How does war impact stylistic guidelines?
In one of my previous articles, I talked about belonging. In this week's article , I am touching on one of the ways in which we express that belonging: Fashion. Style and fashion go hand in hand with social identification. Being a member of a social group, we learn what acceptable styles are. In other words, we learn to adapt the way we dress and adorn ourselves to our social environment. This does not mean we end up all looking the same, but it means that we learn to abide by some basic guidelines as to what styles and fashions are permissible to the people we associate with. Within these guidelines, there's some space to create our own unique style. Yet in war situations, this might change. During a war, the "basic stylistic guidelines" might be tightened to heighten nationalistic feelings.
Claus Jahnke, a dear friend of mine and member of a society who collects historic German and Austrian clothing, gives an example. He says that in the 1930s, the German fashion industry was entirely "Aryanized." The Nazi's introduced, for example, a special label to indicate that "Aryan hands only" had manufactured that particular garment.
Jahnke's collection includes pieces from leading Jewish-owned couture houses in Berlin and Vienna. The Nazi's closed these fashion houses during the Second World War, and much of their garments were destroyed. Jahnke's motivation to collect these pieces is a deep-felt desire to not only teach the public about the history of fashion and textiles, but to use fashion as a means to talk about conflict resolution and peace.
Based on one of Jahnke's exhibits at The Vancouver Holocaust Centre, a new book will appear in the fall of this year. The book will have the same title as Jahnke's exhibit: Broken Threads
The book is entirely in line with Jahnke's life work. It chronicles pre-WWII Jewish fashion design and its destruction. It is a little-known but fascinating part of the historty of fashion and of WWII history at the same time.
