THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE 307
were made with manufacturers in order to provide a suffi cient supply
of garments.^71 Likewise, the one-time import of 150 thousand pairs of
Western jeans into the GDR in the fall of 1971 indicates that the special
fashion needs of the youth had been acknowledged.^72 A more distinctive
selection of goods was also off ered by the Exquisit shops for clothing
and shoes, which had been introduced back in 1962. These stores were
expanded considerably after 1971. Exquisit shops stocked Western and
top-end Eastern clothing and shoes, and sold them at a high price, but
in East German currency. The signifi cance of this distinctive kind of con-
sumption that necessitated a high level of income was clearly refl ected in
the sales fi gures for these stores. Whereas Exquisit goods accounted for
only 3 percent of the textiles and shoes sold in 1970, they had climbed
up to 18 percent by 1989.^73 Self-made clothing also came to be part of
this trend toward more distinctive consumerism because it was a way for
consumers to respond to the lack of selection in the shops and to craft
their own individualized creations. In 1973, one-fi fth of all women’s outer
garments in the GDR were self-sown and a third were self-knitted, and
this upward trend continued until the end of the 1980s.^74
This parallel world of food and clothing consumption in the GDR was
also spurred on by the growing spread of Western goods within the coun-
try. The Westpakete—packages sent as gifts by friends and relatives in West
Germany—accounted for a high percentage of consumer goods in the
country, and about 20 percent of textiles in particular (in the 1970s/80s). In
1986, an estimated fi ve million women’s blouses were sent in these pack-
ages, whereas only 1.7 million blouses were actually made in the GDR;
one-quarter of the coff ee consumed in the GDR came from the West in the
mid-1970s, but this had jumped to a half by 1989.^75 Consumer goods from
the West also entered the country through the introduction and expan-
sion of the Intershops and the Genex-Geschenkdienst, both of which relied
upon payment in Western currencies. The Genex-Geschenkdienst off ered
consumer goods made in the GDR that were in short supply, such as
cars, washers, and even single-family homes, in exchange for West Ger-
man Marks. The Intershops, on the other hand, sold Western goods for
Western currency. Initially established in the 1950s to serve foreign (i.e.,
Western) travelers, the Intershops became quite common in all the major
East German cities in the 1970s; there were 221 Intershops in the GDR in
1974, but almost double as many (416) in 1988. These kinds of shops that
sold goods for foreign currencies were also widespread in other parts of
Eastern Europe, such as in Poland, where there were already 650 Pewex
stores in 1983.^76 As of 1974, it was legal for East German citizens to pos-
sess Western money, which resulted in the development of a third culture
of consumption that required access to foreign currencies in addition to