Swiss Man in Traditional Clothing
Somewhat by happen stance we fell upon the Swiss trachtenfest this weekend. This rare festival occurs only once every 12 years so we were really lucky to have made a last minute decision to go.
Mens traditional clothing from Bern
The festival is a celebration of traditional folk clothing. If you are a really expert I am told that you can tell the exact Canton that a person comes from based on their outfit. Remember there are 26 Cantons in Switzerland, so that is a lot of costumes. Women also have two sets of clothing. A more traditional Arbeitstrachten (Working dress) and a Sonntagstrachten (Sunday Best).
The amazing thing was the fact that all this people were walking around in these heavy outfits, wool, felt, velet etc. and it was hotter than blazes out. I don’t know how the did it. Thank God my allergies were kicking in and I couldn’t smell anything.
From an aesthetic side, I think my favorite mens trachten was from Bern. They have a traditional black jacket with red and white trim. Finished with a few edelweiss flowers on the lapel that really scream Schweiz to me.
The womens clothing is something else to see as well. A Swiss friend of mine from Bern was telling me how she despised the womens hats from Valis. They look more like buckets than hats if you ask me but who am I to judge.
I didn’t find out where the women with the ‘rooster’ hats were from, but I definately liked the look.
Unusual Traditional Womens Clothing
I really didn’t have a chance to line up a good photo of this woman in a blue dress. But she caught my eye as she was running across the street.
at points various jodeling clubs would seem to form randomly like dustballs on street corns and sing a couple of ‘classics’ before they would strangely disperse back in the crowds of people.
Monday morning when I was back in the office a Swiss colleague came up to me and said she was watching SF2 over the weekend and saw the trachtenfest on TV. Somehow she just knew I would be there. And, of course she was right.
