It serves practical and traditional purposes, making it a symbol of Alpine heritage for special occasions or everyday wear. We use natural materials to ensure comfort and durability, making the Female Alpine costume more than a piece of clothing. In Austria, and other parts of south central Europe, there are literally splashy events known as Dirndlspringen, in which attractive young women, are judged by how well they jump, or even just step, from a diving board into a lake or a swimming pool while wearing the dirndl, using it as a swimdress.

Pesendorfer described the new style as "de-catholicised" ( entkatholisiert); she said her goal was to free the costume of "overburdening by church, industrialization and fashionable cries" and "foreign influences" and to let the "rogue sub-culture" back again. Dirndls worn in everyday use are rural domestic clothing, made from grey or coloured linen, sometimes with leather bodice and trim.

The Oktoberfest, with its enormous number of beer consumers, is a wonderful example of the new Germany that combines iconic tradition with open-mindedness.

You could book a trip to the Swiss Alps and legitimately claim that your vacation was a health expense. Today it is generally considered the traditional dress for women and girls in German-speaking parts of the Alps, with particular designs associated with different regions. The Swiss refer to an Austrian or German traditional dress as a dirndl, but refer to their own traditional dress [98] as a tracht. From the 1870s onwards, the dirndl developed as a typical "country" dress amongst the wealthy patrons of the summer resort towns in Austria and Bavaria. In the hard economic times following the First World War, the dirndl became a big-seller; as a simple summer dress, it was an affordable alternative to the often expensive and elaborately worked historic women's costumes.Since similar design elements occur in other European folk costumes, these designs are sometimes mistaken for dirndls. Simone Egger concludes that the renewed popularity of traditional clothing is driven by desires for community and belonging, symbolized by folk costume.