Fashion as Transformation. The Example of Leipzig (1980 to 2000)

该研究项目将时尚史与当代历史相结合，并对历史转型过程提出了新的观点。以莱比锡为例，该项目探讨了社会变革是如何通过时尚及其参与者来表达、实现和记录的。的确，自我和他人的形象与时尚，一个卓越的时间标记一起工作。然而，当代历史很少关注时尚，就像时尚研究没有研究东德的转型过程一样。该项目探索时尚作为表达和执行社会的基本形式。以1989/90年的停顿为中心，以20年为一个时期。本调查着眼于民主德国后期，其侵蚀也反映在时尚上，以及统一后的联邦共和国，在那里，新的消费和表达空间向人民开放，同时必须应对生存挑战。对于莱比锡，重点是一个长期以来以各种方式与时尚联系在一起的城市。正如在每一个大城市，特定的环境和场景找到自己的空间和时尚的媒介。与此同时，莱比锡是一个特例：博览会在不断变化中呈现时尚。犹太公司使莱比锡成为世界皮草之城，直到柏林墙倒塌，皮草都在这里加工和交易。在此之前，萨克森是欧洲最强大的纺织地区之一。媒体之城莱比锡从时尚中获益不亚于从艺术之城中获益。该项目追求三个主题：首先，它将时尚作为一种文化实践，反映并实施地理社会变革。其次，时尚的特点是一个动态的行为者、网络和知识的组合，它们灵活地应对当代挑战。第三，莱比锡的例子表明，一个旋转的城市，不得不一次又一次地重塑自己，如何成功地传承了它的时尚气质，正是因为它不断地改变它。因此，时尚被激活为理解深刻的文化变革的探针，以及时间历史变革的表达。因为“着装的变化”表达了形象和自我形象的转变，而这种转变又是基于经济、政治和社会状况以及文化规范和价值观的转变。该项目将其成果作为专著在专业期刊上发表，并在筹资阶段之后作为展览展出。知识转让在城市和区域找到感兴趣的合作伙伴和受众。与莱比锡博物馆的合作也在进行中，这些博物馆也致力于转型过程。参与式的自我概念指导我们与当代证人和公共关系的工作，在整个项目期间对外沟通。

The research project combines fashion history with contemporary history and develops a new perspective on historical transformation processes. Taking Leipzig as an example, the project examines how social change is articulated, realized and documented through fashion and its actors. It is true that images of the self and of others work with fashion, a time marker par excellence. Yet contemporary history has paid little attention to fashion, just as, conversely, fashion research has not examined the East German transformation process. The project explores fashion as a fundamental form of expression and execution of society. A period of 20 years is considered, which takes the caesura of 1989/90 as its center. The investigation looks at the late GDR, whose erosion was also reflected in fashion, as well as at the Federal Republic after reunification, in which new spaces for consumption and expression opened up to the population, while at the same time existential challenges had to be mastered. With Leipzig, the focus is on a city that has long been associated with fashion in a variety of ways. As in every big city, specific milieus and scenes find their spaces and in fashion their medium. At the same time, Leipzig is a special case: fairs presented fashion in constant change. Jewish companies made Leipzig the world city of furs, which were refined and traded here until the fall of the Wall. Until then, Saxony was one of the most potent textile regions in Europe. The media city of Leipzig benefited from fashion just as much as it benefited from being a city of art. The project pursues three theses: First, it presents fashion as a cultural practice that reflected and implemented geo-social transformations. Secondly, fashion is characterized as a dynamic constellation of actors, networks and knowledge that responded flexibly to contemporary challenges. Third, the example of Leipzig shows how a revolving city, which had to reinvent itself again and again, successfully handed down its fashion disposition, precisely because it constantly transformed it. Fashion is thus activated as a probe for understanding profound cultural changes as well as an expression of temporal-historical transformations. For 'changes of dress' articulate a transformation of images and self-images, which in turn is based on the transformation of economic, political, and social situations as well as of cultural norms and values. The project presents its results as a monograph, in professional journals and, beyond the funding phase, as an exhibition. The transfer of knowledge finds interested partners and audiences in the city and the region. Cooperations with Leipzig museums, which also address the transformation process, are already underway. A participatory self-conception guides our work with contemporary witnesses and a public relations that communicates the project externally during it's entire duration.