Skol vs. Skull

This year, however, there's been a bit of a battle over the dirndl.

First, in an unheard-of move, the wife of Bavarian Premier Guenther Beckstein showed up to open the festivities dressed not in a dirndl, but in a -- gasp -- suit.

So what if the jacket had that loden-green piping that shouts Bavaria from 100 paces away? So what if the frowsy, middle-aged first lady Marga Beckstein may have just been trying to avoid a replay of the hulabaloo that followed Angela Merkel after she showed too much cleavage at the opera?

The wives of German politicians, especially prominent right-wing German politicians, are expected to follow tradition. And tradition calls for opening Oktoberfest in a dirndl.

If that wasn't enough, traditional German dress took another blow when the wife of another great German leader -- this time the Premier of Formula One racing -- showed up in a dirndl that looked like it had been designed to be worn backstage at a Grateful Dead concert.

In Germany, the dirndl is just one aspect of a broader clothing style known as Trachten, which many southern Germans wear as their "Sunday best." While the dress is generally a low-cut and tightly laced affair, it also represents a conservative style.

But in a move that seemed designed to "epater les bourgeouis," Cora Schumacher, the fashionable wife of Formula One driver and German national hero Michael Schumacher, wore a dirndl whose fire-engine-red apron had a black skull embroidered on it. The low-cut black-and-white blouse had a skull-and-bones pattern as well.

Locals were shocked, but Lady Schumi defended her choice.

"I am crazy about them! I just love skulls plain and simple," she told Spiegel Online. "Death is part of life. And I feel like skulls are totally my good luck charm."

Indeed, Cora Schumacher is known for wearing skull accessories, including earrings, t-shirts, bags, belts, a leather jacket with a skull made out of rivets by designer Thomas Wylde, and even a diamond-studded watch with little skulls on it, apparently valued at 50,000 euros.