Trachten clothing includes:
- Jackets and capes made of loden, (a type of felt) embellished with antler horn, bone or engraved silver buttons.
- Hats adorned with wild boar bristle pins and hunting medals
- Lederhosen (leather shorts with suspenders)
- Dirndl dresses (a layered costume consisting of a blouse, vest, skirt and apron).
If you're still confused -
just think 'The Sound of Music'!
I, too, have a bit of a Loden past. When I was a teenager, our family took a summer vacation to Europe. We found a low cost air fare on a charter flight, but there was a catch. We had to become members of a traveling German singing group, who had booked the plane. The group looked something like this:
One stop on our tour was Salzburg, where we found a tiny little shop that sold traditional folk clothing and costumes. I entered as a naive teenager from Upstate New York, and came out as Maria von Trapp in my drindl and grey loden jacket. My younger brother picked out a fetching pair of lederhosen shorts.
In college, I returned to Europe as an art history student. Living in Florence Italy I became enchanted by the heavy green loden coats worn by the Florentines. Searching out a resale shop, I purchased a used loden coat. It kept me snug and fashionable during that long ago Italian Spring.
Many years and many lodens later (including a coat and several jackets like the one below)...
Guess what I found last week at the local Goodwill resale shop?
You guessed it - a Loden Coat!
Still tracking trachten,
Marjorie
