"Lifestyle" from six centuries

Anyone who has seen a Hollywood gala at the Oscar series on TV, for example, who suspects the meaning of fashion today.Men have it relatively easy there: tailcoats, fly, expensive shoes, done.Women, on the other hand, often make enormous efforts to attract attention on the red carpet.Who wore what?This question often plays a major role in reporting.The blazers of the still crossing Chancellor Angela Merkel were also regularly questioned, even by political cabaret artists.

So fashion plays a major role in our lives."Lifestyle in the Archive", the Hessian State Archives Marburg has titled its new exhibition, which is up to 12.March of March next year with Hessian clothes - but not with the current fashion.This leaves the State Archives Mode magazines and magazines.

From Landgraf Wilhelm to nylon stockings

The exhibition, a co -production of the three Hessian State Archives in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt and Marburg, focuses on the past six centuries.The exhibits include a period of 15.To the middle of the 20.Century - from a clothing order of Landgrave Wilhelm from Hessen to the emergence of nylon stockings in the middle of the 20.Century.

Nevertheless, lifestyle would not suspect in an archive like the Hessian State Archives of Marburg.There, on around 75 shelf kilometers, important certificates and types of documents are mainly stored, the elders from the 8.Century, like department heads Dr.Johannes Kistenich-Covered.But objects were also stored in the state archives that might be suspected in a museum - such as the massive straw shoes, the archivists in the former archive in the Landgrafenschloss against the cold.Or a military hat from the Napoleonic period.

In the showcases in the foyer, the exhibition makers present in addition to old fabric samples such as "Plüsch from Diez" above all historical images.Among them is probably the earliest fashion drawing from the archive's holdings.

The drawing from 1498 shows a young man with flowing blond curls that bears the latest fashion of his time: tight, red and streaked tights that are reminiscent of today's leggings (you see, everything turns back).The costume at the Spanish courtyard was black and strict, which in the late 16.And early 17.Century enforced at European farms until extravagant luxury was announced in baroque France.

Different subject areas

On nine illuminated, the exhibition provides information about "traditional costumes and nostalgia", about "uniforms and statehood" or "accessories and beauty products" such as the tower hairstyles of the baroque or the nylon stockings from the middle of the 20.Century.

These "subject areas should explore what the language of fashion says about the respective time," said the State Archives.The fashion of the past six centuries reveals a lot about "the underlying intentions and worldviews".Because for a long time not everyone was allowed to wear everything.Clothing was always an expression of the stand, documented wealth or bitter poverty.

And the image documents do not show the poor scraps that a farmer wore in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, but above all fashion of the upper estates.

Dr.Constanze winner, who is responsible for public relations at the State Archives, as well as Dr.Katrin Marx-Jasculski, deputy department head, and department head DR.Johannes Kistenich-Covered, may also plan a fashion show during the exhibition duration, "if the Corona pandemic permits".From Marburg, the exhibition will only go to Wiesbaden in the coming spring and then to Darmstadt.In 2022, the State Archives in Marburg also plans a large exhibition on the “Marburg 800” city anniversary.

The exhibition is up to 12.March 2022 in the Hessian State Archives Marburg, Friedrichsplatz 15, to see;Open Monday to Friday from 9 to 17.30 p.m..Telephone registration is requested: 0 64 21/92 50-0.

Registration on site is required (Luca app).Currently entering the house is only possible with negative detection (vaccinated, tested, recovered).

By Uwe Badouin