Burda Moden (or Burda Style as it’s called today) may not be as well known everywhere in the world—certainly in North America its rivals like Simplicity, Butterick and McCall’s are better known—but in Europe, and especially in German-speaking countries, the name Burda has long been synonymous with sewing patterns and making one’s own clothes. And it has long since outstayed its competitors like Beyer (which started several decades before), Neue Mode and Ullstein.
So how and where did it start? Burda’s origins are in the small city of Offenburg in Germany—not one of the big metropolises like Frankfurt, Munich or Berlin. And with one woman: Aenne Burda. She was married to Franz Burda, the owner of a printing business. He regularly had affairs, and when Aenne found out he had financed a small fashion publication for one of his mistresses, she knew what she wanted. She was 40 years old then, a mother of three boys, and had been looking for something to do. That something had to be an endeavor where her husband couldn’t tell her what to do. In exchange for not asking for a divorce, she asked for this publishing business to be given over to her.
In October 1949, Aenne Burda published her first fashion magazine, Favorit Moden. In January 1950 it appeared for the first time under the name Burda Moden, with two sheets of sewing patterns included. Aenne had always appreciated fashion and the finer things in life, knowing she wanted to better herself from the circumstances in which she had grown up (though she admitted she herself never sewed!). This is what she wanted to give her readers: a chance to dress well, even if money was tight, by making their own clothes.
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