Gunda Beeg

A founding member of the first German organization for the reform of women’s dress, Gunda Beeg advocated loose-fitting clothing for reasons of both comfort and hygiene. Beeg was imbued with the reformist spirit early in life: her father was director of the Kunstgewerbe (Museum of Industrial Arts) in Nuremberg, and her mother founded the School for Women’s Work, where Gunda herself was trained for economic independence. Among Beeg’s successful designs was the “reform blouse” adopted by the Union of Women Telephone and Telegraph Employees as part of their official civil service uniform in 1913. She published (with Hedwig Lechner) Lehrbücher der Modenwelt (Textbook of the Fashion World, 1887).