Bags, jewellery, headwear: Bavarian accessories for her

While, for us girls, the key elements of a Bavarian outfit are the dirndl dress (with blouse and apron) and – importantly – matching shoes, Bavarian accessories such as bags, jewellery, and headwear play a big role in traditional style, too. Yet for years, there wasn’t a particularly large amount of choice out there for those of us not lucky enough to live in southern Germany.

So three cheers for the 2017 season, which is expanding on the limited (if pretty) standard heart-shaped “dirndl handbags” and adding belts, hats and floral wreathes, as well as jewellery in a wholly new level of variety. So if you’d gained the impression that all Bavarian ladies’ bags were made of felt and available only in pink, red, or green, it’s time to think again. Or if you’d given up on finding jewellery for your dirndl outfit that isn’t heart or pretzel-shaped (as nice as those two forms are), this year is the year to start looking again.

Bavarian accessories

To give you an idea of all the things that are out there this year, we’re taking you on a short whistle-stop tour of Bavarian accessories: we won’t be going into much detail, mind, because we’d run out of server space (and time) if we did, so if you want to get more than just an overall impression, we’d recommend browsing the Accessoires section of our favourite Bavarian clothing shop.

Dirndl bags

Don’t get us wrong: it’s not that we have anything against those sweet little felt handbags girls wear to beer festivals with their dirndls – but for a long time, that was all there was. Now, there are versions of them with prints and sewn-on details, as well as a far broader range of other types of bag translated into the Bavarian look: there are finally big bags out there made to go with dirndls and lederhosen, as well as more formal clasps and shoulder-bags for more formal occasions.

Bavarian belts

As well as dirndls, we girls have been wearing lederhosen and Bavarian style jeans for years now, so it’s surprising that it’s taken until this year for designers and sellers to cotton onto the fact that we need matching accessories. So say a belated “hello” to leather belts – slender and feminine and featuring decorative pendants – as well as traditional Charivari chains for the front of lederhosen. If you’re one of those girls who likes boyfriend style but doesn’t want to look, well, like her boyfriend at the Oktoberfest, then these are just the right pieces for you.

Traditional hats

This isn’t the first time we’ve point out how well a nice hat can round off a dirndl outfit and how much choice there now is in terms of headwear. Nonetheless, even we were pleasantly surprised by the range of colours and the amount of fun details on this year’s models, whether it’s bright green felt hats (think Robin Hood), lively reds featuring floral decoration (think Little Red Riding Hood), or altogether more elegant numbers in grey and black (think Mary Poppins).

Apart from hats, there is an ever increasing pool of hair wreaths out there (we wrote about the first commercially available ones here), with a greater variety of flowers, ribbons, and shapes than ever before. So that’s the “I can’t weave my own”-excuse dealt with…

Jewellery to match dirndls

Necklaces, too, are seeing a veritable flood of new designs, so whether its chains or bands, whether metal, cord, chiffon, or satin, there’s something out there for every girl. Colour-wise, there is everything from bright red cords with shiny silver pendants through to dull metallic chains with amber-coloured feature pieces. Besides the traditional heart and pretzel-shaped pendants, look out for floral (edelweise flowers are of course typical) and more standard jewellery designs getting an entry into Bavarian fashion. Bracelets, too, are seeing new fabrics and materials.