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Mail order catalogs help to illustrate destinctive German clothing styles and changes over time in those styles. HBC has concentrated primarily on the photographic record. Mail order catalogs provide an important source of additional information. The ad copy provides important information on on color, material, detailing, and terminology. The German catalog information is paricularly important. German had the largest and most important fashion industry in Europe. It affected fashions not only in Germany, but the wider German-cultural area as well as the smaller countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We see catalogs in the late-19th century and the early-20th century. And they were part of the hugeimpact the Germann fashion/garment industry had on Europe. This changed with the Cold War and the Soviet Communist errection of the Iron Curtain. This affected not only commercial transactions, but personal movements, and media. Much of the area once affected by the German fashion/garment industry )Estern abd Central Europe) was now inside the Iron Curtain. But it is not clear to us to what extent West German fashions affected East Germany and how East Germany affected fashions in Easrern Europe. Unlike West Germany, East Germany did not have the mail order loting catlogs that developed in Wet Germany after the War. Our archive of German catalog items is still quite limited, but we hope to gradually expand it. German mail order catalogs show a major shift in German boys' clothing in the 1960s. Boys no longer wore short pants to dress wear. Shorts were increasingly becoming casual wear. Lederhosen appear to have been very popular for younger boys in the 1960s and 70s. Some lederhosen were even made for girls
German mail order catalogs and advertisements offer a great deal of information on specific clothing styles worn over time. They are helpful in spotting the unique styles worn by Germab boys/
German mail order catalogs and other sources such as fashion magazines and advertisements offer a wealth of time line information on changing fashion trends. The ad copy also provides very useful information on sizes, color, styling, fabrics, prices, and other useful information. The catalog information provides useful information to help us better understand the fashions displayed in the photographic record. German fashion trends are very important. They strongly influenced fashions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Scandanavia. Many of these countries were quite small and thus did not have major mail order catalogs and fashion magazines. Thus the German catalogs are useful in understanding fashion trends in mny of these countries as well. This of course changed with the Cold War and the Soviet erection of the Iron Cutain (1945). This prevented commercial transactions as well as normal personsl travel and media. Of course the Soviets had their own share of Germany behind the Iron curtain. We are not sure if East Germny has fshion catalogs like the west Germans, but the East German fashion/garment inusty does seem to gve ffected fashion within the Soviet bloc.
Many important German department stores advertized heavily in newspapers. Some published catalogs. We think the first important mail order compamy was Quelle which was established in 1927. The most important pattern company was Burda. The most important mail order catalogs in the 1970s were "Baur", "Otto", "Quelle", and "Wenz".
This German-language website has achived a large number of catalog pages, advertisements, propaganda posters, family snapshiots and much more. They are organized chromolofically and thus offer a great deal of fashion and life style information. here is material from both East and West Germany. Relatively little of the collected materials pertain to children, but it is still a useful source of information.
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