Wegener met Gerda Gottlieb while they were students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen,[REF] and they married in 1904, when Gottlieb was 19 and Wegener was 22 [REF].
Elbe started dressing in women's clothes after filling in for Gottlieb's absentee model; she was asked to wear stockings and heels so her legs could substitute for those of the model.