Jaarboek Kostuum 2008

Table of Contents

1. Sara van Dijk
   The lenzuolo: a cloak from Rome for marriageable girls, housewives and saints
   

   In the 15th century Italy consisted of several city states, each with its own fashion developments, which citizens and city rulers were extremely conscious of. In Rome the portamenti romani, a number of specifically Roman garments, were protected under sumptuary Law. The sumptuary law of 1469 forbade prostitutes and women who visited public houses to wear these clothes, the punishment for this being seizure of the garment and a fine. In this way the legislators wanted to prevent these clothes becoming associated with indecent behaviour. This article concentrates on one of these Roman garments: the lenzuolo.

   The lenzuolo was a wide, white cloak consisting of two parts and worn over the head. The cloak was always white and made of a relatively cheap fabric such as linen. It was worn by women of all classes, from the nobility down to housemaids. The cloak can be seen on several frescoes in Rome.

   Raphael's portrait La velata (The veiled woman) also shows a young woman wearing a lenzuolo. The fact that the sitter’s head is covered, is often considered as a sign of her status as a married woman, or even as a bride. Although it was unusual in Tuscany for young, unmarried girls to wear a cloak, they did wear this garment in Rome, as may be seen in a contemporary letter written by a wealthy woman describing her future daughter-in-law. The cloak of the woman Raphael painted therefore gives no clue as to her marital status.

   The lenzuolo was not only considered to be a decent garment for ordinary women of all ranks in life, but even for a saint. Traditionally Santa Francesca Romana, the local patron saint of housewives, is depicted in a lenzuolo in Rome. From the late 16th century onwards she figures more and more often on altar pieces outside Rome. On these she is always shown in a white cloak, although this does not have the same shape as a lenzuolo . Probably painters outside Rome were not familiar with the lenzuolo's construction. A number of distinguishing attributes belong to Santa Francesca Romana, but the lenzuolo, or a white cloak if the painter was not familiar with the lenzuolo, may be considered as her most typical attribute. The garment fits the austerity of her lifestyle and emphasises her importance as a Roman saint.

   During the 16th century the lenzuolo went out of style. In the sumptuary law of 1532 the city council complained that the traditional Roman dress was worn ever less and made of too luxurious fabrics. In 1560 the council tried to make the wearing of a lenzuolo compulsory outside the house, in an effort to preserve a disappearing garment.

2. Corina J. Platteschorre-Weurman
   The peignoir
   

   Names of garments often survive whereas their shape and function change over time. This was also the fate of the peignoir. In the first half of the 17th century Anne of Austria (1601-1666) went to mass in a peignoir. Today this would mean that she was wearing a dressing gown. The outcome of research is that at that time the peignoir was nothing more than a shoulder mantle or cape.

   Originally it was a practical garment, which would protect liturgical and/or expensive clothing when people combed their dirty hair. In fact the comb gave the peignoir its French name (peigne means comb) in the 17th century.

   The shoulder capes occur in the Dutch Republic under the name of kamdoeken (combing kerchiefs) and nachthalsdoeken (night neckerchiefs). The combing kerchief was, with its lavish lace, more sumptuous than the night neckerchief. Depictions of the combing kerchief are mostly seen in combination with toilet accessories which are usually, though not always, considered metaphors for mortality.

   The peignoir/combing kerchief served a double purpose in the early 17th century, when it was also worn as a comfortable garment for indoors, usually in combination with an apron. The night neckerchief, mostly made of linen, was worn in bed together with a shift. In France the equivalent of the night neckerchief was the manteau de lit.

   In England the peignoir/combing kerchief was comparable to what as early as in 16th-century inventories was called a ‘night rail’, a combing jacket. In the Netherlands depictions of combing kerchiefs and night neckerchiefs testify to a symbolism relating in particular to, respectively, virtue and vice. In the second half of the 17th century this distinction became more explicit as the night neckerchief became a reference to going to bed. Combing kerchiefs were worn by virtuous women. During the last quarter of the 17th century the combing kerchief is mainly seen in 'make-up and powder' scenes.

   The night neckerchief had a warmer counterpart, the night mantle. The difference between this and the night neckerchief was that the night mantle was lined, either with fabric or fur.

   In later centuries the peignoir was used to protect one’s dress during personal grooming. Changing fashions in hairstyles and wigs and the use of powder and make-up determined the shape of the garment now known as a hairdressing cape or gown. Shape and use of the peignoir as a garment for indoor use also changed, a transition in which etiquette played an important role.

3. Carin Schnitger
   Living as in the 1930s
   An interview with nostalgist Miss Jo Teeuwisse

   The author met Joeri Teeuwisse (1972), ‘Miss Jo’, at the Waterlooplein second-hand market in Amsterdam, where she was a striking appearance in her dark 1930s’ outfit. It turned out that Miss Jo runs an agency for historical advice on the 1930s and ‘40s. She operates in a special way: she wants to achieve part of her expertise through actually living the experience: leading a life as people did in those years. This includes clothing, interior design and leisure, for example dancing to the music of the Dutch big band The Ramblers.

   It all started in 1997, when she made a short film set in 1945 as a graduation project for the Film Academy, and became fascinated by the objects of that time while searching for the right props, scenery and costumes. Wearing a vintage dress and silk stockings did the rest.

   Miss Jo feels a nostalgic longing for the quiet, the decency and the morals of the old days. She rejects many elements of modern-day living, though not all: she manages two websites, www.hab3045.nl and www.joeri.net Through the internet she keeps in touch with people who share her yearning for the past. These days she assists in building film sets and giving costume advice through her advice agency. She only wears original clothes from the thirties and forties, down to her stockings, shoes and underwear. Her home is decorated like a middle-class home in the Netherlands of the 1930s and may also be rented as a film set. Many details and films of her activities and home can be found and seen on her websites.

   Teeuwisse considers the reliving of history a healthy interest in one's roots. A small part of her advice agency, The Netherlands 1940-1945 Studies and Living History Group, which she herself is part of, shows life in those days and lives by its example. The aim is to make the past interesting in a new way to visitors of events and museums. According to Teeuwisse this educational element, the historical underpinning, is the most important for this group, in contrast to many other re-enactment groups, who “just want to play soldiers”. Jo Teeuwisse turns her very life into a work of nostalgic art.

4. Tine Oosterbaan
   Made only once...
   A Frisian’ floddermuts’ with special lace

   In 1966 the author started collecting caps belonging to Dutch regional dress. As she was born in Friesland, a province in the north-east of the Netherlands, her first interest were Frisian caps, but her collection now includes caps from all over the Netherlands. To learn as much as possible about the caps, she contacted Jan Duyvetter, erstwhile curator of the Dutch Open-Air Museum in Arnhem, who introduced her to other collectors. One of them gave her a special Frisian floddermuts (‘flodder’cap).

   The special pattern, with snakes, of the cap’s bobbin lace led to an investigation into the provenance of this cap. The cap was bought in 1962 at an auction commissioned by a Mrs. Ybeltje Tromp, in the Frisian village of Harich. By comparing items and names concerning this auction (fully reported in a local newspaper), the former owners of the the cap could be traced. The ‘snakes’ in the lace might be eels and refer to a wealthy eel merchant called Visser.

   Based on the width of the flounce, the cap can be dated around 1860-1870. In the course of the 19th century the floddermuts changed from a cap with a long, loose flounce at the back of the neck (the looseness of which the name ‘floddermuts’ alludes to,) into the cap with a short, heavily starched, pleated flounce which can be seen around 1920.

   Through the son of the Harich auctioneer and many others the search led to the Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum) in Sneek. Not only are the archives of the Visser family kept there, it also has several portraits of members of that family on display. About the Tromp family  a book appeared to be published, which could be consulted thanks to a descendant in the United States.

   It appeared that in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries there was a lot of intermarriage between the Tromp and Visser families. None of the family members can be connected to the cap with the eel design though, because when this particular type of cap came into vogue, they all had long been gone. The cap is not depicted in the portraits either, and so, for the time being the provenance of this floddermuts remains uncertain.

   If any reader of the article would have further information, the author would welcome his/her reaction very much.

    

    

5. Betty Zwartjes-van Spanje
   Scent bottles with a special shape
   

   The unusual shape of two 19th-century small, slim perfume bottles led to the author’s investigation into the use of these bottles. These are supposed to have been carried under the corset, between the breasts, which may explain the name corsetière, although there is no real proof of this. They were filled with rose oil: a few drops were inserted into the 1 mm wide channel inside the bottle with the help of a long, thin needle. The lady’s body warmth would then release the rose fragrance.

   The scent bottles of perfumer Ahmed Soliman, who presented himself as 'Cairo's Perfume King', and the Shimy brothers, who chose 'Shimy Bros Artistic' as a trade name, are all made of the same Bohemian crystal. In the decorative designs on the scent bottles of around 1930 they followed the then fashionable Egyptian craze copied by European manufacturers.

   These scent bottles from the Art Deco period are still called corsetières these days, as may be seen in the Drouot catalogues. This auction house in Paris used to hold special auctions of scent bottles from 1986 onwards. Until 2006 the catalogue descriptions were compiled by the expert Régine de Robien.

   The author has gained a lot of knowledge about her collection from full-colour printed auction catalogues with beautiful photographs of perfume bottles. Unfortunately these tangible sources are published ever less. They are, so to speak, the annual market reports for information and determining the value of this heritage. She wonders whether and how digital auction lists might replace the printed ones.

6. Jacco Hooikammer
   ‘That's how it was, you had no say’
   Christening clothes and customs in Staphorst and Rouveen

   After christening, or Holy Baptism, a child belongs to the Staphorst community. Staphorst and Rouveen are twin villages in the province of Overijssel, in the eastern part of the Netherlands. These days a child is christened four to eight weeks after birth. In the past there could be four months between birth and christening, if the church could not be reached because of bad winter weather. The child was taken to church by a bearer, a female member of the family.

   The article also deals with traditional christening clothes, which are still, be it seldom, used in Staphorst, although they have entirely disappeared from Rouveen since 1964. Differences in religious background are the main cause of some families using the traditional christening clothes longer than others. The christening clothes are valuable family property. They are identical for boys and girls and were made by the local cap maker. The underwear consisted of a diaper that was not specific to Staphorst and an underjacket of white cotton or linen. In mourning its lace frill was replaced with pale blue cambric. A jacket of printed cotton with a white background topped by a diagonally folded neckerchief was worn as outerwear, together with a flannel swaddling-cloth with a piece of cardboard to achieve a tight 'parcel'. On its head the child would wear a christening cap over an undercap. From time immemorial there has been no difference between boys' and girls' caps in this region. Finally the child was swaddled in a christening blanket.

   These days ready-to-wear christening clothes are bought from the local shop and the cap is usually skipped.

7. Jankees Goud
   Between Kats and Kamperland
   Regional dress on the island of Noord-Beveland in the 19th century

   Searching for pictures of and information about the 19th-century regional dress of Noord-Beveland, one of the islands of Zeeland, which is the south-westernmost province of the Netherlands, the author at first discovered just a few facts. After some perseverance a wealth of information turned out to be available, showing up in forgotten and unknown paintings, family albums, oral tradition and old archives. The article is meant to be a summary of the information that has come up so far.

   The available material shows a difference between the clothes of the wives of craftsmen, townsmen and farmers, the last including all those involved in agriculture. The most noticeable difference can be seen in the jacket, which is high-necked and long-sleeved for townswomen, more or less in accordance with fashionable trends. For farmers' wives it was at first worn long, with a low neckline and sleeves to the elbow, after the 18th-century model.

   During the second half of the 19th century the cap of the Noord-Beveland women grew to enormous proportions, from a very short one to one with a long flounce attached to the back, called the sluiermuts (veil cap).

   By the end of the 19th century the region-specific women’s dress of Noord-Beveland had almost entirely disappeared. The women wore a dress or jacket and skirt in a general, old-fashioned style, combined with a region-specific headdress.

   For women the region-specific jewellery consisted of a silver oorijzer (the metal frame worn inside the cap) with wide golden 'krullen' (spirals), decorative pins, a decoration for the forehead, a necklace of coral or garnet beads, and pendants in several shapes to be hung from the ends of the oorijzer. Men wore gold buttons at their throat, silver buttons on their waistcoat and large silver buttons to fasten their breeches. Both men and women wore silver shoe buckles. Silver knives, watches, decorative buckles and brooches were only for the well-to-do.

   The Noord-Beveland men used to wear colourful costumes too, but around 1860 this had been as good as entirely been replaced by black clothing. Around 1850 this was no different from men’s dress on the neighbouring islands of Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland. By 1890 the Noord-Beveland men’s costume had almost completely disappeared.