The fetish of Trachten

Watch Bavarian television, you see long shows celebrating traditional clothes on women, children and men. Especially if children wear the old style peasant clothes, the moderator ( and by implication, intention and interpollation) delights in their willingness to follow their mothers’ wishes.

Women are surely the driving force behind Trachten, as with so many traditions. Trachten appear on regular shows, fashion brands on commercials.

If any channel ran prime time shows on Armani or Brioni it would seem crassly commercial, indeed against their interests. Main stream television wants to limit the amount of time spent on brands, only as news should they appear, as a supplement to commercial air time.

But Trachten don’t have their own commercial identity, they pretend to appear as a social phenomenon, removed from fashion.

Since the nineteenth century, their authenticity depends on not seeming to be a fad. Thus they are pushed along by a social consensus that sees them as an expensive alternative to upper-class fashion. This consensus operates from person to person, as a local identity, as a means of resistance against global, or at least national, uniformity.

Blue jeans have lost their rebellious quality, but Trachten still work as a communal movement.