Costumer is a difficult profession. While there is plenty of money to be made during the Halloween season, during the remainder of the year it can be hard to find clients. Some work with film studios or stage productions; some create for expert cosplayers; some work with specialty photographers.
What do you do if you’re not around any media outlets, though? If you’re in Austria, and you’re Walter Sinnhofer, you create lederhosen.
Sinnhofer is an expert leatherworker and tailor who provides costumes – often imitations of period clothing – to his customers. In an effort to garner some attention for his work, he decided to craft a specialty pair of the traditional knee-length leather pants. Specifically, a very tiny pair.
Sinnhofer created lederhosen which were only 38 millimeters long. Perfectly to scale, they were touted as the world’s smallest pair, but Guinness never officially recognized them. They were undoubtedly a draw, though.
The attention didn’t last, though, and eventually Sinnhofer decided he needed to get more attention. This time, he went in the opposite direction and in 2010 created the world’s largest lederhosen. At 16 feet tall and 13 feet wide, they were a bit baggy but absolutely wearable… if Paul Bunyan wore leather pants.
The story should, rationally, end there. But Austrians can be weird, and people love to break records. In 2013, a pair just over 17 feet tall and 14 feet wide were constructed by Leder Ritsch.
In case you’re curious as to whether this form of advertising could possibly be effective… well, it’s likely the only way I’d have ever heard of Sinnhofer or his Leder Ritsch competitors. If only I had any inclination to purchase anything from these people, I’d be able to say the advertising worked.
And in case you’re wondering if you could even move around in those things, I present something weirder than simple minute or gargantuan pants. I present… a lederhosen classical/modern fusion dance routine, from DDC Breakdance.
Question of the night: What’s the most distinctive piece of clothing you occasionally wear?
