|
| |
May 1, 2006
Authentic Traditional Dress Adds Color to Festival
Written by: Joan Terpstra Anderson
ORANGE CITY, IA -- It’s called a tulip festival, but tulips are not the only
attraction offered during Orange City, Iowa’s annual festival. Yes, there are
tulips galore in beds around the town, in lovely hues and varieties. But there
is also so much more to catch the eye.
For example, consider the costumes.
And these are not just any costumes. They are reproductions of traditional dress
worn by folks in the Netherlands, exquisitely detailed and lovely to look at.
Orange City was founded by Dutch immigrants in the 1860s, and since a majority
of the residents still claim that ethnicity, it is logical that the festival
reflect that heritage.
It was after World War II that a town called Marken, in the province of North
Holland, sent an elegant, traditional woman’s dress to a church in Orange City
as a thank you for its help during the war. This gave the Orange City Dutch
insight into the beauty and complexity of genuine traditional Dutch dress.
It was after the war, too, that Orange City residents began visiting the
Netherlands. They learned that each province, and even towns within the
provinces, had their own unique dress—that one style didn’t speak for all
Netherlanders. They returned to the U.S. with books containing pictures of
traditional dress and with fabrics typical of the various provinces.
Then it began to happen. Some very gifted Orange City residents decided that
they wanted to have authentic Dutch dress for themselves. And their husbands.
And their children.
It was a challenging task. Studying patterns and descriptions in the Dutch
language was not easy, but seamstresses persisted. Some even went so far as to
disassemble an entire costume in order to make pattern pieces that could be used
to reproduce a particular outfit.
And so the authentic costume made its appearance in Orange City’s tulip
festival. When residents saw the beauty of these reproductions, desire for them
mushroomed. Surely the mayor of the town needed an authentic outfit. And the
committee overseeing the tulip queen and her court decided that authentic dress
was a must. Demand for “the real thing” kept seamstresses busy for years, and
the demand continues to this day. Today most participants in the festival wear
authentic Dutch dress.
While traditional dress from every province or town in the Netherlands has not
been replicated, dedicated women with a special genius for dressmaking have done
a remarkable job of reproducing many of them. Seeing these outfits as they
parade by during the Straatfeest—the afternoon parade, which includes the Mode
Show— really does not reveal their complexity or the skills required to create
them.
Volendam, a seacoast village in the province of North Holland, offers what is
most commonly recognized today as traditional Dutch dress. As in every culture,
Volendam dress varies with the seasons and the occasions. But what a woman would
wear for dressy occasions is the one most represented as typically Dutch. And it
is one that has been recreated by women in Orange City. It consists of a black
woolen skirt, a breast-cloth decorated with intricately embroidered floral
patterns, a short-sleeved black wool bodice trimmed with an elaborate braid and
fastened in the front with 11 hooks and eyes, and a black woolen apron decorated
at the top with the same embroidered flowers as the breast-cloth. And no
Volendam woman’s dress would be complete without a three-strand necklace of
coral beads fastened around the neck by means of a large gold clasp.
The crowning glory to this gown is the traditional pointed cap, known around the
world as “the” Dutch cap. This showpiece is made of embroidered Brussels lace
with different patterns in it bearing such poetic names as “cow’s eye’s lace”
and “lace with a feather.” Starched gauze is used to stiffen the wings, and the
fine folds in the front of the cap were traditionally pressed in individually
with a knife. Women in Orange City use more contemporary methods to achieve the
desired result.
Men in Volendam are fishermen, and though their balloon-type pants have come to
symbolize the traditional dress of all Dutch men, such is not the case.
Different styles of pants characterize men in other vocations.
Hindeloopen, a seafaring town in the northern province of Friesland, boasts
considerable diversity in its dress. In the 18th century many Hindeloopen men
were skippers in command of cargo vessels engaged in trade. Considerable contact
with other northern European countries may explain similarities in traditional
dress between Hindeloopen and Holland’s Scandinavian neighbors. But there were
other influences, as well.
As there was no natural harbor around Hindeloopen, ships were laid up in the
port of Amsterdam. And when ships came to dock, wives of the captains sailed to
Amsterdam to meet their husbands, using this opportunity to shop for the luxury
goods available there. A favorite fabric was East Indian chintz, a multicolored
cotton fabric for which Amsterdam was a staple port.
An interesting aspect of Hindeloopen dress for women has been that they tell
about the wearer’s marital status, whether they are married or unmarried. The
basic elements of the dress are similar for both—a breast-cloth, a long-sleeved
bodice of colorful Chinese silk over which is worn a sleeveless bodice of black
wool, a black skirt, a red and white plaid apron. Two significant items
distinguish the married woman from the unmarried, however.
A married woman wears a long slim-cut coat made of multicolored chintz; an
unmarried woman, a short jacket made of this chintz. And then there’s the
headpiece, which for married women is a tall, stiff linen cylinder covered with
a heavily starched suncloth that is wrapped around the cylinder. Unmarried women
wear a soft cap covered with the suncloth.
As to the present era, Hollanders participate in a global culture. The Dutch
dress described here is of past eras and is not normally seen in Holland today.
In fact, the fear that these creations might be lost to their history has
brought some Holland natives to Orange City to reclaim patterns and styles.
There are some unique communities in Holland, though, where one can still see
traditional dress. One is in the farming village of Starphorst, in the province
of Overijssel. Here residents still enjoy carrying on the tradition. They do not
look kindly on visitors taking their photos, however, so Orange City’s tulip
festival is the place to come for that. As Netherlanders would say, Breng ons
een bezoek! (Pay us a visit!).
** See a variety of Orange City's authentic Dutch costumes on the Tulip Festival
web site: www.octulipfestival.com. You can also check out all the attractions
and events for the May 18-20 festival, including the "Mode Show" of province
costumes during the daily Straatfest.
  
(Photos courtesy Doug Burg, Burg Studios, Orange City Iowa)
RETURN TO PRESS ROOM
|
