What comes to mind when you hear ‘Third Reich’ or ‘Nazi’ or ‘Clothing’ ? You probably think of swastikas and uniforms, and brown shirts and black boots, and deutsche Hausfrauen in dresses with white collars. You’ll be surprised to hear that in 1933 a Deutsches Modeamt was established, that it lasted until 1944, and that its purview was mainly women’s fashion.
Come and hear Dr. Irene Guenther’s fascinating presentation about ‘Nazi Chic?,’ what happened to the thriving fashion industry in Germany and how Hitler tried to influence women’s fashion, on Thursday, March 10, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the American Red Cross Building, 2700 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77098. Our customary food and beverage reception starts at 6:30 p.m. Registration will begin at 6:15 p.m., the presentation at 7:00 p.m. Meeting fees are $10 for members, $5 for students, and $15 for nonmembers, regardless of whether you participate in the reception. Ample parking is available without charge.
Please respond now to angelika@houstonleipzig.org so that we can plan properly. We are looking forward to seeing all of you!
You’ll remember Dr. Guenther from her fabulous WWI postcard exhibit of Otto Schubert and other soldier artists that we visited at the Printing Museum. She is a professor of modern European and American history in The Honors College at the University of Houston. Her book, Nazi “Chic”? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich, was awarded the Sierra Prize for “Best History Book by a Female Historian” by the Western Association of Women Historians and the national Millia Davenport Award for “Best Book in Fashion History” by the Costume Society of America. Additionally, she is the recipient of several teaching excellence and research awards.
She has written on the cultural politics of fashion, the role of German Jews in the Berlin fashion industry, German cultural refugees during World War Two, art and politics in France during the German occupation in World War II, Neue Sachlichkeit and Magical Realism, and “degenerate” art in the Third Reich.
Dr. Guenther recently co-curated Postcards from the Trenches: Germans and Americans Visualize the Great War, an exhibition of soldiers’ art commemorating the centennial of the First World War, which had extended showings in Houston and Washington, DC, and will open in Germany this summer. Bloomsbury Publisher in London has contracted Dr. Guenther to write a book on the trench postcards of Otto Schubert, featured in the World War One exhibition. She is currently writing a book, Out of the Ruins: Fashioning Berlin 1945-1952, on the politics of clothing and fashion in occupied Berlin.