By BAYERN TOURISMUS Marketing GmbH
Forchheim Pfalz Museum
Everyone is talking about sustainability nowadays. Preventing waste, reusing things or even—as with upcycling—giving them a new lease of life. It's the order of the day. So what does sustainability look like for costumes?
The timeless costume
Tailored costumes have always been expensive to make. If the coat (gown) sat loosely at the waist, you could wear it for a lifetime if you put on a few pounds. Their timeless cuts made them lifelong items that never went out of fashion.
Did the insides of the skirts, gowns or bodices have to feature the same fine fabrics as the outsides? No! Robust fabrics were suitable here, sometimes even pre-used fabric. After all, nobody could see them except the wearer.…
Even on festive costumes, people saved money in places nobody could see and which were, for example, covered by the apron.
Women wore several skirts on top of each other to have attractive, wide hips. In winter, a skirt made of a padded fabric that used to serve as a bedspread could also keep you warm…
Holes or tears in an item of clothing were far from being reasons to dispose of it. Petticoats were mended, other garments continued to be worn during hard work in the fields or handed down to children.
How sustainable are modern costumes? Young costume makers create skirts from old curtain fabrics and work in can tabs or bottle caps as decorative elements whose original use is often only recognizable at second glance. Tailored, expensive costumes are worn for a long time, not thrown away with every change in fashion and therefore meet the criteria of sustainability.
Amy Winehouse and husband Blake Fielder-Civil on a Franconian costume? Upcycling crown caps and newspaper scraps…
The Costume Museum in Forchheim
The Costume Museum in Forchheim explores the history of the region's traditional costumes, tells the story of these costumes, the various occasions at which they were worn and the people who wore them, and links this to contemporary costume culture.
Forchheim Pfalz Museum, https://kaiserpfalz.forchheim.de/
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.