zaterdag 26 september 2015

Sunday Stamps: costumes

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Folk or national costumes'.

In our country there's no such as 'national costume': as far as I know traditional costumes always are local. I think that's the same with traditional costumes in many (most?) other countries.
While looking for suitable stamps for this post, I suddenly realized that there's one thing in common, all-over the world. At least in the countries of which I've seen traditional costumes on stamps: women wear skirts or dresses, and never wear trousers in their traditional costume. Men do, although there are some exceptions, I remember having seen stamps with men wearing kaftans.
As I think trousers more practical, I am wondering why there is lack of trousers in women's traditional costumes.

Nevertheless, traditional costumes look nice, good, and in several countries they are honoured by stamps.

First I'll show you a few Asian stamps:

From Indonesia:



From Malaysia:



From Japan, accompanied by a beautiful postmark (thank you, Hana!):



In European stamps I found this one, from Lithuania:



In the Netherlands traditional costumes depend on the place, city, region, also. Nowadays traditional costumes hardly are worn anymore. Only in a few places you can see some (mainly elder) women wearing it. Putting on the clothes needs a certain amount of patience, and I think that we, in these modern, hurrying days, don't have and take time for this.

Also the Dutch PostNL has honoured traditional costumes: in 2013 they issued a nice serie of five sheets showing traditional clothing stamps.

These are two of them, both from places in the center of our country:



The different locations of Dutch traditional costumes can be recognized by the cap or bonnet. Most well-known, world-wide, is the cap of the costume of Volendam, a fisherman's city in the north west of the Netherlands. Strange enough this famous head wear hasn't been shown in this stamp serie. Maybe in future?

There's an other costume I immediately recognize, not by the cap but by the striking shoulder part: the traditional costume of the city of Spakenburg. You can see this shoulder part on this stamp sheet, and also via this link.



The five stamps also have been united in a sixth stamp sheet:



Although the city of Marken is close to Volendam (in the north-west of the Netherlands), the caps differ a lot.
The other stamps are from places in the center of the Netherlands (Staphorst, Veluwe and Bunschoten-Spakenburg) and from the south-west (Walcheren).

My favourite province, in the east of the Netherlands, alas isn't represented in this stamp sheet serie. Fortunately the cap of this province, Drenthe, has been shown on a previous stamp, issued in 2010 on a stamp sheet on Suriname.

Here you can see two traditional headwears united: the so-called angisa from Suriname (bonnet which shows a message, according to the way it has been folded, and the cap from Drenthe in the Netherlands:



The complete stamp sheet has an other stamp showing traditional costume of Suriname (the koto) and the Netherlands (Spakenburg), and some interesting information about the headwear. You can find the complete stamp sheet via this link.

See more traditional costumes on - and via the links under - the Sunday Stamps blog.

5 opmerkingen:

  1. The matching postmark from Japan is a nice touch. The caps are beautiful creations, and a nice opportunity to wear a hat, not something that is common nowadays, apart from in the depth of winter for warmth.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  2. Really interesting selection. I wonder how some traditional outfits but not others become identified with a national or regional one.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  3. We made almost the same choice today! :D
    By the way, in Morocco traditional clothing for men implies no trousers at all! Some people still uses the "comfortable version" of traditional clothes every day (the uncomplicated djellaba). But it is used specially in marriage parties (both for the groom & bride, and the attendants). But I haven't seen any stamp about so far.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  4. Yes, you are quite right — I should have said 'regional' clothing, not national.
    I love the caps!

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen
  5. I would have recognised the Dutch costumes but not the others; I have never seen the Lituanian costume before. Good collection.

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen