In 1866 Richard Wagner was completing his Epic ring cycle and starting a happy family life with his wife Cosima. However, what is less often discussed is Wagner’s devotion to yet another fun pastime: the ordering and designing of bespoke clothes cut from fine fabrics.
What this penchant entailed becomes clear from Wagner’s private correspondence with his chosen “finery maker” Bertha Goldwag, which was released to the public in 1877, while the composer was still alive.
This Correspondence suggests that Wagner enjoyed ruffled shirts, heavy perfume, ladies jackets and colourful silk underwear. In a letter to a Milanese couturier, Wagner requested “something graceful for evenings at home,” complete with bustle and bow.
Goldwag also made bespoke slippers for Wagner, which she probably produced with generous lining of fur and cotton wool, as the composer often complained of having cold feet. It was most likely fashioned to Wagner’s precise instructions as per choice of fabric and design.
For the past 150 years, scholars have espoused various theories on Wagner’s love of fine fabrics. Some share the view that Wagner’s extravagant style of dress was an expression of his very particular tastes and that he purposefully donned such fabrics as a status symbol.
Others, meanwhile, hold a much more prosaic view: the composer had little choice but to shroud himself in velvet and silk because he had a long-suffering ailment of the skin and therefore had a reaction to other fabrics.
However, this diagnosis is flawed in many respects. Even though records show that Wagner did indeed suffer from the disease at several points in his life, we know from the composer’s own manuscripts on the state of his health that he was not plagued by the horrible rash all the way through his life.
His ‘elaborate’ choice of footwear could be seen as pure personal preference. Who doesn’t love a bit of luxury!
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