The Heidi-Wear Chronicles : In the Alps, finding bargains on Tirol garb--beyond dirndls and lederhosen
INNSBRUCK, Austria — One of the many charms of the Alpine city of Innsbruck is its citizens’ unabashed embrace of tradition--most notable, perhaps, in their dress. Women tend to their errands along busy downtown streets wearing flower-print dirndls, the traditional full-skirted dress with closefitting bodice, while men in leather breeches and jaunty felt hats look as if they had just hiked down from the surrounding mountain villages.
How I long to dress like an Austrian, to wear an apron-fronted dirndl in Tirol. And how I long to see my husband, GJ, in a pair of lederhosen. GJ calls this my Heidi fantasy and though he resists any attempt to clothe him Austrian-style, he patiently endures my many stops at shop windows to gaze at traditional garments, for which the general term is Trachten, meaning costumes.
Any Austrian will tell you that authentic Trachten vary from region to region and even from village to village. I am told that an authentic dirndl, for example, cannot be purchased in a shop despite all the facsimiles for sale. A bona fide dirndl is made at home, a collaboration between mother and daughter in adherence to strictly local designs.
I am, at any rate, far too practical to buy even an inauthentic dirndl, regardless of how utterly captivating I find them. Surely I would feel fraudulent wearing one in Tirol and foolish wearing one at home. But over several visits to the region I have discovered the next best thing: high-quality, locally made dresses, skirts, sweaters and coats that reflect Austrian style and charm but are modern and quite chic in design.
Several of Tirol’s finest textile and clothing manufacturers, including the internationally known Geiger and Giesswein companies, have adapted Trachten designs and traditional materials such as loden, boiled wool and linen to create contemporary garments suitable for life beyond Alpine valleys and villages.
During last summer’s stay in Tirol, I went hunting once again for fine clothing and was not disappointed. Although the factory outlet concept is not nearly as widespread in Austria as it is in the United States, several of the major manufacturers invite the public to peruse their factory shops, where they offer reduced prices on first-quality goods as well as on last season’s items and seconds.
GJ and I visited five factory shops, all within an hour’s drive of Innsbruck. (Together they could be visited in a single day’s outing.) While their appointments and ambience varied from the basic to the elegant, all provided private dressing rooms and friendly, helpful service.
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The Original Tiroler Loden factory is only a few minutes’ drive from Innsbruck’s historic Altstadt (old city), and has been manufacturing Austria’s famous loden since 1796. The word “loden” comes from a medieval German term for hair, referring, of course, to the sheep’s wool that is the source material for this celebrated cloth.
For centuries, the traditionally green loden was merely the rough fabric of the peasantry. It did not undergo refinement or become fashionable until the aristocracy discovered that it made sturdy, waterproof hunting garb. Portraits of Emperor Franz Josef on vacation at his villa in Bad Ischl show him dressed informally in loden and testify to its acceptance among the upper classes in the 1800s.
The smooth felt-like quality of today’s loden, as well as its wide variety of weights, textures and colors, is the result of evolving technological advances. But traditional techniques and tools are still employed. Fabrics are combed with thistles, for example, which raises the nap, an essential part of the manufacture. The raised fibers can then be trimmed back without damaging the cloth, to make a softer and thinner fabric.
Original Tiroler Loden supplies fabric to some of the world’s great fashion houses, among them Hermes, Armani, Chanel, Donna Karan and Polo. Its small factory store sells remnants, dozens of bolts of which line the shop in an array of textures and muted colors that would gladden the heart of any home sewer. Having no skill at all in that department, I was nonetheless reluctant to bypass this bounty of gorgeous material, priced about $25 for a little more than a square yard.
But there was plenty of clothing for sale in this tiny shop. Most of it was created from Original Tiroler Loden’s fabric but bore the labels of upscale Austrian firms such as Sportalm and Resi Hammerer. These items were generally remainders or seconds and represented excellent value for high-end sportswear.
Men’s and women’s Himalaya (the heaviest grade of cloth) loden coats, with the classic, inverted back pleat, were marked at about $320. I also spotted a woman’s cape in the signature loden green that draped beautifully to just below my knees. It cost about $260. A stunning and tempting two-piece woman’s suit from the Resi Hammerer collection was made of a feather-soft navy loden and was marked down from a retail price of more than $1,000 to a still pricey but more reasonable $500.
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Heading east from Innsbruck to the suburb of Rum, we stopped at Steinbock, a 50-year-old, family-run firm that specializes in hunting garb--dashing capes and multipocketed jackets--manufactured under their St. Hubertus label. But the company also produces other lines of Trachten-inspired fashions for men and women, and these are offered at wholesale prices in the factory shop. The bargain prices more than made up for the purely functional style of this outlet store. A flier posted on the door listed the week’s impressive specials: loden coats and walkers (boiled wool, hip-length jackets) for as little as $130 (the retail price had been $260, according to the tag); women’s skirts from $40 and blouses (white, lace-trimmed peasant-style) from $50.
More expensive items included those with distinctive Austrian details. A heather-blue wool walker, for example, had unusual powder-keg-shaped horn buttons and was priced at $240, marked down from $400. And a simple yet stylish gray linen summer dress sported lovely pewter buttons from neck to hemline and was priced at $200, a reduction from $375.
From Rum, we headed northeast on the A12 to the tiny village of Vomp, home of the Geiger company. I first visited the Geiger outlet shop a dozen years ago and have happily worn, season after season ever since, the sweaters, boiled wool jackets and linen suits I bought there. Boiled wool is made of yarns knitted into fabric that is then washed. The washing in hot water and detergent locks the yarns together, creating a durable fabric that won’t unravel.
A family-owned firm in business for nearly a century, Geiger began with the manufacture of their signature boiled wool jackets and coats. The knitted boiled wool--unlike loden, which is woven--is used traditionally for outerwear such as jackets, coats, suits, hats and slippers. As in the production of loden, new technology allows for a variety of textures and weights, including the recent innovation of a cashmere-soft “super-light” boiled wool.
Of all the Tirolean clothing manufacturers, Geiger is perhaps the best known outside Austria, its label found in fine department stores and better sportswear boutiques throughout the world. I admit to a certain smug satisfaction when I spot Geiger clothing at home and remember what I paid for mine in Austria. However, the days of picking up a fine wool pullover decorated with a charming folk-motif applique or a silver-buttoned wool walker for a mere $20 or $30 are long gone. Since the factory began using computers in the late 1980s to maintain quality control in its manufacturing processes, the slightly flawed seconds that used to represent the greatest bargains have all but disappeared.
Still, I found some fine values in overstocks and remainders at the Geiger factory shop. A selection of slim linen skirts in a variety of soft colors, marked at $95, hung beside last winter’s wool models, which were offered at $55. And for men, there was an exceptional value in the boiled wool vests that were marked down to $55 from a retail price of $230.
Geiger’s classic women’s walkers in heathery browns and grays were marked at $120. More expensive, at about $150, were the updated versions in lighter weights and in a variety of floral and geometric patterns.
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Rivaling Geiger in fine quality, Trachten-inspired fashions is Giesswein, another family-owned Tirolean firm that has expanded beyond Austria. Located in Brixlegg (about 12 miles northeast of Vomp along the A12), Giesswein’s factory store is a beautifully designed showcase for the company’s latest fashions. With the exception of a few sale items, however, the prices were full retail, although far below what they would cost in the United States. While the shop is well worth a get-acquainted visit--and it was certainly the most attractive of the outlet stores we visited--any Giesswein bargains were still a few miles away.
The last stop on our Tirolean shopping outing was the village of Kramsach, home to BWK (Bekleidungs-Werk Kramsach), the true factory outlet for Giesswein fashions. A 10-minute drive from Brixlegg, BWK is a charming shop whose wood-paneled walls and rustic decorations evoke an Alpine chalet. Here, as at the Geiger outlet, last season’s items, overstocks and a few seconds were offered at wholesale prices, usually 50% or so under retail.
Among the summer fashions, I found red and cream tattersall cotton skirts, mid-calf length and adorned with heart-shaped horn buttons for $120--lovely garments for romping in Alpine meadows. More sophisticated were the linen sheaths in either natural or deep forest green, decorated with a single horn button at the neckline; these were marked at $68.
Giesswein’s own boiled wool jackets for women, many with their signature applique work in folk motifs (such as hearts and flowers), were offered from $100 to $250. Men’s solid-color jackets were priced about the same, while a good selection of colorful children’s jackets and coats, many with charming embroidered teddy bears or kittens on them, were offered at about $60.
Giesswein is also known for its warm and woolly slippers, called Hausschuhe in German (literally, house shoes). Arranged by size in wooden bins, these imaginatively decorated slippers are wonderful and affordable (mostly $15 to $30) souvenirs for every member of the family. Even one’s feet deserve a bit of Austrian style.
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GUIDEBOOK: Clothes from Tirol
Getting there: KLM flies, with one change of planes, between LAX and Innsbruck. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at $925 until March 19, then rise to $1,080.
Factory stores: BWK, Fachentalerstrasse 55, Kramsach; telephone locally 053-376-3698. Take eastbound A12 from Innsbruck to the Kramsach/Rattenberg/Brixlegg exit. Continue to the right, following signs to Kramsach and BWK.
Geiger, Fiecht Au 15, Vomp; tel. 052-426-9110. Take eastbound A12 from Innsbruck to Schwaz exit. Bear right, following sign to Vomp, and right again into the Geiger facility. Follow signs for “Detailsverkauf” (retail store). Or phone Geiger of Austria, Inc., P.O. Box 728, Middlebury, VT 05753; tel. (800) 2-GEIGER.
Giesswein, Niederfeldweg 5-7, Brixlegg; tel. 053-37-61350. Take eastbound A12 from Innsbruck to Kramsach/Rattenberg/Brixlegg exit. Continue to the left, crossing the Inn River, following signs to Brixlegg and the Giesswein factory. Look for “Verkauf” (to buy) sign that points toward the retail store.
Original Tiroler Loden, General-Eccherstrasse 3, Innsbruck; tel. 0512-3314. Located off of Hallerstrasse, a main thoroughfare.
Steinbock, Gansfeldweg 7, Rum; tel. 0512-246510. Take Route 171, Hallerstrasse, east from Innsbruck to Rum. Left onto Gartenstrasse, then right on Bahnhofweg, following signs to Steinbock “Fabriksverkauf” (factory store).
For more information: Austrian National Tourist Office, P.O. Box 491938, Los Angeles 90049; tel. (310) 478-8306.
--J.K.W.
