Seeing the picture of Unterfranken makes me smile and remember seeing these beautiful clothes that my Grandmother had packed in a coffin in our small village of Ettleben. When she died, they were donated to a local historical society. The most important part of the costume is the haube, or cap, of which there were apparently three types, one for everyday life and two different styles to go out or to church. The famous attempt with the bulbhuete was only used in the area around Gutach.
When you take it to the next level, there are additional options for hat accessories, jackets and cardigans for Oktoberfest that we explain in detail below. As a rule, we recommend spending the extra euros for an authentic outfit instead of a cheap Halloween costume style. The dirndl has been used since the Middle Ages as a rural worker or peasant costume and maid’s uniform, but Moser Dirndl began to revive in an urban way in the late 1800s. This was a big change from the first modern Oktoberfest in 1810, when most wealthy, urban women wore large hoop dresses that were popular at the time. Before this traditional renaissance, the dresses at the first Oktoberfests in Munich were more in the style of Gone with the Wind with small umbrellas than Heidi’s classic look.
Traditionally, the larger the feather or lock of hair in your hat, the richer you were, as it is a sign of high status. Traditional lederhosen pants are a bit tight and stiff on the thighs at first, but they have laces on the back to give you more space around the waist. The leather of the thighs will soften and stretch a little when used, but if you don’t have time to break them for Oktoberfest, you should consider buying them in a large pants size. Also known as Wiesn Klammern (vee-sun klam-ern), it is an ordinary wooden clip decorated with a touch of Oktoberfest and the name burned with a wood stove. They are a bit sticky, but very nice and a great icebreaker.
After he moved to Munich with his family in 1890, they became interested and began to promote Alpine attempts. They employed seamstresses, who laboriously produced the first elegant dirndls of colorful printed fabrics, mainly silk. The dresses were exhibited by models of the firm in the alpine resorts. A breakthrough for the Wallach brothers came in 1910, when they organized the parade of traditional costumes and paid for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Oktoberfest. Examples of this movement outside the sphere of the German language are the Romantic Highland Revival in Scotland, the Danish People’s Movement and the Bunad Movement in Norway. In German-speaking countries, the movement became known as the Trachtenbewegung and gave rise to initiatives to study and promote folk costumes, including the dirndl.
During the winter, women wear a heavy Dirndl coat in the same cut as the dress. Instead of lightweight materials such as cotton and silk, these feature skirts and aprons made of thick cotton, linen, velvet or wool. Shirts have long sleeves and high collars, and the dress is accompanied by thick mittens and wool hats. From the late 1990s, dirndls and lederhosen experienced a boom in Austria and Bavaria, with some commentators speaking of a “dirndl Renaissance”.
One of the best-known design options in Munich is Edelweiss-Munich, known for dressing celebrities in stylish fashionable dresses. Their dirndl dresses can be up to 10 times more expensive than other options, but the quality and uniqueness of the craftsmanship is second to none. The specialty of Edelweiss-Muencen is fairytale dirndls that look like something from a fashion magazine. I also leave out the costumes of ethnic minorities, such as Frisians and Sorbs. Dirndls were developed in the 20th century from traditional everyday clothing, and although they are a popular costume, they are not regional. Some of them are very beautiful, some practical, and others very sticky and schlocky, or downright.