In Austria and Germany, the traditional costume known as Tracht always used to be the preserve of the ultra-conservative. But these traditional clothes - lederhosen for men and dirndl dresses for women - have recently become rather fashionable.
High on a hill near Salzburg, a farmer, with an impressive beer belly, danced at a village festival.
He was wearing a checked shirt, embroidered braces and weather-beaten leather shorts, known as lederhosen. They were very short. Little of his stout, hairy thighs was left to the imagination.
Close-by, a group of girls giggled at some private joke. They could have been extras from The Sound of Music, because they were all wearing dirndl dresses: dark bodices over white blouses with plunging necklines, and full skirts with colourful aprons.
It is quite normal to wear Tracht here, one of the villagers told me. Perhaps not every day - but it is part of who we are.
And not just in the countryside. Even in big cities like Vienna, you come across people going to work in traditional jackets with short green collars, loden coats with horn buttons and even dirndls.
In post-war Austria, it has often been seen as a political statement.
For many years, wearing Tracht was associated with conservative or even far-right ideology, one Viennese told me.
During the Nazi era, Jews were forbidden from wearing it - and later it was often taken as a sign that you were not open to the world. But that is changing. In fact these days it is really trendy.
Full article
Do you like this trendy look?
(Lenderhosen)
(Dirndl Dress)
High on a hill near Salzburg, a farmer, with an impressive beer belly, danced at a village festival.
He was wearing a checked shirt, embroidered braces and weather-beaten leather shorts, known as lederhosen. They were very short. Little of his stout, hairy thighs was left to the imagination.
Close-by, a group of girls giggled at some private joke. They could have been extras from The Sound of Music, because they were all wearing dirndl dresses: dark bodices over white blouses with plunging necklines, and full skirts with colourful aprons.
It is quite normal to wear Tracht here, one of the villagers told me. Perhaps not every day - but it is part of who we are.
And not just in the countryside. Even in big cities like Vienna, you come across people going to work in traditional jackets with short green collars, loden coats with horn buttons and even dirndls.
In post-war Austria, it has often been seen as a political statement.
For many years, wearing Tracht was associated with conservative or even far-right ideology, one Viennese told me.
During the Nazi era, Jews were forbidden from wearing it - and later it was often taken as a sign that you were not open to the world. But that is changing. In fact these days it is really trendy.
Full article
Do you like this trendy look?
