`Chic from East and West` – shows worlds of fashion

Fashion

`Chic from East and West` – shows worlds of fashion

An exhibition in Erfurt entitled “Chic from Bonn and East Berlin. Two Worlds – Two Fashions?” takes visitors on a tour through four decades of fashion. Whether designed in chunky knitwear, fine silk or thick velvet, the party dresses of yesteryear hang nostalgically next to one another. It is virtually impossible to guess where the smart and colourful evening gowns and cocktail dresses, coats, skirts and trouser suits originally came from. “In terms of dress style, there was little difference between women in the East and women in the West”, says Marina Moritz, director of the Museum für Thüringer Volkskunde (i.e. Museum of Thuringia Folklore) in Erfurt. Admittedly, clothing could be obtained more quickly and much more easily in the West. Anyone in the East who couldn`t hope for packages from the West and lacked the necessary cash for expensive boutiques needed a sewing machine and a talent for improvisation. The designs created by the collectives at the central Fashion Institute in the East tended to fall victim to the economic constraints of the planned economy system. “We were nothing but an alibi institution, unable to sell any fashion”, remembers Elke Giese, today a trend researcher and formerly a designer who worked for many years at the East German Fashion Institute. “Keeping pace with fashion was a laborious undertaking”, agrees museum director Moritz. “Nonetheless, the women in the East did not walk round looking like grey mice.” 28th 05th to 29 08th 2010 Museum of Thuringia Folklore, Erfurt, Germany. Visitors to the exhibition have until 29 August to think about whether the wardrobes on show, together with accessories such as hats, bags and shoes, were once worn by women in the East or the West.

Goethe-Institut

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