Susanne Nielsen's Installation project:
"My Mother's Dresses" - a celebration of Postwar Women and Fashions
8/26 - 9/30 exhibition Gallery Hours ( Mon-Friday 9:30-4:00 pm)
“Installation" of 15 Paintings and (re)creation of 15 beautiful dresses of the 1950s era, in CELEBRATION OF POSTWAR WOMEN.The inspiration, the artist’s mother Anneliese Schmidt (1930-2023) and collaborator Theresia Thielke (born in 1933) are two such women to be celebrated!This solo-exhibition by Susanne Nielsen is in the academic setting of the PHSC art gallery (Rao Musunuru MD art gallery) on the Main Campus of Pasco Hernando State College.
The EXHIBITION ( August 26 - September 30, 2025)Thirteen paintings completed by Artist/Art Professor Dr. Susanne Nielsen during the Covid year of 2020 when she could not visit her own mother overseas, have now been matched by 14 dresses - 12 of them, Anneliese Schmidt’s designs, recreated by couture seamstress Theresia Thielke.Susanne and Theresia (born 1933) are very excited to see this major body of work installed at the gallery through September 30, 2025.Susanne Nielsen’s mother Anneliese Schmidt advised them throughout the completion of the three year project.Historic details from the Wiesbaden City Archives, articles from the Wiesbadener Kurier local newspaper, and Anneliese Schmidt’s own stories of each dress shown as painting and in 3-D in the gallery can be read, connecting the text via QR code from Susanne’s ART BLOG: susannenielsenarts.blogspot.com.Susanne Nielsen is honored to have this installation shown from August 26, 2025 through September 30,2025 at the art gallery at Pasco Hernando State College ( 10230 Ridge Rd, New Port Richey, FL 34654) in a one-person exhibition.
Opening hours Monday- Thursday 11 - 4:00 pm. Please call the library for updated hours.
The STORY:After having completed the initial 12 paintings of her mother in 2020, Susanne, as mixed media artist, wanted to add a (3-D) component to "My Mother's Dresses" ( “Die Kleider meiner Mutter”). The perfect place and time to announce the new part II of her project was at a gallery filled with friends and well wishers at the opening reception of her solo-exhibition of her 13 paintings shown in July 2021 by the Outdoor Arts Foundation at Freedom Pavilion.Susanne’s paintings had been inspired by black and white photos she had of her mother, who was pictured as the winner of pageants, wearing gorgeous dresses she had designed and sewed for herself in the 1950s.As many women who began new lives after 1945, they recreated an elegant lifestyle against the backdrop of postwar new architecture built in the 1950s.Inspired by the fashions from Paris to Berlin, women sewed gowns to attend dances and enjoy themselves again.Though the resources were limited, the "New Look" was inspired by Dior and in Berlin designers set a more colorful tone.Susanne’s mother started with a long black evening gown, given to her by her elegant mother. When the family moved into an apartment above a local dance school, she and her sister enjoyed dancing Waltz, Foxtrot, and ChaCha.Anneliese designed her own dresses, started a doll dress business, and worked as an assistant to well-known photographer Elisabeth Roettgers who worked with the growing fashion industry.Once a spa-resort, Wiesbaden became a center of federal administration and publishing companies. Anneliese sold her fashion designs to “Der Neue Schnitt”(The New Cut),a pattern magazine for those countless office workers and housewives who sewed at home. Her own dream was to build her own fashion business.But in 1950 her life changed when she met a young German diplomat. Their marriage led her to a life in the Foreign Service, living abroad in Paris, San Francisco, Reykjavik, and Bern, and the creation of her beautiful wardrobe to represent her country alongside her husband. She continued to design and sew her entire life. She also sewed her daughter’s dresses, all the way to her wedding dress in 1983.The exhibition comprises twelve dresses from 1950 to 1960 and a borrowed wedding dress ( thank you Angela Gibson) and the artist’s wedding dress ( the last dress sewn by Anneliese Schmidt for her artist daughter Susanne Nielsen)
The PROJECT:For the 3-D (re)creation of the "My Mother’s Dresses", Susanne was very lucky to win over the perfect companion, her friend Theresia (89), a couture seamstress for NY fashion designer Oleg Cassini.Theresia had sewed First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s and later Barbara Bush’s gowns. Now she joined Susanne adding her skills to complete 13 dresses, designs of Anneliese Schmidt, from the 1950s.Susanne and Theresia worked together to discuss design, select fabric, and how best to recreate Susanne’s mother’s one-of-a-kind model-dresses.Susanne, of course, found a way to involve the original designer, her mother as advisor and commentator, while she herself directed and documented the entire project in Florida, thus creating a visual record of every step of the creative process.She sent photographs taken during her weekly conferences with Theresia to her mother. Susanne’s mother enjoyed seeing her dresses become reality once again!Two Photo Books (in German and English) now show the 2020-2023 Creation-process. (Also see exhibitions and articles in the blog susannenielsenarts.blogspot.com.)
CALENDAR:Daytime “COFFEE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ARTIST” - with dates will be posted - everyone is welcome - 2:00-4:00 pm Thursdays (September 4,11,18,25),a FINISSAGE will be on the final day of the Exhibit SEPTEMBER 30, 2025.Please check for dates and updates at susannenielsenarts.blogspot.com.
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The Background - Wiesbaden as a post-war city - NEW BUILDINGS!
(photo source: images from Wiesbaden City Archives)
1. Wiesbaden “Kurhaus" (Casino/ theater/restaurants) - built in 1907 in the new-classical style, was repurposed in March 1945 through 1950 as the “ Red Cross Eagle Club,” the Officers’s/NCO’s club ; the Thierschsaal (Hall) was destroyed February 2, 1945 in a fire bombing and could was renovated after the Americans released the Kurhaus back to the Wiesbaden population November 15th, 1950, with a ceremony December 21, 1951. The northside of the Kurhaus building remained the American Club until it was returned November 2, 1954.
2. December 15th, 1953 German Architect Paul Schaefer-Heyrothsberge’s Administration Building of the Raiffeisen-Insurance-Company at the beginning of the Sonnenberger Strasse was opened. On the ground floor the restaurant “Schultheiss am Kureck” was located with its spacious terrace. The facade and clock remain the same to this day.
3. The second major Federal Agency to relocate to Wiesbaden ( The capital of Ober-Hessen) was the "Statistisches Bundesamt”, the statistical Federal agency of West Germany. Designed by German Architect Paul Schaeffer-Heyrothsberge, and built in only one year’s time, the building opened March 1st 1956 at Gustav-Stresemann-Ring. The facade of the 14 -story high and 100 meters long administrative building initially had turquoise glass-mosaics along its balconies, that were later replaced by heat insulation. The single building of the cafeteria offered 550 people a light and airy glassed atmosphere.
4. Gas Station of the new Opel Haus - initially built as a car service and repair station in 1935 along the Reisinger Anlagen park, near the train station, it was rebuilt near Gustav-Stresemann-Ring and Mainzer Strasse after the Americans had confiscated the old Opel-House in 1945. In 1950 Wiesbaden’s population owned 4,340 cars, in 1960 they owned 27,630 cars, six times as many. One liter gasoline in 1950 cost 56 pfennigs, and on 1960 60 Pfennige. The building in the background is the Statistische Bundesamt ( federal agency of Statistics).
5. Public Swimmingpool Schwimmbad Kleinfeldchen, built in 10 months designed by Wiesbaden Architect Geza Loerincz as one of the most modern pools in West Germany. On inauguration day 4,000 visitors used the three generous pools for non-swimmers, swimmers, and divers. A large (20,000 square meters) sunning meadow and a 1,000 square meter terrace along a long building with changing rooms opened to a pleasure seeking public July 14th , 1951. Up to this point, 1950, the Germans had been barred from visiting recreational facilities like parks ( exceptions 4th of July), cafes, hotels, movie theaters, dances.
6. 6 small images from top left to right:
6.1.Vier Jahreszeiten Building: the seven-story Hotel/Guesthouse/Condo building,
was built in 1959 by Rudolf Doerr/ Jost-Eberhard Romberger as extention to “Haus
Zais” on the former “Zu den Vier Jahreszeiten Hotel” (architect Christian Zais,
1810) property. Known as “House of Superlatives” it featured 161 apartments, 25
stores and restaurants, and 40 Hotelrooms. In proximity of all the cultural
venues like theater and Casino, guests here could also use the roof terrace,
the thermal springs (3 Lilien Quelle) and thermal pool in the building free. A large
1400 square meter restaurant in the next to top floor with a view of the city
center was one of Europe’s largest at the time.
6.2. Wilhelmstrasse, Kureck-side, Since the first Internationalen Maifestspiele (May 16.-31st 1950, Annual Theater festival) Wilhelmstrasse, the "Rue", has been decorated by flags at this time of year. This festival had been started by the German Kaiser (Wilhelm II) in 1896, two years after the theater building had opened.
6.3. Wilhelmstrasse , Humboldtstrasse, the American military presence was felt by sighting American military personnel and vehicles; still war damage on the facade of the “Erbprinzen Palais” at left. A sign on the wall shows the "America House" from 1950, which was on Humboldtstrasse.
6.4. Cafe Blum: Founder pastry chef Friedrich
Blum had opened his business September 1, 1878, in Schuetzenhofstrasse and 4
years later his famous Cafe Blum on Wilhelmstrasse. The cafe reached notariety with its many
resort visitors and the stars who performed at the theater and opera-house
across the street. It was renovated in 1928 by the founder’s nephew who bought
the building next to it to expand, but lost this building again in a
bombing raid in WWII, the last of the ruins restored in 1952. The photo shows
Cafe Blum in 1954, with its newly added infra-red lamps that allowed
outdoor seating into the cooler half of the year. Then owner Ms. Otti Blum
expanded the cafe to create a restaurant and 140-bed hotel in 1958. The long
45-meter glassed cafe-front , the Gardenroom and the wintergarden remained
intact from the earlier design. New was the upper level with ballustrade and a
viewing area of Wilhelmstrasse/Warmer Damm.
6.5. Historic bust of Queen Nefretiti (ca. 1340 b.c.e) and many other works of art from German Museums were temporarily displayed in Wiesbaden for 4 years: After occupying Wiesbaden from 1945, the Americans set up a "Central Collecting point" at LandesMuseum. Here the "Monument Men" brought many of the artifacts that had been sheltered outside the cities during the war, particularly Art from Berlin Museums, to keep them safe from being damaged by bombs. Among these pieces were copper etchings and sculptures like the famous bust of Egyptian Queen Nefretiti. 202 PAINTINGS that were taken to the US to exhibit in 16 cities and then returned to Berlin’s Prussian Reclaiming Agency. With the return of the occupied museum building to the German population in 1958 the Central Collecting Point was desolved and all art returned to Berlin. Nefertiti is in the Egyptian Museum (Altes Museum) in Berlin today.
6.6. Kurhaus Fashion show in the newly restored "Thiersch-Saal (Hall)", The “Schuberth Sinfony 1957/58” was the Italian fashion designer’s (Saxony-born 1909-1972) Emilio Schuberth’s Fall season fashion show gala at the Wiesbaden “Kurhaus,” with astronomical entrance fees for this show of his tunics and Rococo-line gowns made of colorful and precious fabrics. His clients were stars of stage and royalty. As motto of his creative work Schubert explained, “For me a woman must be totally feminine, she has to look pleasing, especially to men (they have to pay her bills, after all).”
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(“Eigener Schick in der Nachkriegszeit, Anneliese Schmidt Designte ihre Kleider / Ihre Tochter stellt die Kleider in Florida aus”, von Caroline Münch, Wiesbadener Kurier 23. August, 2025)
Translation English: A Unique Style in the Postwar PeriodAnneliese Schmidt Designed Her Own Dresses / Her Daughter Is Now Exhibiting the Dresses in Florida
(photo caption)Anneliese Schmidt accompanied her husband, (Dr)Otto Schmidt, on many trips. Here …(she is visiting his father, Dr. Emil Schmidt) together with their daughter Susanne in their hometown of Wiesbaden. Photo: Nielsen
By Caroline Münch WIESBADEN.
When Anneliese Schmidt arrived in Wiesbaden from Berlin in 1947, she had something unusual in her escape luggage. Her mother packed an evening dress for Anneliese and her sister in their backpacks. She thought her daughters should dress appropriately. Like Schmidt, born in 1930, many young people fled to the German West without having had the chance to completing their high-school education yet. Schmidt had the opportunity to attend the women's vocational school in Wiesbaden. Because many men were still in captivity or would never return home, the women there were being prepared for their own professional roles, with skills ranging from home economics to German, music, other arts, and educational theory.
"Especially in these times of hardship, it is so important to be practical and able to stand on one's own two feet," Schmidt wrote in an article in the Wiesbadener Kurier at the time. Writing was instilled in her by her father, a well-known technical editor. Therefore, it wasn't long before Schmidt, too, was writing for the public. Just as the women who cleared the rubble had rebuilt the city and made it shine, the women themselves wanted to dress up again, for example for dances. These were said to have taken place again in 1947, in houses whose outside facades looked so damages that the Americans did not wish to confiscate, says Schmidt's daughter, Suanne Nielsen. She works as an artist and journalist and is now showing “Her Mother’s (Wiesbaden-reconstructed post-war) Dresses" in an exhibition in (The College Rao Musunuru Gallery in) Florida from August 26 to September 30.
Escape Backpacks sewn for the journey to Wiesbaden
(Anneliese) Schmidt began designing her own clothes, already sewing a lot at the age of 15, including the escape backpacks, in case they had to flee on foot from Berlin (when the city was occupied in 1945). After completing her training at the Wiesbaden Women's Technical School, Schmidt began training as a pharmacy assistant in the pharmacy at the Ringkirche and "afterward, she made herself beautiful, designing and sewing dresses in long nights," says Nielsen. She is looking at a picture of her mother in a turquoise, strapless evening gown on the balcony of their former home on Adelheidstrasse. From the balcony with its ornate railing, Anneliese Schmidt gazed at a bomb-scarred wall. The contrast could not be greater. This home on Adelheidstrasse was none other than that of Egon Bier, a formerly very well-known dance teacher in Wiesbaden, but also throughout Germany, who, among other things, directed the Wiesbaden Kurhaus balls. Because the family (of Anneliese) Schmidt was able to exchange cement for wood through good contacts in 1947, the family entered into an agreement with Bier. The family repaired Bier's destroyed wooden staircase and in return was able to live in Bier's house and (the daughters could)take dance lessons with him. Because of the American occupation, these lessons were only permitted in private: "My mother and her sister, wearing the beautiful dresses they had brought with them, were able to take part in the dance lessons from the very first day in Wiesbaden, downstairs in Egon Bier's living-room," says Nielsen with a laugh. Almost all of the dresses she designed and recreated (with her couture seamstress) now shown in her exhibition, were as colorful as this dress, which Anneliese Schmidt wore on the balcony on Adelheidstrasse. At that time, …(the young woman) had a wide variety of fabrics at her disposal, including (cotton and) viscose, lining fabric, and silk. Fabrics were also considered barter goods, like cigarettes for the ration cards that existed at the time. Designing dresses quickly became Schmidt's passion: from the wide skirt (the apron as a kitchen-dress wasn't her creation) and the narrow dress to the two-piece suit with a long top or lace at the neckline, she had created (an entire wardrobe). Over time, she became increasingly creative and even won awards for her designs. The turquoise dress was black on the inside and designed by Schmidt as a reversible dress. For this, she received the "Award for the most Flexible Design" at the Castle (Hotel) Velden am Wörthersee, Nielsen recalls.
Compared to those in France and the USA, post-war fashions in Germany were characterized by more patterned with many accessories such as flowers, Nielsen says, describing her mother's collection. Nielsen says it was a challenge to recreate the silk flowers as soft as then anymore. Over four years, Anneliese Schmidt's daughter reconstructed everything, painting (life-size portraits of her mother, and then, with the help of her friend, couture seamstress Theresia Thielke) creating patterns, designing, sourcing fabrics, and sewing (twelve dresses). The shimmering light blue (periwinkle) hue was particularly difficult to find; Nielsen could only order white (and floral-patterned) fabrics from England. She always worked from old pictures. She received all the (sewing) help from her friend Theresia Thielke.
In the 1950s, Anneliese entered the world of haute couture by working for Elisabeth Röttgers, a photographer for the then-famous fashion magazine "Der Neue Schnitt." "Women in the 1950s didn't buy individual patterns, but rather bought magazines like 'Burda Magazine' or 'Der Neue Schnitt,' and then created their own fashions based on them," explains Nielsen.
(Anneliese) Schmidt also modeled and got roles as an “extra” in films. Her dream was always to own her own fashion business. "My mother would have loved to have a career as a fashion designer (...she did start her own children's and doll clothing line...) and she couldn't do that," explains Nielsen. She married (Dr.) Otto Schmidt, a diplomat, and, according to the social norms of the time, became the woman at his side as Diplomat’s wife from 1961 onward. "It was a task that came natural to her with numerous representative tasks, a life in and with many cultures." Nevertheless, she remained creative, in the form of self-sewn (elegant dresses and) tablecloths (and flower decorations) for the receptions for her husband's numerous obligations entertaining guests and (later) through various travel stories published in the Wiesbadener Kurier newspaper.
(“A Unique Style in the Postwar Period, Anneliese Schmidt Designed Her Own Dresses / Her Daughter Is Now Exhibiting the Dresses in Florida,” by Caroline Münch, in Wiesbadener Kurier August 23, 2025)
ADDED Historic Information:
1945 - Wiesbaden when the WWII had ended and the Americans came to town: https://susannenielsenarts.blogspot.com/2021/05/post-war-history-articles-about-germany.html
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THE PROJECT
My Mother's Dresses Series
FIVE of "My Mother's Dresses" painted (and dresses sewn to be shown)
ABOUT THIS SERIES:
Women of the 1950s and their Fashions
Exerpt introduction: Fashion in the 1950s, donation from Else and Ingeborg Heiligener, Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne
"The fifties offer an incredible variety of fashion developments, various styles and fashionable innovations (…) whether vertical line, stretched line or serpentine line, tulip or dome line, Y line, lily of the valley line, H line, I line , A-line, Y-line, arrow, bag or barrel line, trapeze line or balloon look; there were no limits to the inventiveness of the fashion designers. And across Europe, the female part of the population was particularly popular in the wake of the economic miracle “We are only too happy to carry the magic of Paris with the imaginative, sometimes fantastic lines.” (Isabella Belting: When mother was young...fashion hits from the fifties. In: Nylon and Capri Sun - The fifties feeling. Exhibitions.-Cat. Fashion Museum of the Munich City Museum 2001/2002. Muenchen 2001, p. 20.
Fashion was in a real frenzy: after the war-related shortage of materials and the secondary use of all kinds of materials to make clothing, abundance apparently followed. Women once again longed for lavish amounts of fabric, luxury and elegance. New plastic fibers promised an easy-care variety of materials. The new fabrics were now bright and colorful, the patterns partly influenced by contemporary art and new design.
The change from the female silhouette from the masculine, almost militarily strict figure of the 1940s with broad shoulders, the exaggerated bust, the barely defined waist, the undefined hips, the high hem of the skirt and the shoes with rounded toes, thick soles and strong steep heels to the exact opposite was inevitable: the immediate past had to be forgotten and replaced by a new, significantly more promising reality. The image of women underwent a fundamental change. Fashion had become an obvious representation of women's “reclaimed,” traditional role in society and the family. The female figure was “exaggerated”; The result was an emphatically feminine, elegant silhouette. For most women, however, this could not be achieved without “aids”: the body-shaping, modeling underwear was placed around the bust like an armor. The corset found its way back into fashion. The underskirt or petticoat gave the dresses the intoxicating width and support they needed. The wide skirt was more suitable for young, slim women, while the tight skirt - the other dominant line of this decade - was more suitable for more mature ladies.
The difference between morning and afternoon attire still existed. The morning was reserved for household chores; In the afternoon, ladies dressed elegantly to visit exhibitions, go shopping or to have tea or coffee with friends. The cocktail party, known from Great Britain and the United States, also became increasingly popular in Germany, and with it the cocktail dress, which - sewn from fine materials, with a short skirt hem, often décolleté and richly decorated - increasingly replaced the exclusive evening gown for festive occasions. Accessories that were precisely coordinated with the clothing were essential and had a high fashion value.
Even though there was, initially, resistance to the new body-hugging fashion-silhouette among women, especially in England and the USA, its triumph could no longer be stopped. Parisian haute couture regained a leading role in the 1950s - despite all the competition, particularly from Italian Alta Mode - not least through the work of gifted couturiers such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, and Cristobal Balenciaga. It was particularly the wealthy American customers who made Parisian fashion an export hit. Germany maintained a relative independence from Paris, but was only able to evade the fashion dictates radiating from there to a limited extent. Paris remained the fashion metropolis from which inspiration and impulses came.
In contrast to the French, the German couturiers, most of whom had established themselves in Berlin, preferred bright colors and unusual patterns. They were soon able to develop a wide-ranging collection on an international level. But their creations were also out of reach for most women: influenced by the couture designs, by the film stars, and pop singers, models and mannequins, they often fulfilled their fashion dreams by sewing them at home or had them sewn for them by seamstresses.
The main source of information for women interested in fashion were fashion magazines, which quickly processed the suggestions from haute couture, films and fashion fairs into their own designs. Product espionage in the ateliers of the big couture houses was not unusual at a time when fashion was gaining particular importance in all social classes. The clothing regulations that guaranteed elegant, ladylike and always appropriate clothing with matching accessories could be gleaned in detail in the fashion journals."
Text from Catalog of 15 garments/Schenkung Heiliger to Museum fuer Angewandte Kunst /Craft Museum Cologne, Germany
Susanne Nielsen's mother Anneliese Schmidt was one of these women of the 1950s who sewed her own elegant wardrobe. In 2021-24 Susanne Nielsen recreated these gowns in cooperation with seamstress Theresia Thielke ( born1931) and under the guidance of Anneliese Schmidt (1930-2023)
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My Mother's Dresses: Twelve Dresses - Twelve Stories - HERE THEY ARE!
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THE 12 DRESSES:
Dress # 1 Summer Dress of white cotton, Flower pattern
Dress #2 Summer Dress with short sleeves and red-green Flower Pattern
Dress #3 Gray silk skirt black top with rose
Dress #4 Green Taffeta, embroidered evening gown
Dress #5 Blue skirt, white lace top attached, blue jacket
Dress #5b Blue skirt, white lace top attached ( see #5)
Dress #6 Green Taffeta pencil skirt dress with heart collar
Dress #7 The House dress – modeled for a catalog, (never wore)
Dress #7b Tweed suit (catalog-bought)
Dress #8 Red-Green floral Rayon sleeveless dress
Dress #9 red roses/black Georgette sleeveless dress
Dress #10 Gray Organza dress with roses and shawl
Dress #11 Black silk Taffeta long ball gown
Dress #12 The off-white Lace Dress, and Wrap
Dress #+1 Gray Wedding Dress of Daughter (1983)
Dress #+2 White original 1950s wedding Dress
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Dress # 1: Summer Dress of white cotton with Flower pattern
I light summer dress, thin straps and an elongated waistline with a gathered skirt, worn over a petticoat by all women and girls, the fabric was chinsed to create a silky surface of flower patterned white cotton.
This basic pattern would be used in this day dress as much as in her long green ball gown.
Later reincarnations of this dress (or perhaps extra material, whose pattern stayed with her and her daughter) were a small pillow cover for her favorite down pillow, or the covers of her family silver, forks, knives and spoons kept safe from tarnishing over the years, all reminding her of the pattern of flowers that stayed with her into old age.
Dress # 2: Summer Dress with short sleeves and red-green Flower Pattern
Most possibly it was made from one of the bales of curtain or upholstery fabric her father had traded for other wares like cigarettes or ceramic dish sets, she sewed a dress with many variations in wear:
The dress as summer dress, or with a black organza blouse, or with a light blue green coat with black trim, she could dress it up or down to fit an elegant evening out or a casual stroll through a park and visit to a café, or she could wear it with hat and coat to a city visit, wearing high heels and a pair of nylon stockings.
Dress # 3: Gray silk skirt black top with rose
An elegant two-piece strapless evening dress, the black taffeta top with its pink rose in the middle and an organza gray skirt that reached her ankles.
Black gloves were necessary as in winters her once frozen hands and heels would swell and redden, and her long gloves saved her from embarrassment.
Her first pair of nylon stockings had been a gift from the boyfriend she had met at the dance school on her first day in the city, She and her family lived above the dance school.
Dress # 4: Green Taffeta, embroidered evening gown
This dress shows a strapless, ruffled top with elongated waistline, and a green taffeta skirt, and hand embroidered curved decorative pattern arching over the front middle of the floor length skirt.
For the happy nights filled with dance with her fiancée, she dressed up in this green ball gown.
The dress then became a “witness” as she loaned it to a cousin of her groom at her small wedding. Her future parents-in-law came to inspect the straps they had required her to add to the (too) alluring evening gown.
Her wedding dress was borrowed from her older sister, the church and dinner paid for by a marriage insurance policy. The wedding party of ten guests dined with the married couple for a lunch at a finely set round table in a private room in the restaurant at the city hall.
Dress # 5: Blue skirt /jacket, white lace top,
This is a dress, with a white lace-top and a bright blue silky skirt, not as wide as a full, but a ¾ circle pattern for the skirt.
Sitting on her parents-in-law’s sunny veranda, chatting over coffee and enjoying a cigarette, she wears short tailored short sleeved jacket of the same bright blue to match the skirt and create an ensemble that gives it a day-time look.
Windows around the entire room allow even the spring sun to warm this private porch-like space with an elegant golden colored sofa, little tables with green plants, and a number of wicker pieces of furniture.
The wicker Armchair did not return home from its repair, it had been the place of a crime, and after the investigation, the family did not want it back.
Dress #5b: Blue skirt, white lace top attached (#5)
This is a dress with a white lace-top and a bright blue silky skirt, not as wide as a full, but a ¾ circle pattern for the skirt.
Standing again in one of the pageants she wears her favorite earrings, she calls them her peppermint earrings as the little round Bakelite elements resemble small white peppermint candies.
The skirt would twirl only modestly, as she waltzed or cha-cha’ed on the dance-floor with her new husband – in this resort – a luxury in the post-war era, she so appreciates.
Travel there by car was another adventure, tourists/travelers were still quite a rarity in countries like Italy, Switzerland or Greece.
The rooms in homes rented to travelers, once even sharing it with a closet filled with ripening cheese wheels.
Dress #6: Green Taffeta pencil skirt dress A green Taffeta Dress in the pencil skirt style of the post-war era 1950s, the hems much longer than in the 1940s – more materials available.
This fabric was used to line dresses, but it made for a nice shiny look, and with its bright green color, she stood out, appearances were everything.
Color was the most important factor as patterned fabrics were rarely found, only as furniture upholstery/ curtain fabrics, those thicker and heavier and longer lasting.
She is a candidate from the audience at an evening of games to amuse young couples who could afford evenings out.
Dress # 7 : The House dress – modeled for a catalog
Many post-war women wore a house dress or apron over their dresses. She modeled this one for a catalog that sold them. She also modeled fashion jewelry.
The “Kittel-Schuerze”(House Dress) was worn to keep clothes nice, but because it also signaled the socio-economic circumstance of women ( need to protect the little fine clothing a woman owned), it was a clothing item only worn in the home.
An apron is part of the traditional Tracht worn by women and girls in the farming communities. The richer they became, the more elaborate these aprons became. Its origins remained in the hard working population.
Dress #7b: Tweed suit (catalog-bought)
“Pepper and salt”, light colored tweed suit with the typically wide long sleeves, loose jacket and pencil skirt was made of lined wool and ideal for cool (even early summer) weather.
She wore it for outings that included outdoor café visits with her daughter in a stroller, stopping to have a cup of coffee in the Spring weather, sunny but still not very warm. Children were welcome if they were “seen but not heard” – outdoors, not in inside restaurants where they could disturb others.
In 1950s Germany, families with children were welcome in the first Italian, Portuguese or Greek restaurants – the “guest worker’s” eateries welcomed families with many children.
Dress #8: red-green floral rayon sleeveless dress
She designed and sewed this summer dress in the early 1950s with gathered padded shoulders reminiscent of the broad shoulders in the 1940s fashions.
She called it the "Rettershof" dress because she wore it on dates with our father accompanying him to the Retters-Manorhouse where he went horse-back riding regularly, he had started as child in this the "sport of kings" while his sister played tennis, both were the past-times of the middle and upper classes, opening doors to these circles.
Dress #9: red roses/black Georgette sleeveless dress
She designed and sewed this summer dress in black georgette fabric with a pattern of red roses for elegant evenings out.
Like other patterned fabrics, this dress was sewn from curtain or furniture fabric that her father, a self-made traveling salesman who used all his connections to find resources (a friend’s ceramic studio for dishes, hats in exchange for pretty feathers his daughter brought from her work on a chicken farm) had given her. These fabrics gave her dresses the vibrancy of the current Berlin fashion style (more patterns and color than Paris fashions) to stand out among the other candidates who could only distinguish themselves as excellent dancers or talented singers. The weight and fine rose pattern of this garment signaled its betterquality.
Dress # 10: Gray Organza dress with roses, shawl
She designed this dress and sold the design to the Publisher of a Pattern Magazine. Similarly to pattern magazines today, Women in the Post-War era longed to look elegant and to sew a wardrobe they had lost in the war or now admired in others.
Made of silvery organza and gray lining and pink silk roses, the dress with its matching organza shawl took her to evenings at the casino with friends. She also wore it to compete and win the title of the prettiest young woman, “Rose of the Woerther Lake” – a pageant held at the Schloss Hotel, in an Austrian resort.
Dress # 11: Black silk Taffeta long ball gown
This ball gown – black silk taffeta – her mother gave this gift to her daughters as part of the suitcase full of “survival” clothing that she wished her two young Teens to have – just as she shared her make-up with them. This ball gown had been made for the always elegant mother by one of her two tailors in downtown Berlin before the war.
She copied it and made a new version for herself from lining taffeta material when the first one was worn out.
Her mother had a suitcase of fine materials for dresses that she had left during the war with her Berlin tailor. When this woman’s shop was destroyed in a bombing of the city, she was not sure she would find the suitcase with her mother’s the precious fabrics again.
But when she did, she returned it, and her thankful client invited her to her home to tea and gave the tailor a gift of the silver tea set as “thank you” for her loyalty and honesty to guard and return such precious resources in times of war.
Dress # 12: The off-white Lace Dress, and Wrap
She designed and sewed this off-white lace dress with strapless gathered top and lace wrap for a summer trip with her husband to Nice, France in the summer of 1960. She left her daughter in the care while traveling for one week. A pettycoat must have made the skirt more voluminous shown in the photo.
When she was shown that this would be the last of the twelve dresses sewn by Theresia, she smiled and said that their friend Guenther Urban had been very jealous when she wore this dress on the New Year's Eve ball at the Wiesbaden casino as he sat in the bar with them.
"I was pregnant with my second child, your brother," was the answer.
All these beautiful dresses remained in Germany as the young family moved to Otto Schmidt's first diplomatic assignment. He had talked our mother into selling them all ("versilbern" he called it - making them into silver (coins)), to buy something useful -a film camera for himself, he wrot, looking back at 1961, a year of change.
Our mother continued to sew her dresses for most of her life, always looking glamorous.
Dress # +1:Gray Silk-Taffeta Dress,beige lace collar
And Anneliese Schmidt also sewed Susanne's wedding dress, the last original dress to complete this Series.
Dress # +2:White Lace Wedding Dress, (Store-Bought)
This original 1955 white lace wedding dress (our mother had borrowed her wedding gown from her sister in 1954) donated by Angela Romeo Gibron, her own mother's wedding dress).
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Translation:
My Mother's Dresses: Former Cusanus student starts Corona art project
April 8, 2021, Article by Silke Elbern, General Anzeiger Editor Bad Godesberg / Wachtberg
Susanne Nielsen in front of the canvases showing her mother in dresses she created herself. Photo: private
Bad Godesberg / Florida Susanne Nielsen graduated from the Plittersdorf Nicolaus-Cusanus-Gymnasium(NCG highschool) in 1976 as the child of (German) diplomats. When her parents had to leave Bonn (for a new posting), she stayed behind to attend Bonn University. From her home in Florida, she has now completed an unusual art project in collaboration with her 91-year-old mother in Germany.
Susanne Nielsen left Bad Godesberg for the United States 38 years ago, but she never let go of her connection with this city district (of Bonn, the former West-German capital). As a diplomat’s child, like so many other such (international) children at the time, she attended the Nicolaus-Cusanus-Gymnasium (high school) in the Plittersdorf neighborhood and over the years, was able to reconnect with many of her 100 fellow high school graduates from (1967 -)1976 (the GA reported, https://ga.de/bonn/bad-godesberg/sie-lebt-in-florida-und-sucht-klassenkameraden_aid-42318061). The 63-year-old German-American artist is also a member of Godesberg Facebook groups and recently posted one of her works of art. Strictly speaking, twelve works of art in one: What is so special about this project? In each painting you can see her mother in a dress she created herself.
"This was our Corona project," says Nielsen in a phone interview with GA.de. The beautiful woman in the pictures is now 91 and continues to live in Germany. In the past twelve months, mother and daughter have been in touch via video calls to Florida (Whatsapp), for two hours every day. “We started talking about her dresses,” says her daughter, who is a college professor of art. Her father (Dr.) Otto Schmidt had worked for the German Foreign Service as an economist. "My mother had the role of social representative," says her daughter, a little sadly.
(because…) Her mother would liked to have become a fashion designer.
Anneliese Schmidt's passion has always been sewing, she would have loved to get into the fashion business. “Since she first had to take care of her sick mother, she had apprenticed to become a pharmaceutical technician,” explains Nielsen. But her mother’s part-time job with a photographer kept her with immersed in the world of fine fabrics. After marrying the diplomat Schmidt, however, Nielsen's mother took on the role of partner. "It was an important part of the occupation to receive up to 50 guests a month and to host meals," said the daughter.
Her mother wanted to shine, of course, but her husband's employer didn't provide an extra budget for all that was needed in this profession. “So my mother sat down at the sewing machine at night and sewed all her own clothes herself.” Initially she used upholstery fabrics and silk gowns of Nielsen's grandmother. In 1967 the father was posted back to the Foreign ministry’s headquarters in Bonn (,Germany). The family, in San Francisco Nielsen’s brother had been born, lived at Goten Strasse 144, (in Bad Godesberg) directly across from her (high)school. "On the one hand that was practical, on the other hand I would have loved to have been a bus commuter kid," Nielsen said. All her Barbie dolls wore the dresses her mother had sewn for them.
The social obligations continued, and throughout her mother also sewed clothes for the daughter - and all her Barbie dolls. “I still have them,” says Nielsen proudly. During their phone calls, an idea came to Nielsen, to honor the most beautiful clothes - including her mother wearing them - on canvas. “Not an easy undertaking, because many of them were in black and white photos only.” They discussed the project with each other and then Nielsen picked up a paintbrush. Every month she created a portrait on unstretched canvas in the acrylic technique, the size of each 6x1 ft (200 cm by 0.60 cm). Why not framed? “My art should be easy to transport and to display, I want to be able to carry (my paintings rolled up) under my arm,” says the trained Humanities instructor.
She laid the foundation for her university career in Bonn, where she studied English literature, art history, and education. When her parents moved to Switzerland in 1975, she remained in Bonn. In 1983 she moved to the US with her husband, an American USAF fighter pilot. Now that the Corona paintings are completed except for a few small details, she plans to also recreate the actual dresses. “The entire project shows all my appreciation of my mother’s accomplishments, and also for the creativity of ALL the other post-war women.” If everything goes well, she wants to board a plane to Germany in August with her art. As always, Bad Godesberg will be a stop on her trip
Susanne Nielsen also writes a blog where she reports on her life as a university instructor, artist and journalist: http://susannenielsenarts.blogspot.com.
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