Auf den Leib schneidern

This article traces the history of paper patterns from the formation of the German Empire to the early days of the Federal Republic of Germany. These patterns are often overlooked, yet provide glimpses into the transformative power of everyday fashion. I show that sewing with paper patterns both consolidated and challenged ideas of gender and the female body. The article finally argues that by delegating the making of women’s clothes to the private sector, however, the responsibility for the adaption of social bodily norms was also handed over to individual women

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Clothing · Empire · German · Political science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Art, Politics, and Modernism · European history and politics · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · History · Law