In a previous post we mentioned the liberation skirt, a garment that came to symbolize the end of World War II in The Netherlands.
Conceived by Dutch feminist Mies Boissevain-van Lennep (1896-1965), the skirt integrated colourful patches sewn onto an older skirt so that the original fabric disappeared. The hem had to feature plain triangles and prominently embroidered on the front the date "May 5, 1945". The women who made these skirts integrated in them fabrics taken from clothes that were important for them, including engagement dresses and wedding gowns or bits and pieces of their children's clothes. Important dates were embroidered on the patches, so that some of the skirts, featured intricate decorative motifs that engaged the sense of touch.
The skirts were therefore conceived as wearable records from the life of the wearer and became symbols of unity, collective mourning and women's emancipation. The garments also had a therapeutic and architectural value: women could process their own war experiences while making the designs and the skirts represented metaphors for the reconstruction and renewal of the Netherlands.
In March the Fries Verzetsmuseum (Frisian Resistance Museum) in Leeuwarden announced an exhibition of skirts for Liberation Day 2022, and sent journalist Lieke van den Krommenacker and photographer Marleen Annema travelling through Friesland to photograph the original wearers or their (grand)children with the skirts and record the liberation stories.
The exhibition is now ready and will be kicking off tomorrow (until June 12th). The event will include twelve Frisian liberation skirts collected through the public appeal the museum made.
The skirts go from relatively recent ones, made for the 50th and 75th anniversary of Liberation Day, to original designs that belonged to grandmothers and aunts.
The most fascinating aspect of the skirts is the origin of the various bits and pieces of fabrics integrated in these garments: some of the people who offered the skirts on display remember how their garments incorporate bits and pieces of chair covers, a potholder, crocheted patches made in school, kitchen curtains, old pillowcases and bed linen, and a piece of a tie as well.
Quite a few women embroidered the birth dates of their grandchildren on their garments and one skirt features a precise historical reference, an image of English cruiser HMS Orion, one of the protagonists of the battle of Normandy. Intricate details on another skirt - the dates of Queen Wilhelmina's reign and a crown of small golden beads above them - indicate the wearer was a royalist.
One skirt features an orange waistband with a message of hope "We zijn er nog niet, maar we komen er wel" (We're not there yet, but we'll get there) and another garment includes an embroidered date, June 10, 1940, marking the day the woman who made the skirt received a telegram from a border town saying that her husband - a prisoner of war - would soon be home.
The stories behind some of the skirts are very moving and reveal us that it is possible to mark important historical events and tell personal stories through clothes. The stories and skirts can be viewed online at this link.
Images credits for this post
All images © Marleen Annema. Courtesy: Fries Verzetsmuseum
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