Marlene and Jochen Tostmann started producing hand-woven items in a little Austrian town called Seewalchen am Attersee in 1949 with only a manual loom and an old Singer sewing machine. For her first hand-sewn dirndl, Marlene made a barter deal and got a Mondsee cheese in exchange for the dress she had made. A decade later, Tostmann had made a name for itself and for ‘The Austrian look’ internationally, producing around 4000 dirndl dresses a month with the help of 200 female employees.

Today, Tostmann dirndl dresses are made using mostly Austrian fabrics and worn by customers of different generations around the globe for special occasions such as weddings or festivals. It is possible to organise a guided visit of the atelier to see how dirndl are made and learn more about this heritage craft. The Tostmann Trachten shop in Vienna and in Seewalchen feature the largest collections.