Hot Accession! Eva: The Journal of Educated Women

Everyone’s who’s been happening through the department recently has had plenty to say about our new accession, Eva.  The Czech-language magazine marketed to “educated women” was first issued in 1928 and is simply smart, chic and drop dead gorgeous.  We’re happy to report we have nearly the full-run of the title, lacking only the first year of its fifteen-year run, which ended in 1943.  This means the title is a rare source of information on Czech art, fashion and culture during the period of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, which lasted from 1939 and 1945.  For anyone interested in French fashion during the German occupation of Paris, Eva is a must-see as it reveals many interesting parallels between French and Czech war-time fashions.

We love this image below from the August 1, 1940 issue of Eva, which features wooden soled shoes by the Czech shoe manufacturer Bata.  If the name Bata seems familiar to some of you, this may be because of the Bata Shoe Museum located in downtown Toronto.  In 1946, the founder of the Bata Shoe Museum, Sonja Bata, married Thomas J. Bata who had relocated to Canada after his family’s company was nationalized by the Germans.  Together they worked to reestablish the business as a global brand, Sonja along the way amassing a spectacular collection of footwear from around the world. Today the Bata Shoe Museum,which opened in 1995, is home to a permanent collection of more than 12,500 objects, spanning 4,500 years of human history.

We are excited for our first Czech-speaking researcher to make the first appointment to see Eva, so we can learn more!  Mluvíte česky?

 

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