4 - Weimar Film as Fashion Show

Summary

The film star as model: On Thursday afternoon, Lya de Putti will present the latest fur fashions from Alexander Baum & Co. at the Hotel Adlon.

— Film-Kurier, 26 November 1924

A fashion show in the Zoo film studios: A magnificent fashion salon was set up, and for a few hours we could admire the most recent creations of Paris fashion presented by the Drecoll company of Paris. We could also witness the brilliant performance of Asta Nielsen … she is one of the leads in the film Joyless Street, which is currently being shot in the Zoo studios of Sofar-Film.

— Reichsfilmblatt, 21 February 1925

No one who wants to learn about modern costumes and fashions

should miss a film with Brigitte Helm.

— Dr. Koch, review of Manolescu (1929), Die Filmwoche, 4 September 1929

CINEMA PRESENTED THE MOST SPECTACULAR SITE for the display of Weimar fashion. Film and fashion, in tandem, not only satisfied the audiences’ desire for entertainment and visual pleasure but also managed to seduce female viewers into believing that their own fantastic transformations were somehow possible. The main agents of that seduction were, of course, the actresses of the 1920s, who in effect doubled as models, presenting the new fashions on-screen as well as on the pages of illustrated magazines. In a 1919 interview for Elegante Welt, Danish star Asta Nielsen, who had just resumed filmmaking in Germany after the war, declared publicly her conscious involvement in the promotion of clothes and trendy appearances from the movie screen: “I read lately that a wellmade film must, at any moment, have the effect of a good fashion magazine. This fact was quickly appreciated in countries where fashion is taken seriously. Today's actresses pay special attention to this aspect of film.” Indeed, Nielsen was extremely effective in launching new worldwide fashions throughout her prolific career. The distinctive hair style, the shawls, tight dresses, and hats in which she appeared in her films made many women in her audience aspire to reinvent themselves “à la Asta Nielsen.” According to director Rudolf Meinert, she also had an acute sense of how colors, lines, and fabrics appear on-screen and “often was much better than camera people in understanding how these visual effects work.”