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

该研究项目将时尚史与当代史结合起来，为历史转型过程开辟了新的视角。以莱比锡为例，该项目考察了社会变化是如何通过时尚及其参与者来表达、实现和记录的。诚然，自我和他人的形象与时尚交相辉映，是一种卓越的时代标志。然而，当代历史对时尚的关注很少，就像时装研究没有研究东德的转型过程一样。该项目探索时尚作为社会表达和执行的基本形式。以/90年代的凯斯拉为中心，考虑20年为周期。调查着眼于已故的民主德国，其衰落也反映在时尚上，以及统一后的联邦共和国，在那里，向民众开放了新的消费和表达空间，同时必须掌握事关生存的挑战。在莱比锡，重点放在这座长期以来以各种方式与时尚联系在一起的城市。就像在每个大城市一样，特定的环境和场景找到了自己的空间，并在时尚上找到了媒介。与此同时，莱比锡是一个特例：展会的时尚呈现在不断的变化中。犹太公司使莱比锡成为毛皮的世界之都，毛皮在这里精炼和交易，直到柏林墙倒塌。在那之前，萨克森一直是欧洲最具影响力的纺织业地区之一。媒体之城莱比锡不仅受益于艺术之城，也受益于时尚。该项目追求三个主题：首先，它将时尚呈现为一种反映和实施地缘社会变革的文化实践。其次，时尚被描述为一个由演员、网络和知识组成的动态星座，可以灵活地应对当代的挑战。第三，莱比锡的例子展示了一个不得不一次又一次重塑自己的旋转城市是如何成功地传承了它的时尚气质，正是因为它不断地改变着它。时尚因此被激活，作为理解深刻文化变化的探测器，以及对时间-历史变革的表达。因为“衣着的改变”清楚地表达了形象和自我形象的转变，而这又是基于经济、政治和社会状况的转变以及文化规范和价值观的转变。该项目在专业期刊上以专著形式介绍其成果，并在资助阶段之后以展览的形式展示其成果。知识的转移在城市和地区找到了感兴趣的合作伙伴和受众。与莱比锡博物馆的合作也涉及改造过程，已经在进行中。参与式的自我概念指导着我们与当代目击者的工作，以及在项目整个持续时间内对外沟通的公共关系。

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.