Costume of Fryslân or Friesland, land of the West Frisians, the Netherlands

Hello all,
Today I will talk about the costume of Friesland in the Netherlands. Europe is, in general, the most uniform part  of the world, Ethnically and Linguistically speaking, which is the result of the tradition of Nation-States. Many small ethnic groups have been assimilated at a greater rate compared to Asia or Africa. Nevertheless, there are still about 100 languages spoken on the continent. Even in western Europe there are minority languages still extant. One of these small ethnicities are the Frisians. Here is a map of Historical Friesland, which consisted of the north sea coastal area from the Netherlands to Denmark. Today, most Frisians have been assimilated by the Danish, German, and Dutch peoples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisia

The Frisians are divided into three groups, the West Frisians, the East Frisians and the North Frisians. They speak a language, or three closely related languages of their own, which are  closely related to English, and very distinct from Dutch, German, and Danish. Here is a map showing the current extant of the Frisian Language(s). There are currently about 500,000 speakers of Frisian, the vast majority of which speak West Frisian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages

I will be focusing on the West Frisians and their costume today. West Frisian is recognized as a language in the Netherlands, and the Frisians have their own Province, which is officially called Fryslân in the Frisian Language, and simply Friesland in Dutch. I should mention that in the Netherlands, there is another region called West Friesland, which is part of North Holland. Here is a map of Friesland and its position in the Netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland 

And here is the flag of Fryslân. There is a flag which has been designed to represent all the Frisian People, but it has not been officially adopted by the InterFrisian Council.

Fryslân is an area with very rich farmland, and so the farmers in this area are historically quite well off. The costume of this area reflects this, being based on the Burgher's costumes of a couple of centuries ago. The basic parts of the woman's costume is a full skirt, the rok, and a blouse/jacket, the jak, with a skirt gathered into the waist which reaches to between hip and mid thigh.

There is a chemise, the sleeves of which sometimes show, a petticoat, or more than one, and most likely  bloomers underneath. This is essential to keeping the line of the skirt. A regrettable tendency among some modern dance groups, especially in America is the omission of the petticoat. This results in the skirt sticking to the legs, and hanging limply in too narrow a fashion, as in this photograph. The other mistake is that the hair should not be visible. Other than that, they did a reasonable job, but i will only present this one photograph from America, the others are all from Fryslân.

The jak en rok are made in many colors, with many differences in detail in cut, especially of the sleeves. There is some resemblance to the traditional Welsh costume, but the overall effect is quite different. Here are some examples of the jak en rok. Less costly materials are used for everyday wear.

As you can see, most of the time, the jak and the rok are made of the same material, but not always. Here are some dancers from West Friesland.

 

On Sundays, or for special occasions, richer materials are used. The neckline of the jak varies somewhat. There is a triangular fichu worn over the shoulders, and an apron worn over the jak.

Here are a couple of women dressed in everyday attire. The one on the left is wearing a plaid jak en rok and an apron of solid cloth. The lace  sleeves of the chemise are visible. Her accessories, which are usual, consist of a pin holding the fichu closed, as well as a purse and chatelaine hanging from the waist.

The woman on the right is wearing jak en rok of plain black and a fichu of calico. She also gives us a good look at the headress which is specific to this region. When a woman is grown, her hair is cut short. She then wears a cap of white eyelet linen and over that, a black cap. These are both visible in this photo above. Over the caps is worn the Oorijzer, the 'ear iron'.  Here is an old painting showing a young woman about to have her hair cut short so as to put on the adult headdress [and apparently not very happy about it]. The woman on the left is holding a large pair of scissors, and the lace overcap and Oorijzer are sitting on the chair at left.

The Oorijzer is is not unique to this area, it is very common in many parts of the Netherlands, but in Fryslân it is unusually large. Where it is usually a band of metal with knobs on the ends, here the Oorijzer has become widened almost to helmet proportions. It is usually made of gold, but sometimes of silver. It is made to fit an individual woman, and always has a v shaped opening in front. 

Over the Oorijzer, a lace cap is worn, which covers the black undercap and the Oorijzer. The cap is always made of lace, so that the gold of the Oorijzer shows through. There is a frill in back over the nape of the neck.

The 'knobs' are left uncovered, and pins hold the cap in place. The knobs are  highly ornamented and sometimes set with stones.

In the 1800's, the frill hung down to the shoulders.

  More recently, the frill has gotten shorter, sometimes being reduced to a mere ruffle, which i personally find much less attractive. Here are some examples from different time periods.

Over the cap with the frill, a straw hat or top hat were sometimes worn.

 

For the men, the costume consisted of cable knit knee socks, buckled shoes, black knickers, tailcoat and top hat, and brocade vest. They also carried silver in the form of watch chains. 

 

I will close with a few more images of this costume.

I wish to voice my support of all those  who work to keep this type of clothing a living tradition. Good wishes to all who work hard to keep their local clothing tradition alive.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals. I also choreograph and teach folk dance.

Roman K.

Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

A. Groen, 'Dutch Costumes', Elmar, B V, the Netherlands

Constance Neuwhoff, 'Klederdrachten', Amsterdam, 1976

Jackie Craver and Phyllis Zylstra, 'Dutch Costumes, a Look into the Past', Pella, Iowa, 2007

 Elsa M Valeton, 'Niederlandischer Trachten', Amsterdam, after 1959

E. Van der Ven-Ten  Bensel, 'Dances of the Netherlands', New York, 1949

Gardilanne and Moffat, 'National Costumes of Holland',  year unknown

James Snowden, 'The Folk Dress of Europe', 1979, New York, London
LIlla Fox, 'Folk Costumes of Western Europe', 1969, London

The costume of west Polissia and Zavolikannia embroidery, Ukraine and Bielorus

Hello all,

Today I will be talking about the costume of western, or Volynian Polissia, which includes the northern parts of Volyn, Rivne, and part of Zhytomyr oblasts, as well as southwestern Bielorus. There is a style of embroidery practiced in the western part of Polissia, and not much elsewhere. In Ukrainian it is called Zavolikannia, Perevolikannia, Peretykannnia, Pidbyruvannia, and also other terms. It is a type of darning stitch, like Nyz or Nyzynka. The distinction is that in Zavolikannia, the threads journey the length of the design, rather than across  the width of the design, as in most types of darning stitch. Above is a modern Ukrainian man's shirt executed in this technique.
I have been speaking of Polissia in several articles, It's about time i provided a map. Polissia is a cultural-physical region which follows the wetlands at the edge of the deep forest along the northern borders of Ukraine and beyond. Here is a map. The hatching shows the extent of Polissia beyond the current borders of Ukraine.

A large portion of Bielorus is also part of Polissia [Palesie]. This is the only border of Ukraine where there is a gradual gradation of dialects to another language, from Ukrainian to Bielorussian. These two neighboring peoples share much history, and are closely related. The Ukrainians and Russians moved into the steppe regions and encountered each other later, after their two languages had already diverged. There is a large Ukrainian population still in Bielorussian Polissia, especially in the west. Polissia extends somewhat into Poland, where they call it Podlasia. I have already done an article about the costume of that region.
http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-costume-three-countries-nadbuzhansk.html 

Much of the clothing native to this region is based on woven ornament, especially in the western part. Here are two photos of typical costume of the region. This one is from western Podillia on the Ukrainian side, typifiying the costume of northern Volyn' and Rivne Oblasts.

 And here is a photo of the costume of southwest Bielorus, which they call Zakhodne [western] Palessie.

 You can see that cross stitch has made inroads here, as most everywhere, but the major ornament is woven in red, with  a small admixture of black, on a background of white linen, or white and unbleached linen woven in stripes or designs. Here is another example from the Ukrainian side.

Here is an example from the Polish part of Polissia around Wlodowa [Volodova].

 and another example from Bielarus, from Baratynichy, Kobryn region.

 Taking a close look at this costume, the chemise, Sorochka has the standard Slavic cut  with shoulder insets.
 

As you can see from the images, in western Polissia, there is no ornament on the bottom hem of the chemise, and it does not show beneath the skirt. The shoulder inset has horizontal ornament, and the sleeve may have either horizontal or vertical ornament, and the placement and number of bands of ornament varies quite a bit. The collar often folds down, but band or stand-up collars are also known.

The linen skirt in this region is called 'fartuch', which in most places refers to the apron, and the apron is called 'perednyk' [front piece].  Here is  a closeup photo of the back view of one of these skirts.

Here are closups of the woven ornament on the chemise and skirt shown above.

 The embroidery technique Zavolikannia is a straightforward attempt to copy this type of woven ornament. Any design embroidered in Zavolikannia may also be woven in pick-up. The needle imitates the shuttle. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a piece is embroidered or woven. Here are some designs embroidered in Zavolikannia.

The embroidery is done mostly in red, often with narrow black or blue edges and/or centers. The thread runs the length of the design and runs under and over an even number of threads. Most of the time, the next thread follows the exact same path, and then the third thread jumps two threads to make the next element of the design.

Here is one way of graphing this kind of design. Each square on this graph represents two threads vertically and two threads horizontally. Of course, the back side shows an exact reverse of the design.

Because there are two threads traveling the same path, there  is a stepwise progression to the design, unlike the smooth diagonal lines of Nyz. 

Because of this, it is possible to graph these designs with squares.

This has led some people to execute these designs in cross stitch. In my personal opinion, this should never be done, the designs seem to me to be obviously meant to be done in either pick-up weaving or Zavolikannia. Just because a design is graphed in squares does not mean that it is meant to be done in cross-stitch.

Just a few more examples of this technique.

While this technique is most often found in western Polissia, examples can be found as far east as Kieven Polissia, where it is often combined with other embroidery techniques.

 Here are a few more examples of Zavolikannia designs.

 

 

I will close with a couple of images of the costume of west Polissia.

 

 

Thank you for reading. This is for Yulia Honcharova. Pryvit!
I encourage all of you to try this embroidery technique, and bring a part of old Polissia into your homes.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals. I also choreograph and teach folk dance.

Roman K.

Rkozakand@aol.com


Source Material:

S. H. Kolosa, I. V. Hurhula, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vbrannia', Kyjiw [Kiev], 1961
Tamara Nykolaieva, 'Ukrainian Costume: Hope for a Renaissance, Kyjiw {Kiev], 2005
M. S. Bilan, H. H. Stel'mashchuk, 'Ukrajinskyj Stryj' [Ukrainian Folk Attire], L'viw, 2000
Oksana Kosmina, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Vbrannia' [Ukrainian Folk Dress], Kyjiw, 2009
Vadym Myronov, 'Ukrajins'kyj Kostium', Kyjiw 1977
Oksana Kosmina, 'Traditional Ukrainian Clothing vol 2', Kyjiw [Kiev], 2011
V. Myronow, 'Ukrajinskyj Kostium', Kyjiw [Kiev[ 1977
Z. Vasina, 'Ukrajinske Narodne Vbrannia', Kyjiw [Kiev], 2009
M. Ramaniuk, 'Bielaruskaie Narodnaie Adzennie', Minsk, 1981
Hatal's'ka & Ivashkiw, 'Poetyka Volyn'skoho Vbrannia', Luts'k, 2005