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Tracht-1

Models Enya and Kiah Findehoof - Enya is wearing a Tracht, Kiah is wearing Business Smart.

The Tracht, locally also known as Dracht or Gwand, is the traditional costume of maidens and women in Teressien, worn for festive ocassions and in certain jobs (like waitress in a beer-garden). The male equivalents are the Lederhosn and the Drachtenanzug.

Although it is often confused with the Dirndl, it is not a Dirndl.

History

The Tracht was originally the working clothes of the housemaids and young ladies of richer households, of course varying a bit in cloths used. The women would do their daily tasks in these clothes, even go out groceries shopping. The more valuable the materials used in the Gwand, the richer the household, so it also had a representative function. Both young ladies of the household and housemaids usually had two to three different sets, one especially representative set aside for visitors.

With trends changing to have Housemaids dress in Maid Costumes, the Gwand fell into a bit of disuse by them, now mostly worn by young ladies of richer households to more festive occassions (their chores got less and less as school time increased). 

Today, many traditional restaurants have their female servers were Tracht, as well as it has become a traditional costume for all sorts of festivities. While Housemaids in many households were maid costumes these days, some households have their housemaids in Tracht, while others alter from ocassion to ocassion.

Components

Tracht-2

Theda Iampf in Tracht.

Usually made of wool from sheep, coloured in one colour and without patterns, with additions of silk, consists of four main components:

  • A bodice,  which can be of a variety of materials, but cloth is the most usual. The bodice can either be closed by a series of buttons or by cross-lacing.
  • A blouse, with a low-cut and short puff-sleeves. Frills can be had as well. However, the blouse has to cover the shoulders, otherwise, it's not a Tracht.
  • An ankle-length skirt, although shorter skirts are nowadays allowed.
  • An apron with lace- or frill-trimming.

Accessoires can be added, for example it is usual for young women to wear a choker, handbags are getting more and more usual as well,

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