My Flickr Favorites: Traditional Costume Terschelling, The Netherlands

Today we move back to the north, to the Wadden or Frisian islands. The islands had all their own costumes, but I only show you the ones of the island of Terschelling because it looks different from the rest of the Frisian costumes. Just as the rich costume of the Zaanstreek, the female costume has a kaper, but a plain back cotton one, and a bit smaller. It is worn over a knitted and crocheted white 'mutske' (bonnet) tightly fitting around the head.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Terschellinger volksdansers., 2. 11 Terschelling- Jet Necklace, 3. Fokke en Sukke op Terschelling,, 4. Folk Dancing Terschelling


And two picture postcards from my own collection.

My Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Zaanstreek, The Netherlands

Today we move south from West Friesland to the Zaan district, staying within the province of North-Holland. This was a very rich area, and you can see that clearly in the traditional costumes. The dress was 6 meters wide and made of silk damask. The headdress existed of a black under cap, a white intermediate cap with embroidery, an upper cap of batiste with broad lace and a golden head-iron of 7 cm width with a large number of golden needles, sometimes decorated with diamonds. To protect this expensive headdress if you went outside, the "Zaanse kaper" was put on top of it. This broad over cap, mostly made of shot silk (dark outside, light inside), was stiffened by whale bones and cardboard. The lower part formed a small cape around the shoulders.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. april, 2. Doopsgezinden gemeenschap 29, 3. Optocht, 4. 306356


And two picture postcards from my own collection.

My Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Limburg, The Netherlands

Today we move from the province of North Brabant to the south east to the neighboring province of Limburg. The famous "poffer" from North-Brabant is called "toer" in Limburg, and was worn in the north of that province. The other costume shown in the mosaic is from the south of the province, mostly around the city of Stein. This costume was more colorful and had a less elaborate headdress; a small white cotton bonnet, with a black crochet bonnet on top or a kerchief, the "kopplak". The shawl has a colored border and the apron came in various colors.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.
1. Nationaal Tinnen Figuren Museum 2010, 2. World Folklore Festival Brunssum 2008, Netherlands, 62, 3. World Folklore Festival Brunssum 2008, Netherlands, 65, 4. limburg


And two picture postcards from my own collection.

My Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands

Today we move from the province of Zeeland to the east to the neighboring province of Noord-Brabant. There existed a lot of different caps in Noord-Brabant, but the most famous and striking one is the "poffer", which is shown here. The poffer was worn in a large area around 's-Hertogenbosch. The poffer is a large white tulle bonnet finished off with lace; apart from that it exists of a black cap, a white undercap, a decorative strip often with tiny fake flowers, and ribbons. It was an expensive part of the costume, only worn by rich farmers' wives on Sundays and holidays and at special occasions. It developed from a much simpler form and had its hayday around 1870-1940; after that it gradually disappeared. The costume itself was an oldfashioned city dress.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.
1. It's All In The Details, 2. Back in time, 3. 1932 - Kerkhof stoet Odafeesten (colorized) Sint Oedenrode, 4. mobilisatie 1916


And two picture postcards from my own collection.

My Flickr Favorites: Traditional Costume Axel, The Netherlands

Today we stay in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the province of Zeeland and move a bit to the east to the town of Axel. The costume looks a bit un-Dutch because of the silhouette and the exuberant pearl embroidery. The most striking part is the kraplap (bodice) with shawl, seen in most of the Dutch costumes, but here they are very different. The kraplap is embroidered with a very colorful pattern of glass seed beads, and the shawl is stiffened with paper inside to make the shoulders stand up like wings. The headdress is a small lace cap over a head-iron ending in golden spirals.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.
1. Zeeuwse Klederdracht, 2. People of The Netherlands , about half a century ago, 3. Terneuzen 09052009 DSC_0213, 4. Terneuzen 09052009 DSC_0211


And two picture postcards from my own collection.

My Flickr Favorites: Traditional Costume Cadzand, The Netherlands

Today we move further along the North Sea coast to the most southern western part of The Netherlands till we reach the town of Cadzand in the region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the province of Zeeland. In the 17th and 18th centuries some French Huguenots fled to Cadzand, which is still "visible" nowadays in the large number of French family names in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The costume looks very sober; it is a fashion costume from around 1880, mostly in black, dark blue, dark brown or dark green. The small cap is much older; it is made of lace from Mechelen in Belgium and a small carcass to stiffen it, and is worn over a simple black under cap. It has no head iron, so no place for showing off your wealth in gold or silver, and it is tight to the face, so that there was no place for earrings too. That's why they wear the so-called golden cap-rings hooked into the black under cap :)

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.
1. folkloristishdag ijzendijke18072009 DSC_0215 crop 2, 2. Molens en Klederdrachten in Nederland 20, 3. folkloristishdag ijzendijke18072009 DSC_0054, 4. DSC_0007 crop

And two picture postcards from my own collection.

Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Zuid-Beveland, The Netherlands

Today in the Flickr Favourites we move a little bit to the east from the former island of Walcheren to the former island of Zuid-Beveland in the province of Zeeland. The costume looks a bit similar to the one of Arnemuiden on Walcheren, especially the kraplap (bodice) and the shawl. The cap is very different. It has a very large oval egg-shape, at least if the wearer was part of the protestant population. It has a trapeze shape, when the wearer was part of the catholic population. Actually, the basic form of the protestant and catholic caps is the same, they are only stiffened and folded in another shape. Characteristic for the Zuid-Beveland costume is also the very large golden end plates of the head-iron. The first row of the mosaic shows the protestant costume; the second row shows the catholic costume.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. [Three Dutch women.], 2. Zeeuwse Klederdracht, 3. Antonia Chamuleau and Mattheus de Baar, 4. Terneuzen 09052009 DSC_0255

And two picture postcards from my own collection (the first one is the protestant costume, and the second one is the catholic costume).

Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Arnemuiden, The Netherlands

Today in the Flickr Favourites we stay along the North Sea coast on the island of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. We go to the city of Arnemuiden, where the costume differs from the rest of Walcheren. The costume from Arnemuiden was very similar to the costume of Walcheren in the past, but it changed more and more similar to the costume of the island of Zuid-Beveland (will be dealed with in two weeks), especially the kraplap (bodice) and the shawl. The cap is a different one and very special; it is made of an under cap from white embroidered batiste, followed by a small blue intermediate cap and crowned by a white embroidered batiste over cap in the form of a double shell. The under cap is attached to a head iron with golden spirals.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. People of The Netherlands , about half a century ago ..., 2. Traditional-costumes-of-Arnemuiden,-Holland-(back), 3. Goes 2010, 4. Garnalenpelster in zeeuwse klederdracht

And two picture postcards from my own collection.

Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Belgium

This week I decided to look into the stamps with traditional costumes from Belgium, and to my surprise, I even found another stamp with a Dutch traditional costume. It is an Belgian airmail stamp of 1958 from a United Nations series. This series was published to commemorate the 1958 World Fair Expo in Brussels (the first one after WWII), where the first time the United Nations participated in a world fair. The UN pavilion was a blue dome with six arches symbolizing the six continents (the Americas were counted as two). Several UN organizations presented themselves: ITU, ICAO, UPU, WMO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, IMF, GATT, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF. This series of special UN stamps was sold as a complete series of sixteen stamps to collectors at Expo 58, the philatelic service in Brussels and at UN Headquarters in New York. The stamps could only be used on national and international mail posted at the UN pavilion. My "Dutch girl" stamp is the UNICEF one. It shows the globe with six kids from the six continents dancing around it. The Dutch girl must definitely look like a girl from Volendam and represents Europe.


But now to Belgium and its traditional costumes, and that is not easy, because not much of the traditional costumes is left. I found three stamps that could give us some idea of the traditional costumes. The first one shows a woman with her daughter and a postman from the 17th century (stamp for Stamp Day 1982); the second one shows again a woman with her daughter and a postman, but now from 1840 (stamp for Stamp Day 1975); and the third one shows a woman making lace (in two colors from the 1948 National Industries series). All three stamps show typical lace headdresses, which could be considered as typical traditional bonnets.




The last stamp is the closest I could come to a Belgian traditional costume. It shows a milk maid with her dog cart in Flanders. It is out of a series of old trades for Themabelga, the first world Stamp Exhibition for Thematical Philately in 1975. She is wearing a costume that is very similar to what lots of women in Flanders, but also in the south of The Netherlands (Zeelandic Flanders and North Brabant), were wearing with the typical large white bonnet and big shawl.

Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume Walcheren, The Netherlands

Today in the Flickr Favourites we descend even more along the North Sea coast until we reach the island of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. The costume from Walcheren is colourful and girly with deep cut jackets and bodices underneath; it has a white lace cap with a tail for the little girls and a small fitting white lace cap for women. The latter cap is held on the head by a visible ear-iron. In some area's of Walcheren (around the city of Middelburg) the women keep their girl cap with the tail.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Klederdracht, 2. People of The Netherlands , about half a century ago, 3. Terneuzen 09052009 DSC_0294, 4. Schorten

And two picture postcards from my own collection.

Traditional Costumes : Postage Stamps Holland

This Friday my last stamps with Dutch costumes :)) Some more exist, but they are not in my own collection yet .... We start with a tourist stamp sheet of 1978, commemorating 10 years National Office for Tourism in the Netherlands; it shows tulips (Keukenhof Lisse), cheese (Kaasmarkt Alkmaar), mills (Schermer) and traditional costumes (Volendam).



The next stamp is from a stamp sheet of 2007, called "summer beach fun". I do not have the whole sheet, but only the used stamp. On this stamp we see a woman from Walcheren in Zeeland paddling her feet in the North Sea wearing traditional costume. The funny thing is that I have a postcard with her in my own collection.



This third stamp is from 1993 and published by local post service 't Hogeland in the north of Groningen. It commemorates the 28th Op Roakeldais in Warffum (international folklore festival) with 10 stamps each showing folk dancers in costumes of different countries. Holland is represented by a couple in the traditional costume of Marken.

Flickr Favorites : Traditional Costume , The Netherlands

Today in the Flickr Favourites we descend along the North Sea coast until we reach the islands in the south of the province of South-Holland (Rozenburg, IJsselmonde, Voorne-Putten, Hoeksche Waard, Goeree-Overflakkee) and in the north of the province of Zeeland (Schouwen-Duiveland, Sint Philipsland, Tholen, Noord-Beveland). The costumes of these islands all differ a bit, but this is very difficult to see for outsiders. The most striking part is the long lace cap with the head iron ending in large spirals with lots of jewelry attached to it. The dress they wear is often an old fashioned dress from around 1900.

For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. Zeeuwse Klederdracht, 2. Joke Terlouw, 3. My greatgrandfather en -mother and my grandfather with sisters, The Netherlands, 4. Goes 2010

And two picture postcards from my own collection.

Traditional Costumes : Dutch Costumes on Postage Stamps

This Friday again some non-Dutch stamps with Dutch costumes :)) We start with a cute Dutch boy from the Netherlands Antilles, published in 2008. The costume of the boy must represent the man's costume of Volendam. The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of six islands in the Caribbean Sea. Aruba became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986, followed in 2010 by Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Saba, Sint Eustatius and Bonaire joined the Netherlands as "special municipalities". The name "Netherlands Antilles" is still sometimes used to indicate these last three islands.



The next stamp is from Suriname and shows a Dutch woman in the costume of Volendam waving to a Surinamese woman in the Creole costume called koto missie. This stamp was published to commemorate the first KLM flight between Paramaribo and Amsterdam in May 1949.



This third stamp is from 1965 and published by the former German Democratic Republic and shows a statue of a Dutch woman of Putten in the traditional costume of the Veluwe. It is a World War II Memorial to commemorate the victims of the German raid on the 1st of October 1944, in which the entire male working population (between 15 and 50 years of age) of Putten was deported to several concentration camps, as a revenge act against a Dutch resistance attack on a German Wehrmacht vehicle nearby on the 30th of September. From the 660 deported men, only 107 men survived the war.



This fourth stamp is a very fancy one; it's from Umm Al Qiwain (one of the United Arab Emirates) and part of a 1972 series of dolls in traditional costumes of the world. It shows a doll in the costume of Volendam and it is a hologram.



This last stamp sheet seems to be from Mordovia or Mordvinia, a federal republic of Russia. However, these are forged stamps issued by anonymous private companies operating outside Russia. Among other typical Dutch things, it shows a Dutch woman in the costume of Walcheren in Zeeland and a pair of typical Dutch wooden shoes.

Traditional Costumes : Dutch Costumes on Postage Stamps

This Friday I show you some non-Dutch stamps with Dutch costumes :)) Maybe strange, but yeah they exist ! Four gorgeous stamp sheets, each with three stamps, resulting in twelve different Dutch traditional costumes (Katwijk, Zuid-Beveland, Stein, Hindeloopen, Spakenburg, Huizen, Axel, Eerde, Volendam, Marken, Staphorst, Walcheren). These stamps are distributed by Dominica, Gambia, Grenada and Grenada Grenadines, and are obviously by the same designer(s). So, why are these countries publishing stamps with Dutch folk costumes ? They were made to commemorate the International Stamp Exhibition Amphilex 2002 in Amsterdam. It was a major stamp exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the first postage stamps in the Netherlands.



I could not find any further information about these stamps, but to me the drawings look very much like the drawings of Jan Duyvetter. Jan Duyvetter (1915 - 1985) was head of the department of traditional costumes at the Dutch Open Air Museum. He wrote lots of publications about fashion and traditional costumes, which he illustrated himself.