A New Spin on Traditional German Clothes

Like many German kids growing up in the 1990s, Lea Krichely only ever saw tracht—traditional German clothing: the busty, floral two-piece dresses known as dirndls and the three-quarter leather breeches known as lederhosen—in old movies, often portrayed as curiosities of the mountain hillbillies. Few spoke of tracht’s past status as the once-official ensemble of the Nazi party. But when Krichely—at 19, looking for a university in a city with a larger Jewish community than in her native town of Karlsruhe—moved to Munich, she purchased her first dirndl: blue and pink, with the traditional Bavarian apron tied around in front.

She had heard that the peasant costume had begun to make its mark as an alternative to T-shirts and jeans at Oktoberfest, Munich’s two-week-long, tented drinking event, most commonly associated today with hordes of drunken visitors gorging on sausages and sauerkraut and dancing to hokey accordion music. When Krichely arrived in Munich, she realized that the dirndl has actually gone beyond Oktoberfest and into the mainstream, as a fashion staple at nightclubs, bars, and even the office.

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