Charivari Nostalgie
by Lola Paltinger, Munich
Lola Paltinger is a German fashion designer who specializes in traditional
Bavarian couture and Hollywood style fashion of the 1930s/40s.
Paltinger learned at Vivienne Westwood's before starting her own Munich-based label in 1999,
together with her mother Brigitte Paltinger.
In the 202 years since Oktoberfest began as a wedding celebration for the Crown Prince
Ludwig of Bavaria, it has grown from a local party for Bavarians into the world’s biggest
beer festival, attracting between six and seven million visitors from across the globe each year.
Germany’s most famous party has also remained steeped in tradition, from the servers who carry
prodigious amounts of locally-brewed beer to the classic Bavarian music that can be heard in beer halls t
hroughout the region. But one of the festival’s most iconic images -- lederhosen-clad men guzzling beer and
dirndl-wearing women dancing on tables – faded over the years, as festival-goers chose to wear jeans and
shirts instead oftrachten (traditional German clothing).
However, in the last decade or so, the region’s beer tents and fairgrounds have become reminiscent
of scenes of the past, with women sporting the hottest new dirndls (wide skirts with corsets and aprons)
and men donning their best lederhosen (traditional leather shorts and suspenders).
The trend has meant big business in Germany, and according to Lola Paltinger, a designer of couture dirndls,
Bavarian costumes have slowly become fashionable again largely because designers have put a modern
twist on the traditional threads. But while there are a few relative newcomers to the scene — like Paltinger —
Munich also has several specialists that built a reputation long before trachten came back into style.
