Ringier sewing patterns

You've probably noticed the Ringier sewing patterns in my shop, that you've also probably never have heard about - so time to blog a little about them... Ringier is the biggest publisher in Switzerland, best known for the tabloid newspaper "Blick" and the iconic people magazine "Schweizer Illustrierte". From the 1940s at least until the 1970s (or maybe 80s), they also published sewing patterns. Living in Switzerland, I of course come across them a lot, but there is very, very little information on them to be found. Not even Ringier's company history online mentions anything about them.

I had also not known anything about them until I found one of their patterns at a flea market. This was one of the very first vintage patterns I ever bought, and it was one of the first items in my Etsy shop to sell - just a fun little mod summer dress:

When I then started looking for patterns to sell, I came across more and more of them, and some are really elegant and can stand their own against better known brands!

Some of my favourite ones are:

        

So here you can already see the evolution of how their sleeves look - from the 1940s to the early 50s, early 50s to late 60s and then the late 60s to 70s design, with which also the numbering seems to have changed from five to four numbers.

I have also recently acquired three issues of their bi-annual "Journal des Modes" in which they published their newest patterns - only the more glamourous ones though. Sleep- and homewear it seems was probaly just published in their weekly family magazines. Click on the magazine covers below to view the complete magazines in an online album! They are gorgeous to look at just for the beautiful, colorful illustrations.

    

Thanks to these, I have also been able to glean a bit of information on their numbering system, which seems to have been continuous, with the first number (at least in the 5-digit system) denoting what kind of garment/pattern it was, and the character before standing for the price.

To keep track of all the information I have so far, and since I have faithfully been uploading or linking every pattern in my shop, I have also added this to the Vintage Pattern Wikia: http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Ringier
I will keep adding as I find out more - I hope to be getting more of the magazines soon.