How We Dressed
“How We Dressed” from When I Was a Girl in Holland by Cornelia De Groot, 1917.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“How We Dressed” from When I Was a Girl in Holland by Cornelia De Groot, 1917.
I suppose you think that all Dutch girls look like those with the long skirts and the winged caps that artists like to draw for books and post-cards. The fact is that while some have this picturesque attire, the great majority are dressed quite differently and very variedly.
As for myself and playmates, our many pieces of loose and heavy under-clothing made us appear very round and fat and clumsy. We wore a flannel shirt without any shape, next a loose chemise of muslin, then a knitted "borst-rok" or breast-skirt of worsted or cotton yarn according to the season; on top of this a "lyfje" or underwaist, next something resembling a corset-cover made of either woolen or cotton material. Each and every one of these garments was thick and heavy.
Our dresses were made of durable woolen goods, usually dark-colored. Sometimes, in warm weather, I wore a calico dress. White dresses were out of the question. And how I did long for one! The nearest I ever came to having my wish fulfilled was the present of a yellow old dress that had first been owned by one of my sisters and that now I was allowed to appear in while playing around the house and helping with the hay harvest.
On Sundays I wore a big, white apron; on week-days one that was striped, checkered, or flowered. We had long sleeves—in our dresses, I mean—or, in case of short sleeves, wore long knitted bands that reached from above the elbow to the wrist. Our parents were always afraid that we might catch cold.
We seldom received more than one dress a year. Clothes were made so that they could be lengthened and widened; they had to last a long time and were frequently patched. I usually had one dress for best, which I wore only a few times during the first year, when its status was lowered to that of Sunday dress. Next came the school dress and the meanest and oldest of all was the play and work dress. Sometimes I had school and play dresses made out of those outgrown by my sisters.
On my feet I always wore woolen stockings and over these black or dark blue socks of a heavier worsted. The socks served two purposes. They not only kept the feet warm, but prevented them from becoming sore from rubbing against the hard wooden shoes or klompen, and they also made these klompen fit snugly around the feet. Before entering the house, the school or the stores, we always took our klompen off and walked in our heavy socks. On the stone and brick floors of the dairy, milk-cellar, and cow-barns—in the latter only in the summer time — we all wore leather slippers resembling in shape those worn by the Japanese. Sometimes we put on clean old klompen that were for indoor use only. When going to church, to town, and during the summer if it did not rain we always wore leather shoes, high or low.
My blond hair did not dangle in two braids on my back, as the hair of Dutch girls is supposed to do. I boasted only one braid with a ribbon at the end. A pretty comb prevented stray locks from falling on my forehead. Or my hair just hung loose with a lock near each ear taken up and fastened together with a ribbon on the top of the head. I have seen American girls wear their hair in similar fashion. One day my oldest sister cut bangs for me.
Now I shall tell you how the women of our province dressed. My mother wore a helmet made of the purest, softest gold, and beneath it a white muslin cap with pretty, tightly crocheted border for the back of the neck, and over this—except over the border—one of black silk. When visiting, going to church or to town, mother covered this helmet with a beautiful cap of old lace that had a border of rounded folds standing straight from the neck at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
On top of all these caps she tied an ugly, modern bonnet. How would you like such an elaborate head-gear? But this was not all. Near the ears, and beside the silver and diamond stick-pins, mother had attached to the gold cap ornaments resembling miniature shields or large buttons. Some of the farmers' wives also had fastened on their foreheads silver plates studded with diamonds. Contrary to popular belief, these ornaments, caps and all, were not heirlooms. The wives of the carpenters, bakers, coopers, and other tradesmen, and of small shopkeepers had gold caps, which in most cases, but not necessarily, were much smaller and resembled two shields fastened together by a chain. They wore no plates with diamonds. The caps of the wives of the day-laborers were made of silver and their clothes were very simple and of coarse, cheap material.
The helmet is called "ooryzer" by the Dutch; this means ear-iron. It took many generations for this ear-iron to reach its present stage. Its very beginning is to be seen in the museum at Leeuwarden, the capital of our province. It was a narrow strip of iron that, centuries ago, in fact, more than a thousand years, was worn by the Frisian women around their heads, by way of a bandeau, from ear to ear; hence its name. As time went by, the band was broadened and the iron replaced by silver and finally by gold for those who could afford the latter.
At last, there evolved the full-fledged helmet, and just when it had reached perfection, its doom was sounded. It began to disappear. Only elderly women still wear the pretty head-dress of Friesland nowadays. Another generation, and there will be none left. The helmet does not add to one's comfort. It prevents ventilation to a great extent, and my mother often had to take it off because of severe headaches.
At the age of twelve, my mother received her first ear-iron. It was of silver. When she reached her sixteenth year, her parents bought her the golden helmet that to-day, at the age of sixty-eight, she is still wearing. However, in the morning, when my mother did her work, she did not wear the helmet, but a white, crocheted cap only; it was simple, pretty and neat.
Once, when Queen Wilhelmina, at the age of twelve, visited Friesland for the first time as queen, the women of our province presented her with the old-Frisian costume, not only the helmet and accessories, but also the old-fashioned dress with its pretty fichu, that was worn many, many years ago and now is seen only in historical plays and pageants. The Queen actually wore the whole costume and was photographed in it, to the great delight of the people.
De Groot, Cornelia. When I Was a Girl in Holland. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.
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