This year, a new fashion trend appeared at Oktoberfest – Barbie pink, writes Deutsche Welle.
If for men Oktoberfest is a meeting with friends over a glass of beer, then many women face the eternal question: what to wear to the national holiday? To get inspired, women come to the so-called “Dirndl Fair”. Here, popular designers present their new models and traditional looks in advance. The famous stylist Samuel Sotheby told the German news agency DPA the following: “2023 is the year of Barbie, and pink is an absolute trend. There’s no getting away from it this year.”
Pink is in fashion
The pink dirndl, of course, has been worn before, but this year it owes such great demand, of course, to the Hollywood film “Barbie,” which broke all box office records this summer. Soheby, who created Paris Hilton’s Oktoberfest look in 2007, is confident that pink will dominate the color palette for this holiday.
On the counters and windows of traditional costume shops in Bavarian cities, customers are offered up to 2,000 dirndls with matching aprons and blouses, and leather pants and shirts line the shelves. In addition to local fans of traditional costumes, guests from all over the world are also stylishly dressed.
Designers are focusing on more sophisticated models
Despite the hype around Barbie, this year’s fashion trend is that less is more. Less glitter, less color, says Dirndl designer Angelina Kees. She told a local Munich TV station that she chose black as the main color for her designs this year because the color is “elegant and attracts people’s attention.” Her colleague Sidalia Amante-Policarpo this year decided to break with old traditions: in this year’s dirndl models she did without the usual apron, which is tied over the skirt: “Women no longer stand in the kitchen at the stove,” she emphasizes. The apron, in her opinion, no longer serves any function, but is “just an accessory.”
Dirndl and leather pants: an Oktoberfest classic
Designers agree on one thing: there are obvious fashion faux pas to avoid at Oktoberfest. According to Samuel Sohebi, these include jeans and T-shirts. “This holiday has a long tradition, and I think it is extremely important to come to Oktoberfest in a traditional costume, and not in casual clothes and jeans,” he emphasized in an interview with dpa. “Otherwise it would be like going to a wedding or church in jeans and a T-shirt.”
For many people outside of Germany, the dirndl is the embodiment of the national German costume, as is the male version of Bavarian clothing – leather pants, in German: Lederhose. Oktoberfest is a place and event where people come to this kind of traditional dress.
History of the origin of the costumes
Bavarian traditional costumes began their triumphal march at the beginning of the 19th century, inspired by the women’s fashion of the 18th century – with tight blouses, deep necklines, and wide skirts. Noble and wealthy middle-class urban women wore these dresses at coffee parties and later in the summer in the countryside. Farmers’ wives did not want to lag behind fashion trends and created their models.
On the other hand, leather trousers were originally hunting clothing, worn not least by Luitpold Karl Joseph Wilhelm Ludwig, Prince Regent of Bavaria, as well as the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. They were both avid hunters.
Moreover, after the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, the Wittelsbach dynasty sought a way to give the people an identity. What could be better than an ordinary national costume to strengthen the national spirit? But the suit never became uniform: the more fabric and buttons it had, the richer its owner was. This is how national costumes became a symbol of social status.
You can tell if a woman is married by her clothes
You can tell from a woman’s Oktoberfest costume whether she is single or married by simply moving the tied bow of her apron from left to right. Last but not least, in predominantly Catholic Bavaria, the dirndl in the past had to be appropriate for going to church – the neckline could not be worn in church as openly as we know it today. Interestingly, it was the National Socialists who put an end to this in the 1930s of the last century. The dirndl neckline has become more open, the skirt has been shortened to the knees, and the waist is emphasized with a belt. This style is still popular today.
Does Barbie have a pink dirndl skirt that was popular at Oktoberfest this year? For sure! In the film, she trades in her high heels for a pair of comfortable Birkenstocks, making life easier for everyone heading to Munich’s Oktoberfest in 2023.