“Barbie Year”
Celebrity stylist expects a lot of pink at Oktoberfest
Models in traditional costumes at the Dirndl Summit 2022 at the foot of the Bavaria on the Theresienwiese. photo
© Felix Hörhager/dpa
Simple linen dirndl – or a dream in bright pink? If the experts are to be believed, two opposing trends will determine Oktoberfest fashion this year.
Celebrity stylist Samuel Sohebi expects an Oktoberfest with a lot this year Pink. “2023 is simply the Barbie year and pink is an absolute trend,” said the 33-year-old fashion consultant and influencer of the German Press Agency in Munich. “Because of Instagram in particular, this Barbie hype has become really huge and nobody can avoid it this year.”
Millions of visitors are expected again this year for the Wiesn, which starts on September 16th. The majority of them still go in dirndls or lederhosen – but not all of them anymore, as Tobias Appl, district home nurse in the Upper Palatinate, says.
“In fact, there are reports from various Bavarian folk festivals that the majority of people continue to appear in traditional costume,” he told the dpa. The times when that was “perceived 100 percent of the visitors” are “probably over”. “You can see that there are fads here too,” says Appl. Axel Munz, Managing Director of the Angermaier Trachtenhaus, contradicts this. He finds: “There has never been so much traditional costume at the Wiesn as there is now.”
“September is the New Year in the fashion world”
For Sohebi, who styled Paris Hilton for the Oktoberfest in 2007, jeans and a shirt are a no-go at the Oktoberfest: “It’s a festive tradition and I think it’s extremely important that you go to the Oktoberfest in traditional costume and not in Everyday clothes,” he says – and not in jeans. “It’s like going to a wedding in jeans or going to church on a Sunday.”
In terms of fashion, the Oktoberfest is also so important because of the time of year, says Sohebi: “September is the New Year in the fashion world, everything starts all over again in September and that’s why the Wiesn is, in terms of styling, a platform for Munich, but also for Bavaria and Germany. You show who you are with the latest trends.” In addition to pink, these are mainly flowers – large on the head as a wreath of flowers, discreetly embroidered on the dirndl or as a brooch.
District home nurse Appl sees a trend towards more restraint: “At the moment, fashion seems to be suggesting more high-necked blouses, longer skirts and less flashy colors,” he says. But there are always “many things parallel: cheap dirndl, self-tailored, expensive custom-made products, high-quality industrial goods, heirlooms, designer parts with sometimes unusual motifs and colors – and summer dresses or jeans and T-shirts for women who do not wear traditional costumes”.