Frankfurt Fashion

Sunday afternoon, after my business obligations were fulfilled, I took a short sunny stroll through the shopping center near my hotel in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, being a more residential city and not such a tourist epicenter, all of the stores were closed, recognizing and enforcing a sort of secular day of rest; I was even more dismayed and disappointed that nothing was open when I passed these display windows of a local department store. Fashion lederhosen. I proverbially shook my fist at the sky, lamented my luck at missing this opportunity by sheer hours, foolishly thinking that Sunday afternoon would be ideal for window shopping. Not only could I not enter the store to discern whether this window display was at least a bit ironic, or whether, indeed, now that some decades have passed since the horrifying and vile Nazi regime, a resurgence of nationalist pride and cultural heritage is not severely frowned upon, I was not able to see if any of these choice modern interpretations of a mountain classic came in my size. I could not peer at the detail trim up close, swirl around in these full skirts in the privacy of a dressing room before a large, well lit mirror. And, alas, I could not capture a photograph that gave these looks some justice, not obscured by strange reflections and refractions under glass. 

Personally, I prefer the masculinized lederhosen shorts in the center, paired with wedge heel hiking boots, a sort of urban meets Alps aesthetic, however, a large chest may prevent this one from having been flattering on my full figure. A lot of the massively produced, purposely counter-culture but contrived looks, gracing the more gentrified neighborhoods of Brooklyn, have seemed quite hackneyed this season; really, pseudo-punk inspired detailing, again? Subtle nods to big hair bands from the 1980s and alternative grunge from the 1990s, once more? I say Urban Outfitters and American Apparel, or if they are feeling frisky and willing to try a risk, J. Crew, seek some inspiration from these contemporary German classics.