Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg

About

The Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg is a craft workshop and museum in Riefensberg in Vorarlberg (Austria). It is a non-profit association that pursues the goal of maintaining and caring for the Vorarlberg costumes, especially the Bregenz Forest women's costumes. It is the only manufacture in the Bregenz Forest that still produces the Bregenzerwälder tracht in the traditional way. The Juppenwerkstatt is also the point of contact when it comes to assessing, appraising or mediating already used traditional costumes or accessories.

is a woman's costume and headgear from the Bregenz Forest. The origin of the word juppe is the French word for skirt, "jupe". Juppenwerkstatt literally means "workshop of the juppe".

The juppe is one of the oldest costumes in Europe. In its basic cut, this type of costume can be traced back to the Early Middle Ages. At that time still white (saves the dye colour), later brown, it came under the influence of Spanish fashion, in which black and indigo blue were the expensive colors of the nobility.

The production and the dyeing of the fabric for the juppe is a centuries-old craft that is only practiced in the Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg. The workshop works on pre-order and only in a small number in stock.

For dyeing, glue is boiled for hours in pots according to an ancient recipe, which is made from 16 kilos of cowhide. The black-dyed linen fabric is dipped into it, slightly twisted, laid out on the meadow and then shined and pleated by machines that are more than a hundred years old.

The pleating machine set up in Riefensberg was built by a Bregenz Forest locksmith over many years after he had drawn a machine that was exhibited at the Paris World's Fair in 1889 in great detail, and has since replaced the otherwise very laborious pleating by hand.

The Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg produces a special juppe fabric made of glossy linen. It is worldwide exclusively produced there. The textile takes a full six months until it is finally suitable for further processing.

The Bregenz Forest is the only valley in which there is a separate artisan for every detail of the traditional costume. These include hat makers, jupp seamstresses, embroiderers, weavers and goldsmiths for the belt buckles.

Woman in blackmith costume with daughter in redmith costume

The "Bleotz" which is artfully decorated with gold-silver embroidery

Three-part belt of a female Bregenz Forest costume

Women in the Bregenz Forest costume with summer straw hats ("Schäohüte")

The production and the dyeing of the fabric for the juppe is a centuries-old craft that is only practiced in the Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg. The workshop works on pre-order and only in a small number in stock.

For dyeing, glue is boiled for hours in pots according to an ancient recipe, which is made from 16 kilos of cowhide. The black-dyed linen fabric is dipped into it, slightly twisted, laid out on the meadow and then shined and pleated by machines that are more than a hundred years old.

The pleating machine set up in Riefensberg was built by a Bregenz Forest locksmith over many years after he had drawn a machine that was exhibited at the Paris World's Fair in 1889 in great detail, and has since replaced the otherwise very laborious pleating by hand.

The Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg produces a special juppe fabric made of glossy linen. It is worldwide exclusively produced there. The textile takes a full six months until it is finally suitable for further processing.

The Bregenz Forest is the only valley in which there is a separate artisan for every detail of the traditional costume. These include hat makers, jupp seamstresses, embroiderers, weavers and goldsmiths for the belt buckles.

Woman in blackmith costume with daughter in redmith costume

The "Bleotz" which is artfully decorated with gold-silver embroidery

Three-part belt of a female Bregenz Forest costume