Nazi Chic? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich is the first book in English to deal comprehensively with German fashion from World War I through to the end of the Third Reich. It explores the failed attempt by the Nazi state to construct a female image that would mirror official gender policies, inculcate feelings of national pride, promote a German economic and cultural victory on the fashion runways of Europe, and support a Nazi-controlled European fashion industry. Not only was fashion one of the country's largest industries throughout the interwar period, but German women ranked among the most elegantly dressed in all of Europe. While exploding the cultural stereotype of the German woman as either a Brunhilde in uniform or a chubby farmer's wife, the author reveals the often heated debates surrounding the issue of female image and clothing, as well as the ambiguous and contradictory relationship between official Nazi propaganda and the reality of women's daily lives during this crucial period in German history. Because Hitler never took a firm public stance on fashion, an investigation of fashion policy reveals ambivalent posturing, competing factions, and conflicting laws in what was clearly not a monolithic National Socialist state. The author also provides an in-depth examination of the intense competition and grudging admiration that colored German-French cultural relations, especially in the realm of fashion. Drawing on previously neglected primary sources, Guenther unearths new material to detail the inner workings of the only state-supported fashion institute in the Third Reich and an organization established to help purge all Jews from the German fashion world. How did the few with power maintain style and elegance? How did the majority experience the increased standardization of clothing characteristic of the Nazi years? How did women deal with the severe clothing restrictions brought about by Nazi policies and the exigencies of war? These questions and many other, including the role of anti-Semitism, the tragic consequences of aryanization, and the hypocrisy of Nazi policies, are all thoroughly examined in this pathbreaking, award-winning book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Irene Guenther received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is presently Visiting Professor of History, Rice University.

CONTENTS. 277 pp. text, 159 pp. notes, 51 b&w photos
Part One: *Introduction; *The Fashion Debate in World War One; *The 'New' Woman
Part Two: *Fashioning Women in the Third Reich; *'Purifying' the German Clothing Industry; *The German Fashion Institute; *The War Years: The Home Front, the Ghettos, and the Concentration Camps of the Third Reich; *Conclusion; *Notes; *Bibliography

ORDERING
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