Jaarboek Kostuum 2006

Table of Contents

1. Betty Rozema-Früchnicht and Gieneke Arnolli
   The legacy of Jan Douwes, tailor in Leeuwarden
   An archive record from 1560

   One of the earliest surviving archive records in Friesland, a province in the northern Netherlands, is the household inventory of Jan Douwes, made for the benefit of his three underage daughters. Jan Douwes was a tailor in Leeuwarden, the province’s capital. Through three outstanding bills included in the inventory the authors came to learn more about the garments Jan Douwes fashioned and altered, which fabrics he used and their prices, how much he charged for making up garments, and who his customers were.

   The inventory contains supplies of English cloth in different colours and Dutch cloth from Amersfoort, Maastricht and the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium). In a cabinet a number of parts of garments were found, as well as expensive fabrics such as silk taffeta, crimson velvet, black damask and haberdashery. There was also a chest with clothes that had belonged to Jan Douwes and his deceased wife.

   Jan Douwes bought the English cloth in Antwerp through his brother Titte. He also bought fabrics in Amsterdam, Leeuwarden and Franeker. Through contacts at the Brussels court people in Friesland were well aware of the latest fashion developments.

   Markets played an important role in the sale of fabrics. Jan Douwes' customers came from all over the province. He sold fabrics as well as completely finished clothes. He made cloaks, gowns, vests, separate sleeves and lots of hose. For women he made skirts, bodices and partlets. For men he made doublets and jerkins, for which he used leather, breeches and trunk hose. He occasionally made headwear such as caps.

   As he had many customers from the Frisian landed nobility and prominent citizens and a variety of their portraits was preserved, the article also gives a pictorial impression of the clothes Jan Douwes made.

2. Leontine Kuijvenhoven-Groeneweg
   A short history of the secondhand clothes’ trade in Amsterdam
   

   no summary

3. Patricia Wardle
   The Widow Trossellier, lace merchant
   

   The Widow Trossellier, who ran a lace shop in The Hague, figures prominently in the surviving papers of 18th-century lace firms in Antwerp and Brussels. Her parents were a Huguenot couple who had come to live in The Hague in 1691. Their daughter Esther was born in 1698 and married Jacques Alexandre Trossellier, a minister of the Église Wallonne, in 1720. He died before 1737 and by that year the Widow Trossellier, as she thenceforth named herself, was back in The Hague with her three young daughters.

   Her jeweller brother-in-law Jacob Auguste Potier may have inspired the Widow Trossellier to open a lace shop at the Spuistraat in The Hague. In the early days she must have had to compete with two similar businesses in that city, run by women who were suppliers to the Stadholder's family. However, later on she was to take over this important clientele. She frequently complained about itinerant sellers though, who sold lace much cheaper door to door and proved also of interest to the Stadholder’s family. From the 1750s onwards there was further competition from the marchandes des modes, who imported wares direct from Paris and elsewhere.

   Among the papers of Anna and Isabella Reyns of Antwerp over a hundred surviving letters from the Widow Trossellier chronicle her dealings from 1738 to 1771, with an 8-years’ gap in the 1760s. Her most profitable years where it concerns the sisters’ lace appear to have been those around 1750. They did not deal in the highest quality lace of the newest design and eventually their out-of-date products proved difficult to sell.

   Trade in The Hague became also limited by the advent of the fashion for gauze and whitework in the mid-1740s, as well as by the respective deaths of Stadholder William IV in 1751 and his wife Anne of Hannover in 1759. These were followed by periods of mourning when only plain muslin was allowed.

   Dealings with Caroline d' Halluin in Brussels from 1748 to 1763 generally involved lace of high quality, with Brussels lace naturally predominant. The Widow Trossellier also sold some blonde, the silk lace that became fashionable around 1750, as well as whitework and Alençon lace. The most prestigious order was that for the trousseau of Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, who married in 1760. The order included Brussels needle and bobbin lace to a value of over 2000 guilders. Both sets of documents clearly reveal the difficulties involved in having high quality lace produced in time to meet orders, especially Brussels needle lace, which could only be had on commission.

   The Widow Trossellier died peacefully in 1793, at the ripe old age of 94 years.

4. Heather Toomer
   Babies' decorative long gowns in the UK
   

   The author of this article realised through her exhibition work, that fashions in babies' long, decorated day gowns worn when a baby was on show, such as at its christening, changed through the 19th century in much the same way as adult fashions. Moreover, comparison of dated gowns and illustrations with adult fashion showed that their evolution occurred more or less simultaneously. The changes are followed through a few selected examples with important features of babies' gowns being indicated.

   The first gown is in the high-waisted, neo-classical style of the early 19th century and is decorated with simple whitework embroidery including pulled-thread work. A highly unusual knitted gown shows the style of about 1820 while the flamboyance of the 1830s is illustrated by a delightful example of Ayrshire needlework, a particularly fine whitework embroidery from Scotland. The bolder embroidery styles fashionable in subsequent decades are illustrated by a gown from continental Europe with realistically drawn flowers in padded satin stitch, and an Indian gown with characteristic stitching.

   The 1850s brought not only a new decorative style but also a new construction: bodice and skirt fronts that had been cut as individual panels, embroidered in the piece, were now constructed from a patchwork of decorative bands. At first such gowns were made with separate bodices and skirts, joined at the waist, the same basic construction as that used in the first half of the century. However, gowns with princess-line fronts were introduced in the late 1870s as they became more popular in the adult world. These continued in use into the 1890s alongside the earlier construction. Hand and machine sewing, lace and embroidery were all used in the banded style.

   A final change came in the 1880s with the raising of the waistline and the extension of decoration right round the bottom of the skirt. In earlier styles the decoration had been confined to almost triangular panels on the bodice and skirt fronts, usually bound by robings (decorative flaps extending down the bodice and/or skirt, usually attached only at one edge).

   The final example deals with the results of more recent research into an 18th-century gown which belonged to the Saumarez family of Guernsey. This is in the form of an open robe, similar in many respects to adult open robes of the later 18th century, and is made in cream silk satin with fly-braid decoration. There are too few dated christening robes of the period for the Saumarez robe to be dated accurately but research leads to believe that it was made in 1768 for Martha le Marchant, who was to be the wife of the first Baron De Saumarez.

5. Rosalie Sloof
   Affluent and well-dressed
   A glimpse into the wardrobe of Cornelia Elisabeth Schimmelpenninck van der Oye-van Heemstra (1867-1901)

   Castle Duivenvoorde is situated in Voorschoten, in the western part of the Netherlands, near The Hague. Here the clothes worn by Cornelia Elisabeth (Elise), Baroness Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, née Van Heemstra (1867-1901) are kept. As the wife of an affluent Dutch diplomat she moved in government and court circles, and lived in St Petersburg and London. She shopped at the premier fashion houses of Paris and London where couturiers served a varied circle of clients: European nobility and wives of American industrialists as well as French actresses.

   The evening dresses by couturiers such as Beer and Deshayes, and particularly those by Jacques Doucet, are excellent examples of the Belle Époque fashions, in which rustling fabrics decorated with pearls and sequins and cascades of lace predominated. As society women had to emphasise and maintain an extremely narrow-waisted hourglass figure, corsets were an essential element of formal dress.

   The baroness also went to fancy dress parties. Fancy dress costumes were popular, and a lot of money and care were lavished on outfits for fancy dress balls. On closer inspection the fancy dress costumes show many aspects of contemporary fashion. The ladies insisted on wearing their regular underwear and corsets underneath fancy dress in order to look as fashionable as possible. A photograph from 1893 shows Elise and her husband Alexander dressed for a fancy dress party in St. Petersburg. She wears a red velvet masquerade dress in 17th-century style, with large split sleeves reinforced with horsehair, which were also en vogue in the mid-1890s.

   The society highborn ladies such as Elise Schimmelpenninck van der Oye moved in, followed a strict social calendar for meeting one’s fellow members, e.g. in the theatres in town, at hunting parties in the country or at fashionable seaside resorts. Choosing the right clothes for each single occasion was extremely important.

   When the baroness's youngest son died in 1900, her wardrobe was adapted for the mourning period. She mainly wore clothes in white, black and shades of purple, one of which, a dress of crêpe georgette made by the Paris fashion house of Céline Balls et Deshayes, has survived.

   Elise Schimmelpenninck van der Oye also bought from Redfern, the tailor who had made women's tailor-mades a big success. Like many other wealthy ladies venturing ever more out into the world, Elise wore her tailor-made suit when travelling, sailing, or walking in the park.

   For decades the baroness's clothes were kept by her daughter Ludolphine Henriëtte. In 1960 the castle and its household effects, including the costume collection, were put into a foundation.

6. Jankees Goud
   The bonnet in the regional dress of Zuid-Beveland
   

   In the early 19th century the bonnet was a popular fashion accessory in the Dutch cities. From this starting point the bonnet gained a foothold in Dutch regional dress in many guises, for instance on the former island of Zuid-Beveland, in the south-western part of the Netherlands. Here the bonnet replaced the flat straw hat that the Zuid-Beveland women had worn for many years, at least since 1720.
   Around 1850, the time when the bonnet was first seen in Zuid-Beveland, a small difference in Protestant and Roman Catholic women's clothes became visible, the last group being much smaller than the first. The bonnets were different too, mainly in the decoration. Roman Catholic women wore a finely pleated ribbon on their bonnets , the ribbons on Protestant women's bonnets had large pleats  The basic bonnet was cylindrical and made of fine, plaited Italian straw, reinforced with a cardboard lining. It was trimmed with bleached, braided horsehair, embroidered with countless glass beads, or braid made of straw or rushes. The bonnets were almost exclusively sold in Goes, the market town of the island.

   The bonnet's heyday was between 1850 and 1890. After 1890 the bonnet was mainly worn for special occasions such as weddings, confirmations, christenings and funerals. Exact dates are not known, but amongst Protestant women the bonnet was worn for the last time circa 1900 for christenings, and amongst Roman Catholic women around 1905, at a funeral. After 1880 the ribbon disappeared from the Protestant women's bonnets, Roman Catholic women wore ribbons on their bonnets until the end.

   No one has regretted the disappearance af the bonnets, because they were expensive, and also very fragile (dropping one was disastrous). Another problem was that the bonnet was wedged tightly on the head. According to legend this was very hot and caused headaches.

   Another reason the bonnets disappeared was the increase in size of the lace caps worn underneath them. Around 1890 these had grown to such a size that hardly any bonnet could be fitted over them. And since the growth of the expensive lace caps was considered more important than preserving the bonnet, which was regarded as old-fashioned, the choice was not very difficult: away with the bonnet.

   Now, hardly a century later, very few people know that such bonnets were worn on the island of Zuid-Beveland, though luckily quite a few beautiful examples have been preserved, both in museums and private collections. Through this article I hope to have put this nearly forgotten fashion accessory back into the limelight.

7. Madelief Hohé
   Mixers’ fashion
   Dutch fashion at the start of a new millennium

   Right now Dutch fashion commands a lot of interest both at home and abroad. During the 1990s a group of designers made their debut who mostly created from a conceptual principle, and for whom wearability was sometimes less important than concept. The upcoming generation of designers are champions of wearability. They want their clothes to be worn, they want them to be taken into production and sold. In the spring of 2006 the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag devoted an exhibition to these new designers, Fashion NL: the Next Generation.

   Many of these young creative spirits were born during the 1970s. They belong to a generation which is sometimes called the ‘Mix Generation’: people who just want everything, without having to make choices. One can indeed see a wide range of influences in their work. They use fashion history, visual arts, other cultures, music and street culture, and no longer see haute couture as the ultimate achievement. Recycling is often adopted, luxury not avoided though. Many of these designers are socially committed. Although they work from common sources of inspiration, these lead to divergent results. The different designers can be recognised by their own idiosyncratic style. The ease with which they work in different disciplines is characteristic; this also links to the present fashion climate, where many styles co-exist.

   The designer in whose work we find everything important to this generation, is Bas Kosters (1977). This multitalented designer creates his own universe in music, creative arts and fashion. His own appearance may be the major work: for some time he has been carefully recording his everchanging appearance in a series of photographs. Other significant designers are Jan Taminiau, Percy Irausquin , Mada van Gaans, Erik Frenken, Daryl van Wouw ,Hamid Ed-dakhissi, Monique van Heist , Marloes ten Bhömer and newcomers such as And Beyond. For men's fashion Francisco van Benthum (Wolf-homme) and Jeroen van Tuyl.

   This young fashion draws both media attention and economical interest. Catwalk shows are an important way to present new work, but no longer the only way. (Inter)national fashion prizes are now very important for starting designers, both for publicity and financial rewards. Of late the Dutch Fashion Foundation has taken measures to create a platform abroad for Dutch fashion designers. This is done with support from the Dutch government, which has come to see fashion as one of the spearheads of its cultural policy. The coming years will show how these young designers will develop both creatively and economically: it is sink or swim. But for now we will dream with the next generation: Marloes ten Bhömer's shoes in the shops, Bas Kosters Studio a well-known brand from Japan to Moscow and Percy Irausquin's evening dresses on the red carpet in Hollywood.