A few days ago the Standard contained a few pieces on cultures and traditions, and it also mentioned a very typical Austrian thing, namely our folk wear, Trachten. Besides covering the – often kitschy, but rarely awesome – modern take on Trachten, by designers such as Susanne Bisovsky (awesome!), there also was some historical context to be found about how Trachten were instrumentalised by Nazis for their brainwashing propaganda purposes.
Some more interesting articles, and I also found some source material on how traditional folk wear has been stylised as embodiment of Nazi ideals (back to agrarian roots, blood, soil, one tribe). Apparently great effort was taken to bring back Trachten, whose usage often had declined at the time because of their being too impractical for daily use, and their being replaced by more modern garb due to “urbanisation”. Thus, Trachten were “modernised” during this dark period in particular to appeal to younger people (e.g. waisted and with more cleavage).
Trachten are still often associated with right-wing sympathising. Time to take them back, modify them yet again, and give a middle finger to Nazis.