See article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522072707578194.html?KEYWORDS=dirndl
Point of post: Discussion.
Things I thought about: Raciness with modesty. The silhouette of the dirndl. Its apparently "rising popularity." The silhouette and its sex appeal. The subtle differences between dirndl and jumperskirts (I know I've seen this discussion pop up on egl already). How the mainstream isn't "stealing" or appropriating lolita fashion, but how it might actually be *surprise* coming from somewhere else...like the dirndl.
And I'm sure all lolitas can relate to this: ""Imagine that you had five friends, and they all wore red sneakers," says Simone Egger, an anthropologist at the University of Munich who studied the increasing popularity of tracht at Oktoberfest. "Then everybody starts wearing red sneakers. They're exasperated. They say, 'We were doing this first, and we wear them the right way.' It's a lot like that.""