Berufskleidung, bear-strong
Feb. 21st, 2007 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusBerufskleidung is the German word for working clothes. I love to buy them. They're bold, durable, and odd -- paradoxically, practicality gives these boiler suits and gloves much more interesting shapes than any fashion designer would dare. They're garish yet severe, flamboyant yet macho, pragmatic yet decorative. They use unusual, innovative materials -- rubber! plastic-sealed paper! -- and have lots of pockets everywhere. For tools, you understand.
The Berufskleidung part of any secondhand store is usually my favourite rail. "Now I can dig the street!" I exclaim, certain that the street will also dig me. These garments are, of course, particularly wonderful in Japan. But here in Berlin they're pretty great too. A latter-day August Sander would be able to capture some fine full-length working men's photographs at the airport or a dug-up stretch of road, featuring bright yellows, oranges and reds.
Claudia's Berufskleidung, at 67 Karl
Marx Allee, sells Berufskleidung which are "bear-strong". Claudia has been there on the windswept, Stalinist boulevard since 1992. I buy my clogs there, and flowery housecleaner aprons for my girlfriend. In the world of Berufskleidung a man is still a man and a woman a woman. Oh yes!
To the right, you see a poster on Claudia's wall featuring two German friends wearing their Berufskleidung. They are not homosexuals, nor Village People impersonators. They are healthy German men, perhaps amateurs like myself who simply value Post-Protestant utility value (for instance, they may well prefer Gebrauchsmusik -- useful or utility music -- to other kinds of music, made simply for pleasure) or perhaps working class professionals. I think the black suit is some kind of drinking costume -- the bearded bear wearing it has won many medals for his industrial-strength drinking abilities at Oktoberfests. Note his serpent-shaped fat black stick, with dead leaves speared on its pointed end. His white-suited friend is a dandy disco plasterer. There's nothing more satisfying -- as he well knows -- than getting a pristine cream flared disco suit quickly filthy. In the bucket and sack behind the pair are either cement and plaster or (more likely) the tubs of cash they've saved thanks to shopping at Claudia's.
I came away from my visit to the store yesterday with a chocolate-brown apron (€10) and a pair of bright red rubberized gloves (€2,90). (Click the picture above to see a bigger version.) I have no idea what profession my uniform might suit me to. A fishmonger, perhaps? A cacao plucker? But, delighted with my purchases, I couldn't resist slipping them on (with a little help from Cheung Lik, who purchased two pairs of gardening gloves, one grey, one white) right there on the platform of the U5 line at Strausberger Platz. Standing under Claudia's pragmatic emporium, wrapped in practicality, chocolate and blood, I did indeed feel "bear-strong".
The Berufskleidung part of any secondhand store is usually my favourite rail. "Now I can dig the street!" I exclaim, certain that the street will also dig me. These garments are, of course, particularly wonderful in Japan. But here in Berlin they're pretty great too. A latter-day August Sander would be able to capture some fine full-length working men's photographs at the airport or a dug-up stretch of road, featuring bright yellows, oranges and reds.
Claudia's Berufskleidung, at 67 Karl
Marx Allee, sells Berufskleidung which are "bear-strong". Claudia has been there on the windswept, Stalinist boulevard since 1992. I buy my clogs there, and flowery housecleaner aprons for my girlfriend. In the world of Berufskleidung a man is still a man and a woman a woman. Oh yes!To the right, you see a poster on Claudia's wall featuring two German friends wearing their Berufskleidung. They are not homosexuals, nor Village People impersonators. They are healthy German men, perhaps amateurs like myself who simply value Post-Protestant utility value (for instance, they may well prefer Gebrauchsmusik -- useful or utility music -- to other kinds of music, made simply for pleasure) or perhaps working class professionals. I think the black suit is some kind of drinking costume -- the bearded bear wearing it has won many medals for his industrial-strength drinking abilities at Oktoberfests. Note his serpent-shaped fat black stick, with dead leaves speared on its pointed end. His white-suited friend is a dandy disco plasterer. There's nothing more satisfying -- as he well knows -- than getting a pristine cream flared disco suit quickly filthy. In the bucket and sack behind the pair are either cement and plaster or (more likely) the tubs of cash they've saved thanks to shopping at Claudia's.
I came away from my visit to the store yesterday with a chocolate-brown apron (€10) and a pair of bright red rubberized gloves (€2,90). (Click the picture above to see a bigger version.) I have no idea what profession my uniform might suit me to. A fishmonger, perhaps? A cacao plucker? But, delighted with my purchases, I couldn't resist slipping them on (with a little help from Cheung Lik, who purchased two pairs of gardening gloves, one grey, one white) right there on the platform of the U5 line at Strausberger Platz. Standing under Claudia's pragmatic emporium, wrapped in practicality, chocolate and blood, I did indeed feel "bear-strong".![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
hand in glove
Date: 2007-02-21 12:10 pm (UTC)my janitor suit
Date: 2007-02-21 12:12 pm (UTC)the janitor uniform would be my favorite suit if it wouldn't be so loose. unfortunately these working clothes are not designed for us skinny technical losers...
eRiC
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 01:01 pm (UTC)Re: hand in glove
Date: 2007-02-21 01:11 pm (UTC)The image in the background is a still from some art school degree show or other. They too are interchangeable. If you kill one, another will spring up with Helvetica graphics and nice little booklets hung on a washing line.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 01:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 01:25 pm (UTC)http://www.deutsches-filmhaus.de/filme_einzeln/ba_be_einzeln/beyer_frank/spur_der_steine.htm
In your own B-kleidung, you look like maybe you could work at the fish farm in Cronenberg's Existenz. So a fishmonger, yes, but of mutant fish parts meant to meld with computer hardware.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 01:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:08 pm (UTC)berufskleidung, yes, that's about all i ever buy. but also some army stuff and some sports stuff. the swedish army have some true masterpieces. Similar but in a sense at the other extreme is stuff made in the old PRC. the mao suit etc is cool but i'm talking about more basic stuff like tshirts etc. they were designed with practiclity in mind but a practicality of the material and of the making process with total disregard for the human body and ergonomics. the results were very interesting to say the least. pretty hard to come across nowadays.
how i miss the vitality of 90s belgian fashion designers who blended all this with beauty.
the japanese stuff is very interesting because you do have a layer of what marxy would call orthopraxic design (say square or rectangular things) but then on the other hand you have ergonomics that someone like say 'the north face' will never reach. check out these socks, materialized perfection .
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 02:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 03:06 pm (UTC)Lutheran Pimps!
Date: 2007-02-21 03:54 pm (UTC)vocab! Ha Ha Ha!!
nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-21 04:01 pm (UTC)Re: nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-21 04:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 05:06 pm (UTC)Re: nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-21 05:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 05:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 05:30 pm (UTC)-John Flesh
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 06:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 07:24 pm (UTC)I love the escapist reversal of the day-artist in berufskeidung and the day-worker in serge suit.
I approve wholly of the fun and practicality of this sartorial role play but I have to say those rubberised gloves can become a little uncomfortable on fine summer days.
Incidentally in connection to your 'Down with jeans' post, I cannot understand why those wretched vestments ever became connected with manual workers as the are just about the most uncomfortable and impractical trouser one could wear, I much prefer that bricklayer's white flared britches.
Regards.
Thomas Scott.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-21 11:26 pm (UTC)question (?)
Date: 2007-02-21 11:55 pm (UTC)And if you answer such a question, what institution, of course if any would you recommend (in the USA).
xo
Re: nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-22 12:11 am (UTC)Re: question (?)
Date: 2007-02-22 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 03:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 03:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 03:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 07:25 am (UTC)or
Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!
or both. that sounds good.
michael
Re: nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-22 08:08 am (UTC)Re: question (?)
Date: 2007-02-22 08:13 am (UTC)Re: nouveau humorous
Date: 2007-02-22 10:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 11:09 pm (UTC)Thomas.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-22 11:57 pm (UTC)