Burda may be better known in Europe than the US, and not as old as Butterick and Simplicity, but as I mentioned (without too much thinking at first, I admit) when listing the 50s magazine the other week, it has been around since 1950 and therefore celebrates it's 70th anniversary this year! What's interesting about the company history though is that it really started as a business by a woman for women. Aenne Burda was to all accounts a woman who knew what she wanted and liked to dress well. Her husband had a printing business. When she found he had an affair, she demanded he give her the small fashion publication business he'd given his lover originally in exchange for staying with him. That was in 1949, and in 1950 the first magazine with sewing patterns appeared. Her goal was to give women who did not have much after the war the opportunity to dress well without spending a fortune. From 1952 onwards, patterns were also sold separately - and the rest is history as they say. In 1987 they were the first Western fashion magazine to be allowed to be published in the USSR. A big fashion show was held in Moscow - probably Burda's biggest personal success. I grew up with Burda - my mom bought the magazine religiously every month and this (and mail order catalogs) was where I got my ideas of fashion from before I started buying teenie magazines. I haven't bought one myself in years, but... As I was hopelessly searching for the lost pattern cover image of an 80s Burda pattern, I got on their website and saw the 70th anniversary issue, which is the current one and which had me at the retro-style cover, so I went and bought it. They reinterpreted several 1950s patterns for this issue, and I love how they did it - no better way of showing how great vintage patterns are, I think. From what I see they stayed faithful to the actual patterns, but styled them in a modern way. I admit, I found the modern patterns also featured underwhelming...
I love these. Burda do knitting and crochet patterns too, I have a recent magazine of these, in English.
Yes they do all that too and even have separte magazines for that... there used to be one called Anna which was mostly knitting, crochet, embroidery etc.
Certainly is an interesting history! I have also found some of their magazines, always tasteful! That was a great idea for their anniversary year to restyle the 50 yr old fashions.
