Two weeks before Paris was liberated from Nazi control, Hermann Goering ordered four gowns for his wife from the couture salon of Paquin. Hopped-up with self-aggrandizing and murderous power, and made wealthy from the spoliation of art, goods and businesses from Jews, Nazi leaders and their wives embodied the hypocrisy of German attitudes towards Paris fashion. Although there was no official 'Reich Fashion', Nazi theory and organizations fought the influence of Paris fashion from the very start of the war. Outwardly, they Aryanized Jewish fashion salons, replaced photographs of 'enemy fashion' (English and French) with Italian, Austrian, and German designs, and claimed the tra-chtenstil as ideal national dress. In truth, however, wealthy members of the Nazi party patronized Parisian couture houses while Jewish seamstresses interned in Auschwitz were forced to create Paris-inspired outfits for the wives of the camp's officers. The Nazi government could easily have shut down the Parisian couture industry if that had been their intent. Instead, Lou Taylor writes, 'they opted to turn Paris couture into a trade subjugated to their will and functioning only with their permission' (p. 34).
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