Maria in a traditional Swedish folkdress, hand-stitched and sewn. Photo by Robbie Nordin, Robbiesphoto.com.
For some years now, I have observed that Swedes have several forms of folk dresses and a National Costume, that they use on special, festive ocassions such as Midsummer’s. Sverigedrakten lends a good history of the folk dress, where the dresses displayed the wearer’s province of origin, their distinct style of clothing, their culture and history. Folkdresses went out of fashion around the mid-1800s, where these days, they can fetch enormous prices at auction houses due to that the textile to the dress was usually hand-loomed and then the dress hand-sewn. An approximate cost to a folkdress today would be around 15,000 kr to 20,000 kr, which is about USD $2,500 – $3,000 or SGD $4,000 – $4,500.
Maria Gibson (pictured above) told of how she had inherited this heirloom from her great grandmother. The inspiration of the dress came from a painting that Maria’s great grandmother saw in a church, in Högbo socken, outside of Sandviken. The fabrics were woven and the dress hand-sewn, lending much skilled crafting to details in the fabric and outfit. The dress Maria has on is a summer version of an ‘everyday’ dress. A winter version has a darker apron and a shawl.
A half-shot of Maria and the summer folkdress. Photo by Robbie Nordin, Robbiesphoto.com.
The woven fabrics were generally very warm, even in winter. And a vast number of materials were used, including heavy cotton, linen, wool, silk, leather and fur. Beads, embroidery and silver brooches made adornments and accessories to these dresses.
I think these dresses are simply gorgeous!