Cultural Differences--clothing

My post (6 May 2006 juournal) about the differences here in Germany was interesting to many of you. I have been making a list of other things to add, but these posts take longer to write and research than my daily ones. I've decided to do this is more installments--it will be a surprise to you when one pops up!

Clothing:Most people think of the German clothing as "Lederhosen" and "Dirdl" .

They do wear these for Octoberfest and occasionally you will see women in a nice Dirndl at a special occasion, or church. The men just wear vests and jackets that have special buttons (in the Edelwies motive and bone-like buttons) but only wear the "shorts" at Octoberfest.

But the regular everyday clothes are the same as in the states, except they wear jeans quite tight (and the women often have skinny legs and no hips--go figure when all they eat is meat, potatoes and bread over here). Sometimes the women often wear soft, silky scarves tied in a knot midchest, to dress up an outfit. People have far less clothing than Americans. Here is a webpage to peruse if you want to see some fashions.

Shoes: Their shoes are ultra-modern. I am not sure if the styles have made it over to the states yet, but some look like bowling shoes and squared toes are popular for both women and men. Here is one not-so-great example:

Of course we are in the land of Birkenstocks, so you see those everywhere.

The children wear strumpfhosen in the winter. They are a thick knit stocking. I like them except they usually have some cutesy pattern on the calves. They really don't care about matching colors and styles, in particular with kids.

They bundle up their kids too--any time of the year (it seems). Often Americans here are frowned upon when we just send a child out with a coat on (often unzipped), because they put thick hats, mittens and have several layers under the coat. All there kids wear much larger clothes to accomidate for this layering. As far as I can tell (from my husband--not a large sample poole, I'll admit), it is because they think if they are cold, they will catch a cold! It doesn't matter what I tell my husband about germs and such, he still tells me every time he thinks he would be cold in what I am wearing.

Since Europeans are fairly economical (by necessity, since things are more expensive over here) they try to find ways to make clothes last a long time. One way is to turn up the cuff on the pants (for both children and adults) and they have special elastic waistbands with a button wear you can expand or tighten them. Here is an example with a pair of Niki's pants:

For rain (which seems like it is constant), the children have rubber pants (matchhosen) to wear and of course the rubber boots.

They don't have pajamas for kids either. The kids have sleeping sacks. There are light ones for the summer months and thick ones for the winter. Some have sleeves that can velcro on and off. Some zipper, others tie, snap or button. Here is a picture of our kids in them--Niki's is too small and Jenna's too large (I love them--both the shlafsaks and the kids):

It is expected you take off your shoes when you come into a home. Children have special house shoes to wear. They store their shoes on shoe stands inside the doors.

Also, here I "weigh" less (in kilos) but BIGGER in sizes! Including shoes (size 40).

I want to get this posted, so I will end here. I have a few other topics with the culture I am working on too!

Posted by Krista at November 10, 2006 12:20 PM