Shows how cinematic treatments of fashion during times of crisis offer subtle reflections on
the everyday lives desires careers and self-perceptions of postwar German women. This book
steers attention toward two key aspects of German culture - film and fashion - that shared
similar trajectories and multiple connections looking at them not only in the immediate
postwar years but as far back as 1939. They formed spectacular sites of the postwar recovery
processes in both East and West Germany. Viewed against the background of the abundant fashion
discourses in the Berlin-based press the films discussed include classics such asThe Murderers
Are among Us Street Acquaintance and Destinies of Women as well as neglected works such as
And the Heavens above Us Martina Modell Bianka and Ingrid. These films' treatments of
fashion during times of crisis offer subtle reflections on the everyday lives desires careers
and self-perceptions of the women who made up a large majority of the postwar public. Costume -
in films produced both by DEFA and by West German studios - is a productive site to explore the
intersections between realism and escapism. With its focus on costumes within the context of
the films' production distribution and reception this bookopens up wider discussions about
the role of the costume designer the ways film costumes can be read as intertexts and the
impact on audiences' behaviors and looks. The book reveals multiple connections between film
and fashion both across the temporal dividing line of 1945 and the Cold War split between East
and West. Mila Ganeva is Professor of German at Miami University Oxford Ohio.
