11. INSPIRATIONAL SOURCES FOR PATTERNS AND TECHNIQUES

11.01. MUSEUM REFERENCES

In the 19th century a lot of museums in Europe and elsewhere in the world began collecting and preserving whatsoever pieces of the Dutch regional costume containing Chintz patterns The curators derived their own analysis and observations in context with the preserved items. They concluded that the Indian colours, designs, techniques and the Dutch national costumes are characterized by their motifs, themes, and traditions and all these criteria have specific meanings. A very strong visual language is observed from which contemporary artists and designers often take inspiration and apply to create ‘contemporary heritage’ artwork and products to be sold in today’s modern world.

Some of the very valued and famous pieces of the Dutch traditional costumes are described as followed in the chapter

1. The Hindeloopen jacket worn by women was made from cotton fabric in the Coromandel coast of India. It was printed using mordant, a kind of colour fastening substance, and resist-dyed. After this process it was hand painted to correct any misprinted areas to achieve perfection in the desired print. Later the jacket was pieced from three different patterns of chintz, varying in colour or design and the bodice was lined and padded with cotton. The sleeves were lined with printed cotton, and was trimmed with a combination of silk velvet and Dutch weft-patterned tape (langetband) (fig.75).

2. On festive occasions, the Hindeloopen woman wore a short jacket, “het cash register”. The colour of the fabric would generally be red or green. But for the bridal dress, the fabric would be purely white for the main bodice and sleeves with red flower vines. This garment was then called, “milk and blood” (fig. 76 & 77).

3. Chintz capes like this were worn indoors and outdoors by women in Friesland, Netherlands in the winter in the 18th century. This one is pieced from the same material as the wentke (woman's gown) and was made from pieces of chintz left over. It is one of the most contemporary ways in which Indian Chintz was used by the Dutch to create a garment (fig.78).

4. The people in Staphorst and Rouveen parts of the Netherlands wore a so-called ‘broenbonte kraplap’, meaning the ‘night soil’. It is a piece of blouse made with European cotton print of chintz-like motifs (imitation) on a brown background. The design of this night ground has been widely used in the area and is usually referred to as ‘little flowers broenfurt’. It was often paired with a skirt and worn mostly by women (fig.79).

5. An Indian chintz with fringe motif from the second half of the 18th century was used to make this 20th century kraken. It was worn by women in the 1900s and is still worn in certain parts of the Netherlands. This fabric was probably painted on the Coromandel Coast. Fabrics with fringe motifs were used both for palempores (large wall hangings or covers) or for women’s skirts and clearly the deteriorated ones were used to make the today worn krakens. This piece of garment has a slit in the middle for the head and is wrapped over the shoulders (fig.80).

6. Hats made of printed cotton were called hooded hats and were worn in Bunschoten and Spakenburg parts of the Netherlands. They were meant for both boys and girls between baptism and the first birthday and initially were made of plain white cotton fabric (fig.81).

On Sundays a so-called dull cap was worn. When the girls grew up to become women, they got another hat called as a sun hat with elaborate patterns of Chintz (fig.82).

At the time of mourning, a black hooded hat was worn with resist dye printing in white for the delicate Chintz motifs to show as patterns (fig.83).

7. In mourning, a Chintz was used that had blue flowers on a white fabric. This was commonly identified as a Hindeloopen wentke, made of Indian chintz in different shades of blue depending on the stage of mourning’s. The wentke is lined with linen and the fronts and bottom of the sleeves are trimmed with blue-white long ribbon. The blue-white colour scheme was intended for light mourning (fig.84, 85 & 86).

8. The next stage of mourning had a wenkte of a bit darker shade of blue. The garment was worn in Hindeloopen, the Netherlands in mid-18th century. Cotton, resist-dyed and painted; gown, lined with linen, trimmed with Dutch weft-patterned tape (langetband) (fig.87).

9. The fashionable open gown, dating to around 1780, was worn over a petticoat of silk or matching Chintz fabric. After the Chintz fabric had been painted and dyed, the gold spot pattern was applied to an adhesive, probably gum arabic, and printed over the fabric. This type of design was very popular in the Dutch market in the 18th century. The fabric was sourced from the Coromandel Coast and the tailoring was done in the Netherlands (fig.88).

10. The initially imported Chintz from India were made with a coloured fabric background. Later most of the Dutch chintz also has a white ground, in the Netherlands, but some costumes were made from Chintz with a colored background. Mostly red, but also blue, green, purple, dark brown and even ‘spotted’ ground and the delicate design was hand painted (fig.89).

11. Chintz was used to make elaborate gowns with delicate motifs. The half-length sleeves were shaped at the elbow and lined with white cotton. There are eight pleats of fabric at the back of the interior. There are cotton ties at either side of the pointed back interior waistline to secure the garment. The Chintz design consists of a delicate floral meander of stylized pinks and carnations scattered with a single flower. The colour palette comprises of pink, blue, purple and green flowers and leaves on a white ground (fig.90).

12. The apron was an interesting part of the costume worn by people in the Netherlands. It was made of ‘oost-indisch bont’ in Dutch, which means ‘east-indian motley’. It is a cotton fabric originally from India, and just as Chintz, it was taken to the Netherlands by VOC. It was used mostly for aprons and kerchiefs, it was a part of the many traditional costumes in the Netherlands. (fig.91 & 92).

13. The Dutch 18th century costumes, especially worn by the middle class (/small town/countryside), were quite colorful. Several prints show combinations of Chintz with striped skirts, and Chintz patterned skirts and checkered or patterned aprons with Chintz sun hats. The petticoat and skirt were often inter-changeable in the depending on the fancy of the wearer (fig.93 & 94).

14. Some particular jackets worn by women in the Netherlands was of different design. They laced in the front instead of closing with hooks and eyes. These were worn as under-jackets or for very informal occasions. The red jacket was worn as a top jacket. The 18th century necklines were generally square, some were V-shaped. Additionally, they had a collar-like shape around the neckline (fig.95 & 96).