In honor of today’s Oktoberfest start (which of course has nothing to do with us in Northern Germany, but since everyone outside Germany assumes it’s a German-wide phenomenon, I’ll play along with the stereotype):

Oktoberfest is a great tourist mecca, but who wants to shell out big bucks for traditional Tracht that will be worn once a year somewhere that they will be subject to the rigors of organized drunkenness?

One Austrian has the answer: swimming trunks designed to look like traditional Lederhosen.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,649490,00.html

I can hear the Bavarians crying into their beer.  Oh, and don’t miss the accompanying  Dirndl Bikini.