What Not to Wear at the Munich Beer Festival
The Chinese are coming!!
Every year, one of my German chefs callled Tom makes his annual pilgrimage to his home country and to the Oktoberfest where he spends three days eating sausage, sauerkraut and bread rolls washed down with huge quantities of German beer. He looks the part, it has to be said and, like any self-respecting German still has a pair of lederhosen better known as leather shorts which, by rights he should be wearing. But I doubt it, and I’m glad quite frankly. A twenty stone German beer drinker in leather shorts and knee length red socks doesn’t really do it for me but each to their own I suppose.
Well, there are rumblings of discontent at this years beer extravaganza. The locals are not happy and it’s all because of the Chinese. It would seem that our industrious friends in Beijing have stolen a march on the Germans by making German style leather shorts. Oh, the cheek of it!!
Munich is in Bavaria, land of foresters, schnapps and goats and the thought of lederhosen made with anything other than the hide of a Bavarian deer is an outrage. This is serious stuff, cheaper, imported goods have had a real effect on the traditional German tailors with many falling into bankruptcy and it’s not just the men’s shorts either.
The traditional women’s costume is facing ’stiff’ competition with the latest fashion; skin tight leather hotpants and cleavage busting corsets. Now what the hell’s wrong with that I’ve no idea 
but the older Frau’s in the villages are spitting blood.
Yours truly was inducted into the lederhosen wearing hall of fame at an early age. My German mother had some say in that, but not as much as my Grandfather who bought me a fine pair when I was a young boy. I loved those but thankfully it didn’t have a lasting impression on me!
Miles,
I assumed all the Collins wore their Lederhosen for Sunday lunch… now you’re telling me they’re hidden in the attic. Well that might not be quite true…. I suspect your brother has dusted his off in pursuit of his latest hobby (whether they will have a lasting impression will depend upon the quality assurance embossing
) along with the red knee-highs. Good luck to the traditional tailors and their hotpants which I imagine would look fantastic with thick winter tights. Thanks for the tip, I’ll be making my own out of charity shop handbags since a trip to Bavaria is unlikely, but it’s the thought that counts 
Cid
September 25, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
Miles
yesterday I was reading about the same cries of foul play by kilt makers in Scotland !
Cheap chinese imported kilts at 20 quid a go !
There’s a lot of it about !
Rod
September 25, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
Cid,
Sunday lunch at the Collins parents house isn’t a glamorous sight. It’s two perfectly decent retired people of good standing in the community having their larder savaged by two starving bachelors fighting over the last yorkshire pudding before returning to their own homes like fattened pigs awaiting slaughter. I should point out that my brother grunts and oinks unlike my good self
September 25, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
Rod,
Fake kilts? Whatever next? Are they doing the fake ginger wigs to go with them? We should be told.
Miles
September 25, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
Miles,
Don’t suppose there’d be any old snap shots laying around of the pair of you sporting the full Bavarian kit?
Cid
September 25, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
Cid,
I don’t think my brother had the privilege to be honest. He might remember better because he’s considerably older than I
Miles
September 25, 2008 @ 9:58 pm