April 6, 2007

Authentic Traditional Dress Adds Color to Festival

     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 results.

     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 18^th 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!).  

For dress photos go to octulipfestival.com/provinces.htm                                Written by: Joan Terpstra Anderson

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