Volksdansvereniging Hinky Dinky Almere

Dutch traditional costumes

Around 1800 the first discriptions of the various Dutch costumes appeared. There have been many changes since then. Hats got bigger, higher or more complicated, fabrics changed and especially the clamps to hold the hat grew bigger, in some cases covering the head completely. These "oorijzers" (ear-irons) are made of silver, or even gold, and they not only shape the hat but also show the wealth of the family.
Around 1900 the regional clothing was at its best and the difference between the regions at its top. But due to industrialisation and individualism people stopped wearing them. I think it's not a coincidence that in the village where even today young people are dressed in costume, Staphorst, the womens costume has a half-long skirt, one that makes cycling not impossible. (In the late 1970's the mopedhelmet was obliged by law and a serious discussion started wheather ladies in traditional costume could be excluded. Not so silly: you can't just put off the helmet and put on your lace hat; it can take an hour and require more than two hands to put on the lace hat properly.)

Now, at the beginning of the new millennium, there are only a few people left who wear the costume daily. And most of them are elder women so that in more and more villages the costumes become extinct.
More people in these villages wear the costumes on special occasions like weddings or fairs. Some people wear the costume for their profession, in fishshops or on markets, and in souvenirshops.

Our performancegroup: standing, (left to right) Friesland, Volendam, Staphorst, Staphorst male costume, Scheveningen, Brabant, Volendam, Urk, and sitting: Spakenburg, Staphorst, and Walcheren.

There are (by my estimation) about fifty villages, regions and islands left with their own traditional costumes. Around twenty of them well known. Looking at the clothes of a mature woman of one specific village, her costume might tell us wheather or not she is married, what day it is, what religion she has and if she and her family are healthy and well. On Sundays the costume will be more expensive in fabric and lace, more sober in colour, and with more (or more expensive) jewelery than on weekdays.
A moarning woman has the same costume as usual but in differend colours (most black, blue and purple) sometimes with white cotton hat instead of lace, or without any jewelery.

In some villages, for instance Spakenburg, there is a difference between heavy and light moarning: the normal costume there has sleeves, apron and shouldercap in white, decorated with green and red. A moarning woman has the same in black, decorated with purple, darkblue and white. At the end of the moarning period the colour switches to white, decorated only with darkblue and lightblue. The checked band on their shouldercap is always red, while in Staphorst the stole of the same fabric is normally red, but darkblue in moarning.

Difference between a single and a married woman can be subtile. In Volendam for example the apron can be closed with two pairs of strings. A single woman leaves the lower pair untied. On the isle of Zuid-Beveland the Protestant women have a much bigger lace hat than the Catholics. Nowadays these hats of handmade Belgian lace will cost over $500.

Wooden shoes are often part of the daily costume. They are working shoes, made of popiarwood, blank or painted. But if you can afford leather shoes for Sunday you won't wear wooden shoes to church. And if you can afford an "oorijzer" made of gold, you will probably wear shoes even daily, maybe with silver clasps. So at a celebration with dancing, people in traditional costumes won't wear wooden shoes. Neither do we. Our folkdancegroup wears black leather shoes with the Dutch costumes. Of course for tourists wooden shoes are as Dutch as windmills and tulips, so groups that perform for tourists will often dance on wooden shoes.

Volendam
Volendam is a Catholic fishermans village. Man went to sea, women mended the nets and cleaned the fish. The costume of Volendam is the most famous Dutch costume outside the Netherlands.

On weekdays the ladies wear a black skirt with a striped apron (in white-blue- orange-brown). A black woolen jacket with short sleeves, and a low square neck, boarded with a black-and -white woven ribbon. Underneath the neck is filled with an embroidered cloth in bright colours: the "kralap" In moarning the embroidery is in blue and purple tones.
Important is the heavy triple string of red coral, closed with a gold lock in front. In moarning it can be replaced by a garnet string. Around the neck we also see a woolen tie in blue and white (black and white when moarning) On her head our Volendammer lady has the famous "hul" of white Brussels lace. Under it often a black pointed cap. During the week women may leave the hul at home and wear only the black undercap.
On her legs black stockings and blank wooden shoes or black leather shoes. On sundays the costume is much alike but the skirt is striped in black grey and blue, and the apron is black with a broad strip at the top embroidered just like the "kralap." The apron has two pairs of blue strings, black in moarning. Black stockings and black shoes.
On special occasions like weddings the skirt is striped in bright colours orange, white and blue, and the costume is completed with a white cambric scarf. This is the costume that everyone in the world will recognise as "typical Dutch" although most people will expect wooden shoes underneath, which is not-done.

The Volendammer man has wide black woolen pants with a big flap in front, closed with two big silver buttons. The shirt is striped red and white with a double row of buttons, and the jacket is black or darkblue. Under the shirt the man has a red or white/black collar with two gold buttons.
A black cap or a black fur hat, with three green knots at the back.
Black shoes or (at work or for tourists) wooden shoes.