all sizes too. Based on my research, the colors, prints, and fabrics German women had to choose from were creative and certainly colorful. Like in the U.S. with rationing and war, women sought to escape hardship through fashion and these charming colors and prints must have certainly helped in way. If women could not have their clothes in these color schemes or wild prints, then they may simply existed in their imaginations has various advertising platforms make use of them. One thing that struck me were the size of some of the prints. If you look at the floral dresses that will be pictured below, not the sheer size of some of those flowers. Typically during hardship, florals are a much smaller scale so to eliminate wasteful matching of the print but here I guess that was not too much of a concern.
In both of these sources, florals appeared to be really quite popular for blouses and dresses while stripes cut in all sorts of way for skirts. If one had the material, cutting a plaid skirt on the bias was popular because it gave interest and allowed the skirt to fall better. Even in photographs, girls alongside their friends, family, and sweethearts are sporting wildly printed dresses. So, what kinds of prints were popular in German fashion?
I would say that florals rank in first place, then stripes, plaids, and abstract prints last. I would say that florals were the most popular because matching the print was not as necessary (depending on the print of course as there are some florals that definitely require it) and if one had to piece something together or make do with a lesser amount of material, the results could be hidden to hide any cobbling. Stripes, plaids, and certain one directions prints required more discipline in matching as well as more material too. For some nice examples of German dresses look
here for a floral example,
here for a striped example. For more examples check out these links with some originals:
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1941 |
What about solids? I think solids deserve a category all by themselves and I am not too sure how often these show up when compared to the printed options. . . .I would say though that printed dresses definitely show up more than solids dresses because solids can show fading, wear and tear and construction errors more than a busy printed dress would. As for colors, I think that it may be safe to say that in German fashion, bright all the way to dark/"murky" jewel tones were the most popular looking at originals. Even my own originals German dresses are quite colorful. The first one, a
velvet one has a wine red color to it while the second is a cobalt blue with primary yellow and red and white all blended together in a very bold stripe. Of course, these punchy colors were not the only ones as earth tones and lighter colors have been seen as well and black was a popular option too. If you look
here, this is an example of a rather darker printed dress in a wool blend. Just, below, my velvet dress:
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| Original Velvet Dress in my Collection |
Studying colored fashion pages, color was certainly used and with great gusto featuring oranges, blues, yellows, and hot pinks. . . .They were definitely bold in their color selection. It is too bad that we cannot see the black and white photographs in color and see what colors they hold as well as the illustrations in many fashion magazines. Even in a war torn country, women sought out and made use of color, vibrant prints, and even creative embellishment (which we will look into more later) to enhance their clothes and make them more fashionable. One thing that surprised me was the distinctive cheerfulness these clothes have.
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| Fashion spread from Deutsche Moden Zeitung, 1943 |
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| Fashion spread from Deutsche Moden Zeitung, 1943 |
One would imagine living in the Nazi regime must not have been too lovely for the fashion conscience yet many women actively wore these creatively colored clothes. I imagine that even German women sought to keep up moral for their men at the front or at home and one of their methods was through clothes. And really, what can be more cheerful than cobalt blue paired with primary yellow? Or orange and blue together? Of course, this is not the end of this particular topic as there is still much more to know and to ask. . . .One such question that I still have was did the colors and prints change as the war years dragged on? If so, what did they then look like? Was there a difference in the materials available for a home dressmaker and a commercial one? These are only a couple that I have. . .
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| Der Goldene Schnitt, 1942 |
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