It was 1933 when Hitler founded the Deutsches Modeamt (German Fashion Istitute), the first real attempt to “fashion the nation”. By 1939 german fashion had been completely “aryanized” (the majority of taylors being Jewish, and consequently annihilated), extremely preoccupied about unifying the nation also exploiting garments.
Through this initiative, german fashion had been actually destroyed, deprived from any possible hint of creativity; the burden and the effects of that destruction stayed there for about 80 years.
It now seems things are finally changing. The premises are at least interesting. A new institution has been created, the GFDF, German Federation of Fashion Designers, having its headquarters in Berlin. The brand-new feature lays in the fact that, even if linked with the “green” area of the country’s politics, this professional association has not been founded and run (and therefore controlled) by the government, but by the designers themselves. As the GFDF’s claim states, “Modedesigner für modedesigner” (fashion designers for fashion designers). Being the Federation supported by Mercedes Benz, its first aim is that of making Berlin a pivotal capital of fashion, thus strengthening the position of Germany within the international fashion system.
Analyzing the big picture, we can say that the GFDF aims at creating awareness, enhancing creativity, supporting new designers, doing networking, encouraging solidarity and inclusivity, other than being concerned about social justice and sustainability in fashion. The GFDF members prove to have remarkable ambitions. For example, they aim at changing the way Germans perceive fashion design in general: they still do not consider it as a fine art indeed. Also for this reason, it has been decided that designers must have a connection to Germany at the time they join the association; such a consistent call for patriotism.
The perfect representative of GFDF’s identity, designer Eva Gronbach has been named President of the association. With previous work experiences at brands such as Yohji Yamamoto and Hermès to her credit, Gronbach proves to be more than passionate about her country. Not only her main brand (which carries her same name) has an eagle as symbol and her second brand is called German Jeans; she has also given birth to a collection named Déclaration d’Amour à l’Allemagne. Should this not be enough, in 2006 she created the official t-shirt for Deutschland, Land der Ideen (Germany, Land of Ideas), an initiative by the Federal Government and the BDI, not to mention the fact that some garments she designed have been acquired by the House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany to become part of its collections.
So, after about 80 years and with the added value of such a President, it comes to “fashioning the nation” again, but walking a new route; this time it’s happening in a more “soft” and sustainable way, trading on a sense of “German-ness” but doing it through inclusivity. As Suzy Menkes herself has stated, “This could be Germany’s moment”. Will German fashion be able to seize the opportunity and really awaken to new life?