Crafted—everything hand-made

After a phase of the Franconian costume being threatened with extinction, today tailors are once again using historical models and creating wearable, unique creations.

It takes a lot of craft to make a Franconian costume. The colorful embroidery decorating the bodice on the front and back and the splendid historic festive costume aprons is particularly painstaking work.

Accuracy is also essential when trimming the ribbons and placing pleats.

The festive black scarves are richly adorned with floral ornaments. Professional embroiderers decorated garments colorfully, but talented costume wearers also took up needle and thread themselves as shortages required.

The magnificent, elegant "breastmark," ending just under the breast and replaced by the longer "camisole" at the start of the 20th century, was from a time before sewing machines and therefore sewn entirely by hand. The fine silk is laid in small folds.

The fabric-wrapped buttons were purchased from button makers. The old, thread-wrapped buttons are an example of colorful creations of the time, which are also used irreverently in other contexts, such as neckwear.

On festive days, married women wore the white horn scarves as part of their historical festive costume. They were richly embroidered in white and decorated with luxurious lace around the edges. The end, which hangs down far at the back, bore particularly lavish embroidery, known as the "tree." A woman's standing and social class were evident from the quality of the embroidery and the width of the lace trim. However, nobody has worked out exactly where the beautiful garments were made…

The high wreaths of the historic festive day costume were custom made by wreathmakers. It takes around 400 working hours to finish the wreath and for it to sparkle in all its glory. People wore it for the last time on their wedding days, then passed it down to the next generation of the family.

The high wreaths, with their predecessors dating back to the Middle Ages, consist of up to 3,000 machine-punched brass plates, brass wires formed into filigree spirals and glass beads. They are mobile and shimmer when they collide into one another.