Exquisite store
Exquisit stores were clothing stores in the GDR with a high-priced range of clothing and cosmetics compared to normal HO and consumer stores.
history
The Exquisit stores were created in 1962 by decision of the Council of Ministers and were supplemented by the delicatessen stores in 1966 . Both retail chains should cover the “high demand”. The citizens of the GDR should have the opportunity to purchase luxury items without West money .
High prices
For the GDR citizen, however , the fashion items were often financially inaccessible. The prices were not set by the manufacturer alone; a commission made up of salespeople and store managers also had a say. In contrast to this, the state-owned garment factories mainly produced garments that were difficult to sell and generally regarded as not being fashionable. In addition to unappealing, old-fashioned patterns, poor quality materials were often used.
Rumors quickly spread among the people that the exquisite goods were cheap western mass products that would be brought to the East German market at overpriced prices. The nickname Uwubus for " Ulbricht's usury houses" testified to this in the vernacular .
Quality and fashion design in the GDR
However, when it comes to the exquisite goods, they really paid attention to the quality. There were 30 fashion designers alone who designed a collection for each season and presented it at the Leipzig trade fair . The numbers were small: an average of 300 pieces were made of one model. The sample models were subjected to rigorous tests for load-bearing capacity, fit and fit before they were put on the assembly line. Most of the fabrics used for this came from Western countries such as Austria , Italy , France and Japan .
Decline after the turning point
After the reunification it quickly became apparent that the Exquisit companies with their “solid offers at the medium price level” were too inexperienced to survive in the fashion market. Only the creatives of the company survived who now taught at art schools, as designers in fashion companies or founders of their own brands. The shops in mostly very good inner city locations were quickly taken over by West German retail chains.
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Huebner : Reforms in the GDR in the sixties. Consumption and Social Policy . In: Christoph Boyer (ed.): Socialist economic reforms. Czechoslovakia and GDR in comparison (= studies on European legal history, vol. 210). Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-465-04005-8 , pp. 501-539, here p. 527.