Freitag, 28. August 2009

Bavarian outfits

In Bavaria, the tradition costume consists of Lederhosen for men and, for women, a Dirndl. Most of you probably have a good idea of what this looks like – your standard, stereotyped St. Pauli Girl type outfit just about suits the picture. They are, of course, much more beautiful than that, and manage to be sexy and voluptuous without being as…er… bosomy… as what most people picture. Anyways, living in Munich, it's great to have one, because there are several occasions each year to wear them, such as the Strong Beer Festival or, most notably, Oktoberfest! Since the latter is fast approaching, I have been on a mission to find a suitable new Dirndl for myself, without much luck. I have even visited the more upper priced locales, but to no avail: I just couldn't find what I was looking for.

What luck that today, as I was strolling away my lunch hour, I walked past a Dirndl Warehouse sale. I decided, what the heck, and went in….within 20 minutes and only ONE Dirndl-try-on later, I had what I had been looking for all along! Plum Dirndl, beautiful poofy sleeved blouse and white apron to match the white piping and trim. Beautiful, and it fit perfectly, plus the price, zinging in at €99.70 for the entire set, just can't be beat (i had been looking at Dirndls that, without the accessories, cost upwards of €200…) To top the whole thing off, the sales people were lovely and even offered me a glass of prosecco, which I (unfortunately) declined, saying I had to get back to work…. (I hope the wedding dress buying experience is this pleasant!)

And then I got to thinking about the wedding. And how it's going to be in the alps. In the beautiful, cow inhabited, church spire poking, cheese eating alps, and how really, we should maybe try to incorporate some of this lovely traditional dress that I adore into
our wedding. And I also got thinking about how a few of my friends had expressed the wish to wear a Dirndl to the wedding, and about how we may have to change our date due to restrictions on the civil ceremony… anyways, I got this crazy idea that we could do the civil ceremony on Friday evening, in traditional dress! Since it will be the "official" German part anyways, and the Saturday ceremony is going to be more typical American and have a more emotional component, it would be quite fitting. I still haven't figured out how that could incorporate the bridal party and traditional dress…perhaps we could all go Dirndl shopping together and those who wished could buy something and wear it to the civil ceremony.. I dunno, those are all just ideas. All I know is, I look pretty smashing in my new Plum Dirndl, and Mr. Schnitzel is dashing in his Lederhosen…

Those hills… so alive…

6 Kommentare:

Nicole hat gesagt…

I like this idea! Dirndl-wearing = awesome. That would tooooo much fun!

Wedding Diplomat hat gesagt…

yeah! glad you're on board? do you have one yet?!?! you need to get one!

Anonym hat gesagt…

I, for one, am super excited. Can we run through the grass singing?? Please??

Anonym hat gesagt…

Hi... lurker from the US here. :o) I think your idea is great. As far as bridesmaids go, you might try a variation on something that's becoming more popular in the US. Many brides here are simply picking a color for their bridesmaids' dresses, and then letting the bridesmaids themselves pick the style of dress. For dirndls, maybe you could pick a "standard" color scheme-- just for example, long, dark blue dirndls with white blouses and aprons-- and then let the bridesmaids pick out the actual dresses they like with those colors. Some dirdls can look extremely elegant...

Another option, if you have time & wanted matching dirdls, might be to order from an online trachten shop...

Just thought I'd throw out these suggestions... I'l really enjoying reading about all the details, and what you're planning sounds beautiful. ;)

Best,
Alyson
(A German-American from Indy, who is discovering she's getting more German the older she gets ;P)

Wedding Diplomat hat gesagt…

pgha: yes! there is a perfect hill for singing "the hills are alive"!

msnovtue: thanks for your ideas, i love it! I'm still not sure that everyone will want to have a dirndl.. i'll have to think about that. But I was considering giving people the opinion of getting one, and in that case, I will probably pick several colors that would "fit" - probably blue, purple, yellow. we'll see- i guess i still have a bit to figure it out!

Nicole hat gesagt…

So updating, no I still do not have one and this would be the perfect reason to get one!!! And to come to Munich and go shopping with you for one :)

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