What makes the dirndl special

2024-09-19 07:53:31

Velvet and silk, red and black, silver and gold: with a huge pile of clothes on her arm, my Viennese friend Katharina stands in the hall of her baroque house, which looks like something from a Sissi movie. “Stefanie – would you like to have two of Mom’s dirndls?” she said and handed me a black dirndl with a silk bodice and an everyday dirndl made of red and white fabric. “Do you want it?” Yes, of course I do. Because I know clothes right away. Her mother wore a black Weyrer festival dress 35 years ago for Katharina’s wedding, and I often see the lady, now over 80 years old, in the family area in a happy Burgenland dirndl. They are the signature pieces of a woman I admire.

This period in which the clothes came into my possession is a new chapter in my dirndl life story of 40 long years. Anyone who has ever felt an inherited dirndl material on themselves knows what a priceless gift such clothing can be. Yes, a dirndl is a garment made of wool, velvet or silk, with meters of thin thread, a few hooks and buttons. But it can be much more than a garment: it is the thread of the wearer’s life and continues to spin. A strange but different beloved vita that wears on your skin.

Our family history patterns are intertwined in the two dirndls I have had since that summer at my Australian friend’s house. Stories from old Kakania mix with Prussian escape stories, discussions about modern Catholicism with the love of salsa, surviving sudden illnesses, writing master’s studies and happily following children as they grow up.

A friend for decades

Wearing dirndls also made us twins: Katharina and I – although city children – naturally grew up wearing dirndls, which we wore to family celebrations or holidays in southern Germany. Our mothers took us early to the famous dirndl shops, Lanz in Salzburg, to Resi Hammerer (“don’t confuse me with Hammerschmid!”), and to Carinthian Heimatwerk. We watch as mothers discuss the bolts of clothing, regional patterns, colors, petticoats and dirndl bras with the singles and invest heavily in these bespoke garments that last for decades.

For festive occasions: A festive dirndl requires some effort until it fits. However, this is worth it.Daniel Pilar

My two brand new dirndls from Katharina’s mother’s collection are from the famous Austrian Tostmann in Seewalchen am Attersee. “It’s from Tostmann,” says the dirndl-wearer with a proud indifference when asked about the origin of such a handmade creation. This is mainly due to the daughter of the company’s founders, senior manager Gexi Tostmann who is now 82 years old, a cult figure in Austria. This year, the grande dame of the dirndl field is celebrating the 75th anniversary of her company, which was founded by her mother Marlen and her German husband Jochen Tostmann.

From 1949 onwards, Marlen Tostmann freed the dirndl from political exploitation by the Nazis, who wanted to make the garment a national garment. In the German Clothing Company of the Nazi Reich Sisters, the Reich Commissioner for Clothing, Gertrud Pesendorfer, designed a new “Germanic” dress that was worn across all classes as a political statement. After the Second World War, Tostmann worked intensively on more modern cuts in order to politicize the dirndl.

Interwoven with everyday culture

His daughter, a folklorist with a master’s degree, joined the business in 1967. The title of her dissertation “The relationship between traditional clothing and culture in Austria” has not only become the title of her personal life. Through them, dirndls became more than socially acceptable, namely an irreverent part of everyday Alpine culture from the 1960s onwards – in which local clothing styles and left-leaning ideas meet. Gexi Tostmann managed companies in Seewalchen and Vienna, founded the Mölkerstiege cultural group and, as a political Green from the beginning, was involved in many civic initiatives. He was an opponent of nuclear power and a resident of Hainburger Au in 1984, hosted the electoral office of the first Green presidential candidate Freda Meissner-Blau in 1986 and campaigned for an unlimited basic income.

“The good thing is that young people have free access to traditional clothes,” said Anna Tostmann-Grosser, the third generation to manage the company since 2004. “Of course the clothes were a political burden by the Nazis, you can change change it as you like, but we are happy that politicians from all parties wear traditional clothes with enthusiasm today.” Designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Andreas also contributed to this Kronthaler was interested in the dirndl. In 2018 and 2019, Tostmann worked with both of them to produce several models that appeared in the ready-to-wear show in Paris.

It doesn’t have to be Paris: in the famous fashion markets in Altaussee, for example, you can find aprons, coats and bodices from many decades that you can combine into new creations for a little money. According to Anna Tostmann-Grosser, there has been a real dirndl boom in the last 15 years.

The materials are combined depending on the event

Tostmann today has 15 basic cuts for blouse dirndls and another ten for sleeve dirndls. Whether a wearer chooses a version made of cotton, linen, velvet or silk depends on the occasion for wear and personal taste. Tostmann works with linen from the Mühlviertel Vieböck company, with fabrics from the Leitner company, otherwise known for its table linen, and with silk fabrics from the Otto Flemmich textile mill in Vienna, which has supplied the family the king already with clothes.

The model collection has hundreds of models from three generations. Anna Tostmann-Grosser and her staff respond to all customer inquiries. “We are not a science center or a museum, but a business center,” he said. The only no-gos are fur and zippers. Only when the company makes stage costumes for the theater does the director make a distinction and sew in zippers because the actors have to change quickly between scenes.

One thing is certain from childhood: Both dirndls are reminiscent of earlier times.Daniel Pilar

When I put on my two Viennese dirndls, I feel like I’m practicing an old tradition, even a forgotten tradition. And I want a Versailles chambermaid every time I stand there in my cropped blouse with my stomach pulled under the bodice and try to close it with its many hooks. In particular, a large holiday dirndl with a heavy black wool lining, a lace-up bodice made of silk brocade woven with silver and gold threads and typical snail horns cannot be found as quickly as trousers. . It is tied in front of the chest from top to bottom with grosgrain ribbon, loops and the end of which is hidden under the apron. These bodices, which can be made wider or tighter with ties, have a very practical origin. “The women wear the clothes throughout their lives in all physical conditions, and they can also adapt to them many times,” says Anna Tostmann-Grosser.

Indigo used for blue printing

The second dirndl, which is called Seewinkel and is typical of Burgenland, is easy to put on: It has a black top with white dots, a red and white skirt made of bed linen with velvet ribbons and multi hems – layered – and is combined with a blue apron. Anna Tostmann-Grosser says: “Blue printing used to be a material for the working clothes of the common people. Today the material made in this way is a noble thing. In Burgenland there is Joseph Koó, one of the two remaining blues in Austria. Koó works with indigo and offers highly versatile fabrics with Hungarian-inspired patterns that are suitable for everyday use.

Fabric details can also be found at the waist of the dirndl with many beautiful folds. With what is called hand pulling, the ruffs fall down well. They surprisingly filled the wide skirt with air like a parachute while they danced. Anna Tostmann-Grosser says “Today we let the sector hand draw to order. “Because most women want to look as thin as possible and the hand pull makes the skirt look smaller in the waist.”

It doesn’t matter to me whether I look a little stockier in my dirndls than in narrow shift dresses. When my Afghan weaver in Lower Saxony saw the construction of the clothes while changing the dirndl, she was delighted. You know the kind of handicrafts from your country: women’s dresses with a beautiful waist, embroidery and beautiful bodices. After two long attempts at changes, we agreed that well-made dirndls can also be recognized by the fact that they have many storage facilities in them that can be changed, left, long, shortened and made again and again.

And the shoes? Wearing sneakers or boots with a dirndl like some of my Munich friends seems strange to me. I think that old traditional shoes with clips are too much, so I prefer to wear black ballerina shoes, high boots or pumps. I also wore jewelry from Sisters of the Bride, which my godchildren loved – instead of the necklace with pearls and jewelry I inherited from my Viennese great-grandmother. A handbag? With a Spanish clutch with a zebra pattern or a small Chanel bag with a zipper with a large link chain. Back in the 1990s, my mother wore an Hermès carré with her Lanz dirndl instead of a traditional scarf.

At some point I will pass on two dirndls, which have Vienna, Afghanistan, Lower Saxony, Hungary and Bavaria woven into them, to my daughter. Then you can continue the material agreement between the two families in the third generation and start a raging dance war in Taiwan, ride the maypole in Passau or go to the Oktoberfest in Munich.