My Zuid Beveland Dutch Costume

 As you can see, this post is about my Dutch costume! 

A Short Zuid Beveland History --The detail of the hat in olden days signified whether the person was of the Protestant or Catholic faith. My hat is hand-made exclusively by one woman, personally taught the technique which was handed down from an immigrant from Zeeland, in The Netherlands. Mine is the Protestant style.

Contrary to popular belief, the skirts of many original dutch costumes were not very wide and were only made so to accommodate the high kicks of the dancers. My skirt is fairly narrow and has only about 3 yards of fabric.

I burned my name on my shoes and also adorned the heel with small tulips, unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of the back...

Distinctive with its large, stiffly starched hat, this costume includes large gold square kissers worn at the temples. The “kissers” this time are large gold squares worn at the temples.The costume can either be black with a black apron and paisley print dickey and scarf, or a brighter costume with blue skirt and bodice, striped apron, checked dickey and orange plaid scarf. (Note about the “kissers” – stories about these ornaments attracting the boys to the girls – or keeping the away, which never works, of course – hence the name “kissers.” In reality, the Dutch wore these as jewelry, and if a family was of some means, they often wore bangles hanging down from the spirals.)

 Some people think my hat is just so crazy, but you'll see later that it's nothing compared to what some Dutch women wore!

Can anyone spell PREVIEW?

 Cassie will be doing a post about another of her costumes, the Urk. Also in the post will be our friend Sara who also owns an Urk costume!

Never attempt taking a 'group selfie' with square kissers on! It's nearly impossible!

Now I'm sharing a collection of vintage Zuid Beveland photos I've rounded up!

Ooh! I would dearly love to have this costume!

I wonder what this is all about! I don't think it would be possible to ride a motorcycle with the hat on!

These girls do not have the starched hat on because it was for special occasions like church... A small under-cap would be worn for everyday. Like the photo below!

 

[More pictures of the costume...]

You may be thinking,"Why does she need an umbrella?" But I doubt she wants to re-starch her hat if it got wet!!!

I can't tell you how much I love Tulip Time and dread it at the same time! Tulip Time for our family means lots of ironing, sewing, cleaning, driving, getting up tired, [going to bed tired!], and having fun!
 When it's all over, everyone we know well knows we're "recovering from Tulip Time"!
The Dutch Heritage Show we have talked about was something new for us this year and added  a lot  to our week's schedule!  We had a dress rehearsal on Monday night after setting up the dining room, then an hour show on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after a 7 hour day of washing trays and tables for thousands of tourists!
Phew! I'm making myself tired just thinking about it!
I'm glad it's all over!
{For this year anyway!}

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you've enjoyed this post and learned something useful and fun!

What's the busiest time of the year for your family?
Do you dread it and love it at the same time?

~Rebekah Elise Van Lueewen Rademacher Shashaguay~

*I'd like to apologize for the weird spaces between the photos, since I just copied them from different sources, some of them had strange spacing issues that caused it to have large gaps.