Series: Classic traditional costumes - The traditional costume of Carinthia - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2019 - 80 Euro Cent

The blue spotted dirndl This time, the special stamp from the popular “Classic traditional costumes” series is dedicated to the traditional costume of Carinthia, which is worn throughout the federal province. A simple dress made of dark blue cotton with white spots is fastened with silver buttons. The hemline is trimmed with red. Above the rounded neckline a simple white blouse peeps out, the medium-length sleeves of which are decorated with a lace border. A monochrome black cotton apron rounds off the costume, although a white apron decorated with tendrils of red or blue flowers can be worn instead. Married women wear the bow on their apron tied on the right-hand side; unmarried ladies, on the left. On special occasions the traditional costume is also worn with a longer skirt and a fancy blouse, often with long sleeves. The pattern of the spotted material was created out of necessity: there was not enough money to allow for an elaborate design when dyeing the fabric blue, so wooden nails were hammered into a board. During the staining process pressing these into the fabric prevented the colour from being taken up, and in this way, the white spots were created. The designer behind Carinthia’s traditional costume Prof. Leopold Resch, a well-known traditional artist, sculptor and researcher into traditional costumes was one of the co-founders of the Kärntner Landsmannschaft (provincial association of Carinthia) and Kärntner Landesmuseum (Carinthian State Museum). In 1911 he was tasked with designing a traditional men’s costume for Carinthia by the provincial association, to replace the grey Styrian suit, which, until then, was also worn in Carinthia. He subsequently designed the nut-brown Carinthian suit with its green collar and trim, worn with a black waistcoat decorated with small flowers, which is still the traditional costume for Carinthian men to this day. Resch then designed the blue spotted dirndl, referred to in honour of its designer as the Resch-dirndl, as the traditional costume for women. Traditional costumes remain extremely popular to this day. In addition to the traditional costume for the entire province of Carinthia, which is not assigned to any particular area, there are around eighty other officially registered variants of traditional dress to be found in Austria’s most southerly province.