Anna Muthesius born Anna Trippenbach (8 December 1870 – 30 March 1961) was a German fashion designer, concert singer, and author from

Aschersleben Aschersleben () is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 22 km east of Quedlinburg, and 45 km northwest of Halle (Saale). Geography Aschersleben lies near the confluence of the r ...

Life

She was born Anna Trippenbach in 1870. In concert with

Paul Schultze-Naumburg Paul Schultze-Naumburg (10 June 1869 – 19 May 1949) was a German traditionalist architect, painter, publicist and author. A leading critic of modern architecture, he joined the NSDAP in 1930 (aged 61) and became an important advocate of Naz ...

and

Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.'' ...

, Anna Muthesius was instrumental in creating models of female reform clothing. In 1895

Max Koner Max Johann Bernhard Koner (17 July 1854, Berlin – 7 July 1900, Berlin) was a German portraitist. Biography From 1873 to 1878, he studied at the Prussian Academy of Arts under Eduard Daege, Anton von Werner and others. He spent som ...

painted her portrait under the title of "Fräulein Trippenbach". The following year she married the aspiring architect

Hermann Muthesius Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...

. They moved to London as the Kaiser had offered him a position as cultural attaché at the

German Embassy in London The Embassy of Germany in London is the diplomatic mission of Germany in the United Kingdom. The embassy is located at Belgrave Square, in Belgravia. It occupies three of the original terraced houses in Belgrave Square and a late 20th-century ex ...

. They were anglophiles who decided to live in an artist's colony despite having rooms offered in the prestigious

Carlton House Terrace Carlton House Terrace is a street in the St James's district of the City of Westminster in London. Its principal architectural feature is a pair of terraces of white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street overlooking St. James's ...

near the embassy. They were regular visitors to Glasgow where they became fans of the

Willow Tearooms The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903. They quickly gained enormous popularity, and ar ...

She met leading British designers and

Frances MacDonald Frances Macdonald MacNair (24 August 1873 – 12 December 1921) was a Scottish artist whose design work was a prominent feature of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) during the 1890s. Biography The sister of artist-designer M ...

of the

Glasgow School The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook School ...

designed the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

cover of her first book in 1903. Muthesius was an advocate of

Anti-fashion Anti-fashion is an umbrella term for various styles of dress which are explicitly contrary to the fashion of the day. Anti-fashion styles may represent an attitude of indifference or may arise from political or practical goals which make fashi ...

and her book, ''Das Eigenkleid der Frau'' (Women's Own Dress) encourages women to decide for themselves what to wear. She wrote that they should choose the style and fabrics of their clothing based on aesthetics and they should not follow the dictates of fashion. She felt that women were being exploited by German clothing industrialists and they should decide on their own designs. The book which incorporated a novel binding designed by MacDonald is considered an important contribution to the Artistic Dress movement. She died on 30 March 1961 in Berlin. She was survived by her son

Eckart Muthesius Eckart Muthesius (17 May 1904 in Berlin – 9 August 1989) was a German architect and interior designer. His most famous commission was the Manik Bagh palace for Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II (1908–1961) for the use of himself and his wife ...

who became a noted architect.

Books

*''Das Eigenkleid der Frau'' (Women's Own Dress), 1903

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muthesius, Anna German fashion designers German women fashion designers 20th-century German writers 1870 births 1961 deaths German women singers German women writers 20th-century women writers 20th-century German women

Life

See also

Books

References