dirndl

Geri Halliwell may look taut and toned in her halter top, denim dirndl skirt and pink cowboy boots, but almost anyone else would look like an extra from the stage revival of Oklahoma!

(I, at least, am not confused about that.) And if every single woman in America put on a dirndl skirt and went home to have babies or raise kittens or knit scarves for the homeless, I don't think it would much change the basic thrust of a culture in which, if the powerful do not like what you are saying, you will not be heard.

Perhaps Peter wishes he'd married more of a potato in a dirndl skirt now.

'We wanted to show people we're helping 7,500 people in the Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff,' said CIB fundraising manager Michelle Jones, 36, who braved the May weather in a bright pink 50s-style top and dirndl skirt.

She took one look at me, in my purple batik blouse and matching dirndl skirt, and declined my offer.

The beer won't be free and there'll be many a dirndl skirt and wicker basket, but at least no one will try to kiss me.

Own Goals: Her signature look is a tight girdle, bust-bursting peasant blouse and dirndl skirt. Michael was fined pounds 40,000 for trying to evade customs duty on a pounds 1,300 Fendi bag he bought in Dubai for her in 2006.

Had Di been on a trip to Russia, you can bet she wouldn't have swaddled herself as a babushka in a bulky dirndl skirt and shawl.

Own Goals: Her signature look is a tight girdle, bustbursting peasant blouse and dirndl skirt. Michael was fined pounds 40,000 for trying to evade customs duty on a pounds 1,300 Fendi bag he bought in Dubai for her in 2006.

On the last day of filming, I made a dirndl skirt which took me all back to third year domestic science at school."

A full dirndl skirt is the key shape to wear this season, and great for hiding big hips.

A hotel cleaner mops the floor near the brown plastic seats where the exotic pair - they look like matching tall, thin kingfishers in head-to-toe neon blue and turquoise stage make-up - settle down next to the short woman in a dirndl skirt who turns out to be their mother.

The oompah bands, the men in lederhosen, the girls in dirndl skirts and the kind of blouses guaranteed to stop traffic.

I was about the same age as them and I remember thinking how attractive they all looked in their dirndl skirts and velvet bodices.

The must-see costume floor is a dressing-up mixture of modern German classics with dirndl skirts and semi-couture keeping traditions alive (Marienplatz 11, 00 49 89 236910, www.ludwigbeck.de).