What not to wear: The Dirndl Edition

Dear friends and family,

I am sitting in Jens' cute little apartment in Munich, sipping my morning coffee and decided to take a moment to give ya'll a crash course in dirndl shopping (based on my own experience, of course!). Thanks to one of Jens' female friends, I was well-equipped with a very extensive list of do's and don'ts when I embarked upon my shopping excision with a certain Miss P. and her friend Erin.

Dirndls basically consist of three separate pieces: there is the blouse (which is really only a half-blouse that comes only down past your chest), the actual dress and then the apron. Some are sold in sets of dress & apron combo with the blouse sold separately, and others are sold entirely separate.

So, here are the rules, as told to me by Jens' friend:

1. The skirt MUST extend beyond your knee. A short, mini-Dirndl is unacceptable by 'natives' and just looks trashy (esp. considering all the skin exposed, ahem, at the top of the dress).

2. Absolutely no zipper (again, this is what she told me, but I saw plenty of zippers on the Wiesn yesterday...). Zippers, according to my informant, are the biggest fashion sin you could commit when buying a dirndl. Supposedly buttons and hooks are the way to go.

3. Cotton dirndl are the most practical (you can actually wash them and they're more comfy), but we did see a lot of other variety--some of the more expensive dirndls are made of silk! Glitter and polyester are also frowned upon.

4. Traditional color combos are red/blue, light blue/dark blue, blue/white, green/pink, brown/pink and brown/light blue. Purple and bright pink are very "in" this season.

5. Accessories: it became evident that the alpine beauties love their bling. Most women wear huge, sparkly, colorful necklaces (think Tiffany's with added jewels) plunging into their cleavage (as if you need to draw attention to THAT), in the shape of hearts, Edelweiss or even a pretzel! You see a lot of short chokers or more understated strands of pearls, too. Also, we realized it is necessary to carry a small purse and you should wear comfy shoes! Black, small heels are the best, but we just stuck to ballerina flats. A lot of women braid or twist their hair up--but we saw some with their hair flowing around their shoulders.

There are certain upscale stores in the middle of Munich that sell designer dirndls, but being poor graduate students, our group opted to shop in the cheaper stores along the Tal (right off the Marienplatz). Surprisingly, I ended up buying the very first dirndl I tried on, and I am happy to say mine fulfills all the criteria: it goes past my knee (one advantage to being very short, I didn't have to worry about length!), its in traditional colors, is cotton and has no zipper! :)

We got Erin outfitted at the second store and finally, after our lunch break at the Virtualienmarkt, Miss P. found her dirndl at the third store. All in all, a great success!

I know people have been asking for photos--Miss P.'s birthday extravaganza at the Ochsenbraterei was well-documented on her camera and today I will be bringing my camera along to the Wiesn when Jens, Reneta and I go. So pictures will be posted soon, I promise! (perhaps I can take some today of fashion faux-pas, as well!)

with love from Munich,

Tessa