Vienna - The Austrian Dirndl, the traditional costume for women, is everywhere - from fashion magazines and the windows of upmarket city boutiques to the pages of mail-order catalogues. While a few years ago wearing the bodice-dress, blouse and apron combination was the domain of rustics and a few social conservatives, with sassy urbanites not wanting to be seen dead in it, the Dirndl is present all over the society pages these days, enhancing the curves of Austria's leading fashionistas.
A quick tour through several of Vienna's upmarket folksy boutiques showed brisk trade, with ladies of all ages busily buying or renting the elaborate "Tracht" or folk costume.
"The Dirndl is experiencing a boom," said Willi Lanz of the Salzburg-based high-end Dirndl maker of the same name. "Our business is very satisfactory."
"There truly is a boom," said Anna Tostmann, daughter of Austrian Dirndl icon Gesine "Gexi" Tostmann. Their shops were constantly running low on small sizes, a sure sign that younger women were hopping on the Trachten train, Tostmann said.
One reason for its renewed popularity is the Dirndl's rediscovery as a truly feminine dress.
"There is no woman that does not become more beautiful when wearing a Dirndl," Lanz said. One of Austria's most established makers of traditional wear, he explained that the dress's tight bodice, deep cleavage and wide skirt favoured the female curves.
When wearing a Dirndl, the trend goes total Tracht. If customers chose the traditional style, they went Dirndl all the way, one sales assistant said. Once popular combinations with trendy fashion are left to the "country house" style abhorred by Dirndl purists.
Speaking of a fashionable Dirndl, however, would be misleading. Colours or blouse styles may change, fabrics become more elaborate, but apart from small details the dresses would not have looked out of place 100 years ago.
"We go with fashions in lengths or blouse styles, inspired by international designers," Lanz said, but apart from that, tradition rules.
This summer pastel colours, pink and baby blue dominate the collections, the producers agreed. Combined with hand-printed aprons, ponchos or crystal fashion jewellery the summer dirndls make a splash at summer parties or the prestigious Salzburg festival or are worn at weddings, another growing trend.
Whole wedding parties go all "trachty," boosting sales. "Wearing a Dirndl is for special occasions," Lanz said. Only in very few parts of Austria the Dirndl is still part of the daily garb.
Prices reflect the Dirndl's transformation from poor, rural servants' clothing to elaborate garb worn at festive occasions.
Simple traditional day-wear Dirndl made by high-quality manufacturers start at 500 euros, prices for glamourous evening Dirndl outfits with expensive fabrics and hand-stitched decoration can easily reach 2,000 euros or more.
Day-wear Dirndl are made from cotton or linen, festive ones from silk and wool fabrics. Polyester Dirndl remain the domain of mail- order catalogues, where they can be had for a fraction of the cost.
While everyone stresses that "every woman looks great in a Dirndl," certain mistakes can make the Dirndl look less than flattering.
Absolute no-goes are petticoats peeping out from under the skirt or coloured blouses, Anna Tostmann said. The Dirndl blouse must be white.
Trimmings or hand-stitched decoration are welcome, but using leather is a major faux-pas, because leather is a typical feature of the country-house style so much rejected by traditionalists. Also modern adaptations like the jeans-Dirndl turned out to be a short- lived trend.
The fit is essential. "Nothing looks worse than a Dirndl that does not fit well," Tostmann said.
The Dirndl's skirt should not be any shorter than just above the knee, Lanz explained. While Mini-Dirndls may be pleasing to the male eye, the ultrashort version is much frowned upon as bad style.
One advantage of the Trachten-look is its relative timelessness, Lanz said. While enthusiasts can keep apart the individual collections, the general style remains unchanged for decades, making the Dirndl a fashion item for some and a long-term investment for those not able to afford to update their Dirndl twice a year.
While the current boom shows little signs of abating, high-end producers like Tostmann fear that cheap knock-off Dirndl might scare off some of the more exclusive customers.
"The kitsch trends are not good for the industry. We stuck to our style and that works well for us," Lanz said, cementing their determination to stay traditional - and only traditional.
