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Label: Star Boutique Manuela

Discussion in 'PUBLIC Vintage Fashion - Ask Questions Get Answers' started by Osmium, Sep 10, 2017.

  1. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

    As far as I can determine with some diligent google searching:

    Manuela was a popular singer in Germany - early 60s through to 90s. "Schlager" style - meaning popular, boppy, light, cutesy songs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager_music). During the 60s there seems to have been a fashion line called Star Boutique Manuela which was associated with the singer. Not sure if she simply put her name to the brand or was the founder or something else. Fashion styles were cute mini dresses. On several of her albums she appears wearing examples of that fashion line.
    [​IMG]
    And the logo that appears on the record label (above) M with a heart in the center of concentric circles representing a record (vinyl - for those of us old enough to remember) is also the design for the logo that appears on the dress labels.

    That's it. That's as far as I can get. Does anyone else have more detail? Specifically about the fashion line, not so much the music. Manufactured in Germany? Some sort of Franchise? Anything?
     
  2. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

    I have a little more, google translated from the page: http://www.michas-schlagerbox.de/Manuela/Biografie.htm

    "Another highlight followed again in 1968. Manuela opened her own fashion boutique, in which all her clothes, which she gave on the stage and also privately wore at affordable prices to buy. When buying one of these models, there was a wonderful plastic clothes hanger, on which was placed above the hanger a gold-colored soundtrack. In addition, each customer received a sound record with the American folk song "CARELESS LOVE" . This wonderful title was regrettably never released on a vinyl record or on a CD."

    Ok then, her own fashion boutique... Anyone have more?
     
  3. Midge

    Midge Super Moderator Staff Member

    Sorry - been away for a few days, and work has been crazy too. Manuela is not my generation of music, and I definitely don't like schlager music :) but I am familiar with her. Her first big hit in the 60s was a German cover of "Blame it on the Bossa Nova". Lots of schlager songs were covers of American pop songs...

    Anyway, I did a bit of googling too, since I wasn't familiar with her fashion line. German Wikipedia says that she designed clothes for her own label "Star Boutique Manuela GmBH" which were sold at all the big department stores, with the tag line "Young, sporty, comfortable and chic - and all of that with music" and that her record covers were used to advertise her fashion line.
    Code:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuela_(S%C3%A4ngerin)
    The SWR4 channel website also has some info. It says what inspired her to do this was that fans asked here where she bought her stage outfits, and that she thought that young girls who don't have a lot of money should also be able to afford chic clothes (she came from a working class background, so she knew what she was talking about).
    Code:
    https://www.swr.de/swr4/bw/musik-events/manuela-geburtstag/-/id=258148/did=11883296/nid=258148/1wgtlfe/index.html
    I also found a book about her online, some kind of biograhpy that tells the same story. She wore a different outfit for almost every appearance, and she had designed them herself. And then her fans asking about where they could buy clothes like that led to the idea of her found her own fashion company - that was in 1968. Again, it says that the line was sold at department stores - no boutique of her own. The best of LP "Ihre Grossen Erfolge 2" apparently contained a whole book with photos of her wearing her own designs. The nice hanger and special record were only sold with the more expensive clothes of her line.
    It doesn't say for how long the line existed, but it doesn't sound like it was long. It says it was successful for a time, but that Manuela realised it would only continue to do so if she would spend more time looking after the stores selling it - and of course she did not have that time because of her career, so she gave the company up.
    Code:
    https://books.google.ch/books?id=db0FCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=manuela+star+boutique&source=bl&ots=-Z4Su7Lrns&sig=kRKp3JqJGBMWYjRi8al47E38bao&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1pabG_qLWAhUV02MKHfQICRcQ6AEIWzAL#v=onepage&q=manuela%20star%20boutique&f=false
    Can you show a photo of the item you have? I'm curious :).

    There's also a Facebook page showing some images:
    Code:
    https://www.facebook.com/pg/Manuela-1653373491615393/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1700673990218676
    The last photo shows the logo of a fabric company: Stella by Deutsche Rhodiaceta AG. Deutsche Rhodiaceta was a manufacturer of synthetic fibers and fabrics. Stella seems to have been the name of one of the fabrics they produced.
     
  4. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

    Midge, thank you so much for all of this! Not my style of music either but I was intrigued by what i could see about her and the fact that she started her own fashion line. The photos in that last link are a great find - row 1, col 3 shows a selection of her clothes along with that record hanger (love to find one of those!!).

    She was obviously a talented and hard working woman - nice to be able to remember her and shed light on another slice of fashion history. It seems there was some scandal about money later in her life and the major record labels shunned her. But she still produced records independently albeit with limited success.

    I knew nothing about her until I bought a dress with her label in it and, of course, just had to track it down! I'll post a pic of the dress and the label soon. Looks like I've found a tiny niche in fashion collectables which would suit me just nicely - difficult to find but bright young fashion of the late 60s - perfect (so long as I can actually find more...)
     
  5. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

  6. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

    I've managed to find a copy of "Ihre Grossen Erfolge 2" (the record cover shown in my first post and the one Midge mentioned) complete with the booklet insert - so that's on its way. There's a huge amount of Manuela music material available on German ebay - so she was quite popular.
     
  7. Osmium

    Osmium Registered Guest

    For your entertainment:
     
  8. Midge

    Midge Super Moderator Staff Member

    Thanks for sharing! That's such a cute piece. Yes, as I understand it the scandal was that she claimed that she was asked to pay money in order to appear on a German charts TV show, and after at first paying for that, she then refused and made the whole thing public. The TV channel took her to court - she lost in the end, so the press wrote badly about her and TV boycotted her. Not nice.
     

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