BLUE print

... I recently interviewed the dream-team of traditional Austrian costume ("dirndl", notably), consisting of mother and daughter Gexi and Anna Tostmann for the newspaper ... cet été j'avais la chance de rencontrer le très ravissant duo par excellence du costume traditionnel autrichien (qui s'appelle ici "dirndl"), et ce sont donc Gexi et Anna Tostmann - l'interview a été publiée dans le journal ...


... after we'd had our little chat, we descended to the basement of the building that houses this Viennese fashion institution, and I had a first look at the costume exhibition that was put together by Gexi Tostmann, entitled "My 365 dirndls tell their story" ... après notre entretien, on est descendus à la cave de l'immeuble où se trouve leur siège viennois (il y en a un autre, en Autriche Supérieure), et c'était là une belle occasion d'avoir une première impression de l'exposition de Mme Tostmann, "Mes 365 dirndl racontent leur histoire" ...


... I returned to the exhibition twice afterwards to marvel at these dresses a bit longer, and there are a lot of things to see for sure. I was especially drawn to the selection of traditional patterns produced with a blueprinting technique from various regions of Austria (and other countries, I presume). What's particularly charming about the exhibition is the fact that Mrs Tostmann, a great connoisseuse of traditional costume (which was also the topic of her PhD), tells all kinds of stories and anecdotes that are connected to the 365 garments on show. About the blue-prints, she tells her guests and visitors that her mother was very fond of them and insisted that her daughter wear blue-prints, which, at the time, were materials of rather poor quality, which was much to the detriment of the dresses (that frequently burst open at the seams) that were then made of them ... je suis retourné pour voir l'exposition deux fois depuis, afin de contempler avec un peu plus de tranquillité les dirndl et tous les autres objets exposés. Une chose qui m'a particulièrement plu, c'étaient des tissus imprimés à l'indigo et les différents dessins que cela donnait. Qui plus est, les pièces de l'exposition étaient accompagnés de petites fiches où Mme Tostmann racontait des faits-divers et des anecdotes. Ainsi, elle se souvient de combien c'était difficile de trouver des tissus à l'indigo assez robustes pour correspondre aux exigences de faire des "dirndl" très moulants ...