New year, new lederhosen!

All those New Year’s Resolutions already gone out of the window? If that’s the case, guys, it’s time to try something a bit easier: why not get a new pair of lederhosen? After all, a new year is just as good an excuse to replace a pair as any since (and don’t tell your partner/parents…) they’re made to last a lifetime and will, with a little love and attention every now and then, do just that.
What is more, buying a new pair of leather breeches is the kind of thing you want to do without time pressure (i.e. not with just two weeks to go to the Oktoberfest) so that you’ve got the opportunity to shop around, order, try on and, if needs be, send back your lederhosen. So now is a good time to buy – even more so given that, in the coming weeks and months, the newest designs for 2017 will be coming onto the market. So here are our favourite three new lederhosen in the new year.

Edelweiß – bright white and low-key brown

There used to be an unwritten rule that a pair of lederhosen should look good, but not be particularly flashy about it. That meant black or dark brown leather, embroidery (but not too much and not too obvious), and sticking to traditional shapes. In the 2000s, there was a serious rebellion against this sort of approach, and lederhosen started turning up in all kinds of loud and brash colours, from brick red and canary yellow to bright blue und apple green (matched by equally garish shoes, of course). While this trend was definitely needed in order to show just how much is possible with a piece of leather, it didn’t actually always look that good.

Now that the point has been proven, though, the doors are open to innovation – and new ideas can be incorporated into lederhosen without things getting too out of hand. That means new shapes (2015-16 saw flaps replaced with flies in some models, for example) with old colours, and a renewed focus on embroidery: there’s a lot of emphasis on new patterns and motifs (some of which, however, don’t make into series production and there is plenty of colour. The new Krüger Buam short lederhosen, for example, comes with edelweiss floral patterning on the bib and a colour-matched coat of arms on the knife-pocket. Its otherwise traditional brown leather is also given a contemporary twist on the thighs, where the traditional garlands are replaced – unremarkably at first glance – with a deer skull and antlers.

Lederhosen jeans (look like leather breeches)

The first jeans in lederhosen-look came out a few years back and they’ve since then established themselves as great alternatives for people who want lederhosen but don’t like the heavy feel (especially in hotter weather) or need to travel light (i.e. tourists headed for the Oktoberfest). They also have the added benefit of being wholly washable. With their simple blue jeans featuring a flap instead of a fly and some embroidery, Stockerpoint showed the way, and now it’s Krüger Buam who are taking the baton and going the next stage, adding typical hallmarks of traditional lederhosen such as knife pockets and ribbons on the lower thigh. The colours, too, are leather-like, making these into the perfect choice for you if you want to add a pair of Bavarian trousers to your collection without actually replacing your real lederhosen.

Jeans lederhosen (are leather breeches)

Now, if you can make Bavarian lederhosen out of a pair of jeans, the people at Krüger seem to have been asking themselves, why can you not make a pair of jeans out of lederhosen? Yes, this is a thing that goes two ways, as Krüger has decided to demonstrate with its new leather trousers in vintage denim look. It’s basically a standard pair of lederhosen, but with distressed effects and a patterning that makes it look like a pair of oil-washed jeans. Yes, it’s probably a passing trend, but this is definitely a pair of lederhosen we can imagine keeping for a while

Well, at least until 2017 turns into 2018…