ÅMLIBUNAD
DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT MADE THIS OUTFIT! But I'm working on the jacket (see underneath).
WHAT IS A "BUNAD"?
In good ol' days "bunad" was a custom work used to describe a part of an outfit - the gown (kledebunad - clothing dress, or "hodebunad" - the head dress). But in the last 100 years, it has become the common expression for a festive attire based on what Norwegians wore at weddings and at church in the 18.th and 19.th century. Each county have their distinguished marks, although most bunads are "built" in the same way: a white linen or cotton shirt underneath (mostly beautifully embroidered with white or black thread), and a two parted gown overneath. Many gowns have black or blue skirt, while the bodice often is of a rich and colourful material like silk brocade, or embroideried wool trimmed with ribbons. Many have lacing, some have hooks. Most bunads have a decorated belt, and there are various accessories: aprons, headscarfs, knitted socks, beautiful silver brooches (søljer), reticules, hoods, bridal accessories etc.
THE ÅMLI BUNAD
The work on this bunad started in the 1940s, but the costume did not take shape until after the World War II. Many old outfits, or part of outfits, started appearing, and the work of categorizing and preserve them were started. The parish of Åmli used to include a number of rural settlements, namely Åmli, Tovdal, Gjøvdal and Mykland. As this costume is based on traditional folk dress material from these places, it is called the Åmli bunad. There is also a 19th-century depiction of local dress for this as for many other regions of Norway, which provides an insight into the dress customs of the period. The various elements of the bunad are copies of original garments that were worn in this district from late 1700 to mid 1800. There were wide ranges of fabrics in the bodice (uppluten), as well as the apron and the headscarf, and they've tried to keep that in todays bunads. The dress is also called Aust Agder-bunad.
The bodice on this bunad is today most often red (either bright red, or burgundy), but one is also able to use green, yellow, golden and black (brocade for the latter one). It is decorated with silver ribbons in the back, while the front is closed with a silver chain. The silver chain is attached in some beautiful silver rings (eyelets) decorated with "leaf" (lauv). The bodice is inspired by the Empire fashion, and should therefore be low in the neck opening, and the skirt should be attached very high in the waist (around one handbreadth over where the waist is at it's slimmest). The bodice is made in many different kinds of silk damask and brocade, or wool. The border is trimmed with a solid woven ribbon.
I suspected the everyday bodices weren't closed with this silver chain, and that the bodice was broader over the shoulders. My theory is that it was basically bodices meant from brides who had the silver lacing in front. I came to this conclution after browsing through numerous of photos of old bodices and outfits. The ones with lacing in front, were bridal equippment, while the plainer ones were without lacing. Laceless versions also gives much more room for the big silver brooches which are pinned on the shirt. There's supposed to be a medium size right below the collar, and a big one underneath. Problem is that you have to have them really, really close in order to have room for them both. But as seen in picture number 6, even a short bodice allows the brooches when the bodice is laceless.
After talking to an experienced seamstress in my hometown she more or less prooved me right. She said that most bodices didn't have lacing, and that the bodices the Åmli-bunad is based on is probably bridal bodices. But the one they've mostly stuck to is the one who is easiest to adapt and fit to today's women, so they've kept all details as closely as possible.
Let me point out a little about the pictures underneath:
Number 1: Jacket and belt as we use it today, but a black apron.
Number 2: As the previous one, the jacket and silver is the same, but headscarf and apron is black.
Number 3: White, embroidered headscarf like it's used today.
Number 4: Isn't that ermine edge just too funky? I've never seen ANYTHING like it in a folk costume, and I'm sure everybody would faint or lynch me if I made anything similar... :D
Number 5: A Flintoe sketch, from the 19.th century. The headdress is used today too, in a bunad called "Iveland" (from Aust Agder as well - Åmli and Iveland are pretty similar). This isn't too unlike the outfit in picture number six, except she is wearing a printed apron (another thing which is also used today, but it's not as popular as the embroidered version).
Number 6: From 1935. A woman had inherited some old outfit parts, and wore it to display how her mother (or was it grandmother?) had wore it. Again, no lacing, but it might be because the silver eyelets had been removed.
Number 7: Another Flintoe drawing. It is unfinished, but you can clearly read what colours were intended. An interesting view of both the front and the back, and it's also nice to see documentation of the green colour being used in the bodice.
Further on... The skirt is made of black homespun wool type with green and red edging. It is made in three-shaft material using wool from the Norwegian spælsau sheep. It is pleated in the waist, and in one of the pleatings, there are hidden an invicible nice, big pocket - very practical, as this bunad has no reticule.
The bunad shirt is in white linen or cotton. Various white-work techniques are used to embroider the collar, the wristbands and the shoulders. Some shirts are very short, while others are normal lenghted - it's a matter of taste. The cuffs (and neck) are closed using decorated silver cuff links. The sleeves should be rather full.
The headscarf and apron are white handwowen linen with a red or white fringe - or no fringe at all. There are around 10 designs for both the headscarf and the apron. It's important to mention, though, that all of them have the same composition, but as all were made without any pattern in the old days, there are many variations. Some doesn't even look the same, unless you study them! The thread used to embroider the linen, is always plant dyed wool thread.
There belongs a jacket to this bunad, and it is not too unlike a "spencer". It is made out of homespun black (or sometimes even midnight blue, but that's very rare) wool, and it's short (ends where the belt starts). The back of the jacket is slightly longer, and pleated. The collar and front is trimmed with green and red fabrics, and embroidered with yellow and red wool thread. There are four or five blind eyeholes, and five or six silver buttons on each side. There are also two or three silver buttons on each sleeve. The jacket is closed by one or two brooches with hooks.
THE SILVER
Extraordinary beautiful silver is a part of most bunads. My home county (Aust-Agder), along with the neighbour county (Telemark), is known for stunning silver work, reflected in the bunad silver. Some of it has traditions dated back to the Vikings (like the silver ring brooch worn on the chest and the "bolesølje"), while other are newer.
One may also use a silver rose brooch. Married women are allowed to use a silver belt, while unmarried maidens prefereably uses a woven belt. Both belts are helt together by brooches with hooks. Folk costume silver, used sparingly or profusely, was an essential part of the attire and could be anything from the single brooch pin used for fastening the shirt in everyday wear, to rows and rows of dazzling filigree brooches; and anything from the button on a shirt collar to one or two dozen bright buttons on a waistcoat and/or jacket. The silver was a not only a way of telling how wealthy the family were - the farmers preferred silver jewellery and silver objects to money, so you could almost call the silver their "bank".
One is supposed to use knitted kneehigh stockings to the bunad. The stockings, which are black or red and reach to the knee, are held up by garters, similar to the maiden belt. Let me tell you right away that they are itchy and awful to wear... But very historical correct! :D One may also use an underskirt, most of them made by a striped wool material.
A JACKET FOR THE ÅMLI BUNAD
LATEST Not too much left now. I've made the false button holes and attached the buttons. I need to work intensively on the cuffs, and eventually line the jacket - and then it's finished!!! That said, I see a few things I should have done differently. Maybe I'll fix it later on.
HISTORY
This folk costume jacket is a classical Spencer jacket with a local twist. A noticeable feature in Regency fashion is the military inspiration in jackets and bodices, with elaborate cuffs, Hussar + Brandenburg pipings, closings and decorations, and also epaulettes and shoulder decorations echoing the male military uniforms. The Spencer jacket itself was originally a male garb, worn by Earl Spencer, and it was fashionable in continental Europe from ca. 1790 to 1820 (a bit later in rural districts). It was a practical and warm addition to the thin chemises and dresses, and became immensely popular. It soon spread to rural districts like my home county, and it was adapted into the folk costume.
The fabric of my jacket is a thick homespun wool trimmed with red and green wool, as well as some yellow embroidery and silver buttons. It is closed using one or two (mostly two) silver hooks. The lenght is supposed to be short, but still cover the belt (which is more or less the width of a hand over the waistline). My bodice is a tad too long, so alas! the jacket looks too short. But it's actually the jacket that has the right lenght. The jacket is lined with a black cotton twill, and though there are mock closing with those silver buttons, the actual closure consists of one or two big silver clasps with very ornamented filigran patters or an engraved pattern.
More to come....
WHAT'S LEFT:
TRIMMING:
*The sleeve trimming is attached AFTER 3 cm "hem" is sewn by hand with X seam
*Make real button holes for the sleeve
*Embroidery at cuffs
LINING:
*Start lining the jacket in the back by the neck, and work your way to the front (neck lining).
*Continue around the button holes and down
*Attach the lining around the sleeve opening, and down to the cuff
*Finish up with the buttons on the cuff
REFERENCES:
Setesdalsbunad
Original Setesdals outfits
Husfliden - makers of bunads
Fossnes, Heidi (1993) "Håndplagg til norske bunader og folkedrakter", Damm, Oslo
Fossnes, Heidi (1993) "Norske bunader og samiske folkedrakter", J.W. Cappelens Forlag, Oslo
Nistov, Eli ++ (1998) "Norske bunader", Husfliden
Pedersen, Kari-Anne (????) "Bunad og folkedrakt - Beltestakken før og nå", Teknologisk forlag
Rusten, Ragnhild Bleken (????) "Folkedrakt og bymote
i Gudbrandsdalen 1650-1940", ?
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