Costume of the town of Stein, Limburg Province, The Netherlands

Hello all,

Today I will start a new series of the costumes of The Netherlands. They are unique in that they have some folk costumes which are still worn daily. This is not one of them. This costume was worn in the environs of the town of Stein until about 1940. It is also not typical of the Netherlands. Local tradition has it that this costume was influenced by 'settlers from the east'. I have not been able to find any more information about that.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein_(gemeente)

So that we can locate ourselves, here is the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. The Province of West Limburg in Belgium is immediately adjacent across the border.

Here is the location of the municipality of Stein within Limburg.

This image above is of a painting by the remarkable Dutch artist Jan Duyvetter, who painted many of the Dutch folk costumes. This is of the Sunday Church-going costume of Stein. The Sunday costume consists of a red striped skirt, a silk "mirror" apron, a jacket of a lustrous material, or one woven with a distinct pattern, a 'kashmir' shawl with an ornamented border, a simple linen cap, and a kerchief which matches the shawl. A golden brooch with a cross hanging from it is also worn.

Kerchiefs are rare in Dutch costume, being found only in the Frisian costume of Hindeloopen, and in daily costumes of some other parts of the country.

Here are a couple of photographs of a reconstruction of this costume done in Pella, Iowa. They apparently could not find a kashmir shawl and kerchief, so used upholstery cloth with a paisley pattern. Here you have a better view of the jacket and skirt. You will see that in the first photo she is lighting a candle. The majority of the inhabitants of Stein are Roman Catholic, as are many people in Limburg and North Brabant in general, in contrast to the rest of the Netherlands.

I also found a few old photographs of this costume being worn in the 1940's, on the very valuable website https://geheugen.delpher.nl/nl

It is clear that Jan D. based his painting on this old photograph.

This website also has some images of actual garments in museums. Here is a skirt. We can see that the skirt was woven in stripes of red, black and yellow, and also has an ornamental tuck near the hem.

There are also images of jackets and blouses from this town. This first one looks heavy, and has a design woven into the fabric.

This one looks very simple, but is made of a lustrous fabric.

This one is made of black satin, is smocked at the shoulders, and has black lace around the neck.

Under the kerchief, a linen cap was worn on Sundays.

After Church, the kerchief is taken off, and the 'Sunday afternoon cap' is put on. The kashmir shawl is also replaced by a plainer and less expensive shawl.

These types of shawls were [and still are] originally made in Kashmir, where they were embroidered and worn by men. They were highly valued in India. Being hand embroidered made them very expensive. They became all the rage in Europe in the mid 1800s. Copies were soon being made in Paisley, Scotland, and also France. If you look at the photos above, you can see that her shawl and kerchief were very fine.

Here are a couple of photos of the same woman in 'Sunday afternoon dress', with a plainer shawl and a black cap with lace.

The everyday costume was made of less costly materials, but followed the same general lines.

When going out, she would dress up a bit, and would wear the kaper en omslagdoek.

This type of cap is also known from other parts of central and southern Limburg, as is the kashmir shawl.

And as in many other Germanic countries, mourning dress was distinctive, there usually being strict rules as to what was to be worn. Here we see the same woman showing us mourning dress. Heavy mourning included a large cloak when going out.