In summer of2014, Crailo received a donation of a traditional Dutch folk costume. It’spretty easy to imagine what that looks like: We might picture a young woman ina striped skirt and a crisp white peaked cap, or perhaps a man wearing a jacketwith shining buttons, short full trousers, and a fisherman’s cap. Of courseboth of them are wearing brightly painted wooden shoes.

TheNetherlands is a small country, but there is a great deal of variation in theirfolk dress. Women particularly have a great deal of variation in their blouses,skirts, aprons, jackets, scarves, and kreplaps (a kreplap is a sort of dickeyor chemisette that can be worn under or over other garments). Perhaps the mostdistinctive items in a Dutch woman’s traditional wardrobe were the caps. Thestyle of cap a woman wore told a viewer where she came from, her social andmarital status, and perhaps even her religion. The cap and its gold or copper accessories were so important that evenwomen who turned away from folk dress to follow fashion often kept their traditionalheadgear.

Men’s Dutchfolk dress developed from the comfortable and practical clothing used for workthroughout the Netherlands’ history. In Marken men’s outfits include full,baggy breeches similar to those worn in the seventeenth century- and it islikely that once the men of this island adopted the style several centuriesago, they simply never stopped wearing it. In many regions men wear fisherman’s caps as areflection of the Netherlands’ close ties to the sea. For decoration, men’sclothing uses striped and checked fabrics and large decorated silver buttons.

The costumedonated to Crailo appears to be from the Volendam area. Volendam is a populartourist destination thanks to its historic fishing boats, windmills, and canal sidehouses, and its folk costume is also an important part of its tourist image- somuch so that visitors can have their pictures taken wearing traditionalgarments. Men wear the well-known short full trousers and double-breasted shortjackets, and women wear the famous peaked cap. This cap developed sometimeafter 1865 and by 1900 was recognized as distinctly Dutch. Postcards andValentine’s Day cards of adorable Dutch girls in peaked caps cemented the stylein the American consciousness.

Women’s folkdress in Volendam starts with a kreplap printed or embroidered with brightflowers and a brightly-colored striped skirt. Over this is worn a blouse withelbow-length sleeves and a low square neckline that shows off the kreplap. Theapron is usually black with a strip of flowered fabric at the top where it isgathered into the waistband. (Perhaps the popularity of black in Dutch folkclothing goes back to its popularity as a sign of respectable wealth in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries.) Finally the outfit is topped with thepeaked cap. Today this cap of lace, net, or eyelet is usually starched andsupported by wire, but previously it was worn over a small dark-colored pointedcap which was regularly worn on its own.

The folkdress of the Netherlands preserves many features of clothing of the past, butwhat will its future be? Traditional dress had been losing popularity since1900 and after World War II was abandoned on a larger and larger scale. Inresponse to this the focus turned to preserving and recording the styles- inthe 1950s the Dutch open-air museum received contributions of Dutch outfits,which artist Jan Duyvetter used to create illustrations of Dutch dress from1600 to 1951. Today the number of people who wear the outfits as everyday dressmust be no more than a few thousand and is decreasing steadily. Even the hugenumbers of wooden shoes produced in the Netherlands are sold mainly totourists. Like the Highland Scots kilt and the Japanese formal kimono, thepainted klompen and starched caps have become clothing for special events- fortourists eager to experience this picturesque aspect of the Netherlands, andfor wearers to show their national identity.

https://www.tuliptime.com/style-show/

http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2011/11/costume-of-volendam-north-holland.html

https://ateliernostalgia.wordpress.com/my-research/

Search for“Jan Duyvetter” at http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/