For her PhD research, Maaike Feitsma looks at what exactly is Dutch in Dutch fashion over the past fifty years. This appears to change over time.
In the fifties we copied the Parisian fashion in the Netherlands and the idea of a completely unique Dutch fashion did not yet exist. This started to change during the eighties, but certainly from the nineties, Dutch designers started to count internationally with 'Dutch Modernism', such as Viktor &Rolf. Today we claim to have grown into a country of experts. As for jeans then.
What is 'Dutch modernism' and why is it important for fashion?
“Dutch Modernism is a style within fashion that harks back to the functional, modernist Dutch design and art of the twentieth century, of which De Stijl is probably the best-known example. Characteristics that the designers adopted were sobriety, primary colours, clean lines and functionality. By using these famous Dutch elements, the designers gave themselves a tradition. They needed them to present themselves internationally. Because this style enjoyed (inter)national fame and was regarded as 'typically Dutch', the fashion designs were naturally also seen as Dutch.”
“Dutch Modernism marked a breakthrough in the 1990s. For the first time, the international fashion press saw fashion designed by the Dutch as the fashion trend of the time, the next-best-thing. Since then, designers are no longer followers of trends, but are praised for their fresh, innovative look. Fashion press and connoisseurs see these designs as typically Dutch, but the layman, especially from abroad, does not see the typical Dutchness of this fashion.”
“Sober, sleek and functional is seen in the rest of the world as typically Northern European. It is comparable to the Scandinavian fashion label, which we attach to fashion from Denmark, Sweden and Norway. They do not agree with that in those countries:they do see a difference between their fashion designs.”
How do you explain these different interpretations of fashion identity?
“People have different images and ideas about what a particular national fashion looks like. This is because national identity is a changing concept, a selection of different things, of customs, traditions and stories over time, from which we get something different to use every time.”
“Take the example of former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who praised the Dutch VOC mentality. He saw the additional commercial spirit and perseverance as typical Dutch qualities. Politician Femke Halsema, on the other hand, referred to the slave trade by the same VOC. She did not like the VOC mentality as a national label. What we see as our national identity is therefore not the same for everyone and also changeable over time.”
“I therefore call the different ideas about what the 'Dutch' of Dutch fashion means, fashion myths. And by myth I don't mean fairy tale or falsehood. Myths make conventions specific to certain groups appear to apply to society as a whole. When we look specifically at national identities, not all Germans are blunt, Scots frugal, Spaniards proud and Dutch sober, but myths make it appear that way.”
What is the myth of Dutch fashion?
“There is no unequivocal answer to this because different styles arise side by side. In the fifties and sixties we looked at French fashion. Popular magazines like the Margriet and the Elegance showed the Dutch woman what Paris made and wrote what would be wrong with it. Here is the fashion myth that the Dutch woman would like functional and less lavish clothing because she would be less frivolous than her French contemporaries. But the magazines did not show what that typical Dutch clothing should look like.”
“From the eighties and nineties, thinking about Dutch fashion changed with the arrival of the minimalist and abstract style just mentioned, with sobriety in lines and colours. But at the same time, brands with a mixed color palette, such as Oilily, were very popular. This latter development does not fit with the abstract fashion and the myth of the sober and functional Dutch identity. The Oilily designers, on the other hand, claim to be inspired by the colorfulness of Dutch traditional costumes, which makes their brand typically Dutch.”
“Oilily was not the only one who had looked at Dutch traditional costumes. For example, a Russian journalist who interviewed Viktor &Rolf was convinced that the designers had been inspired by Russian regional costumes. The men could not convince her otherwise, although they had never been to the area in question. The typically Dutch in their design was typically Russian for the Russians.”
“The fact that we don't see that colorfulness as a feature of the Dutch identity is because traditional costumes are no longer part of our contemporary identity. The ideology behind fashion design is partly responsible for how people see themselves. Prints from around 1800, for example, show the 'real' Dutch style in the traditional costume. According to the makers of the prints, the Batavians, the alleged Dutch primitive people, loved bright colours. As a result, colorful costumes would be typically Batavian and therefore Dutch. This ideology has long since been forgotten and is therefore no longer considered part of the Dutch identity.”
“At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is a shift from the ideology behind clothing that made it typically Dutch, to external features. Designers used typical Dutch features such as the millstone collar, peasant smocks, Volendam caps, Delft Blue and clogs. It could be a coincidence, I haven't researched this, but history was hot again during this period. This was expressed, among other things, in the creation of our national history canon.
And what does jeans have to do with the Dutch fashion identity?
“The Netherlands has presented itself as an expert in this field in recent years because a lot of jeans are designed in the Netherlands and because many jeans wearers live in the Netherlands in percentage terms. Here we return to the fashion myth of functionality and sobriety. The idea of 'the Netherlands-jeans country' was initially limited to the trade magazines, then the Centraal Museum had an exhibition about Dutch jeans last year and the broad media has since taken over. As often in history, ideas are automatically experienced as 'true' if they are repeated often enough in the media. The general public will follow later.”
Are we really the jeans nation at the moment?
“I have not investigated whether it is true or not that the Netherlands plays a major international role in denim. It is about the self-image of the Dutch, how they see themselves. Not because of what they really are:expert in the field of jeans, sober and minimalist in their choice of clothing or just colorful.”
The Netherlands the new Paris then?
“No, Dutch fashion may be in the spotlight, just like Dutch Design for architecture, graphic design and product design, this does not mean that it is as well known worldwide as Armani or the chic Dior. As a fashion country, the Netherlands is still too young for that.”
Does your research fall under art history, cultural heritage or something else? Can you put a label on it at all or is this a new field of research?
“When I started my research in 2008, I approached and described the subject very much in an art-historical way:looking at who, what, where, why, when and how. But once done, it was much more about identity and relationship with fashion. Internationally, my research falls under Fashion Studies .”
“In the Netherlands we are not quite there yet, but internationally a lot of research is now being done into the link between national identity and fashion. The meaning and context are central here and not the fashion itself. Fashion Studies looks from different disciplines at the intersection where everything comes together.”
What was a striking discovery for you during your research?
“It was very enlightening to see that the Dutch fashion identity has many different faces and is also used purposefully by different groups. Despite the fact that the Dutch have a non-fashion-conscious image, there is indeed a relationship between our fashion and our identity. In the Netherlands, it appears to be mainly about the story, the ideology behind the fashion designs and not so much about the aesthetic and the visual.”
Maaike Feitsma studied art history and followed the master Fashion, Design and Strategy. She is now a teacher and researcher at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts.
Her PhD research at Radboud University falls under the research project Dutch Fashion Identity in a Globalized World of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and is almost completed. This project comprises a total of four PhD studies, which focus on the cultural-historical history of Dutch fashion from various disciplines.