Fashion has been produced and traded in Berlin for two centuries. Accordingly, fashion schools and other institutions in the field also have a tradition in the capital – and with them the fashion sketches, whose visual spectrum ranges from objective, technical linework to subjective, artistic forms of expression.
Three fashion institutions have launched the “Berlin draws fashion” project in order to digitize selected drawings from their collections and make them accessible to the public.
Digitized sketches from fashion institutions
These are the Lette Verein Berlin, the Fashion Image Collection – Lipperheidesche Costume Library of the Art Library (Berlin State Museums) and the Fashion and Textiles Collection (Berlin City Museum Foundation).
The museology course at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (HTW) designed an online exhibition from the digitized sketches, which is now publicly and freely accessible in the German Digital Library (DDB). The courses in clothing technology/confection and fashion design are also at home at the HTW.
From knickerbocker suits to GDR labels
There are fantasy costumes from the 1920s next to chic longing fashion from the heyday of Berlin fashion drawing between the world wars, which the working population could only dream of at the time. You can also come across men’s day suits with knickerbockers based on the American model or GDR sketches for women’s fashion from the Exquisit brand, of course a state-owned trading company (VHB).
The exhibition wants to show the historical development of the drawing tradition in fashion education up to the present day. Although fashion drawings are the oldest medium for visualizing clothing, they are still the basis of the design process today. (dpa)