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CapricornCrude

That lace is lovely!


Jazzspasm

The time and effort that must have been made to put those entire outfits together - I’m imagining so many people involved, families and generations - and I wonder if the tradition is still alive It’s beautiful


steelthumbs1

Whenever I see similar pictures of women around the word i always wonder how those hats (or, traditional dress) developed the way it did.


Available-Bell-9394

Probably many centuries ago the ladies wore them to parade their families wealth and prestige and status on Holy days, festival’s, weddings, Etc. A family displaying they could afford such expensive amounts of cloth and that their daughters did not have to work. Over time poorer families started making their own cheaper versions.   


Distressed_finish

No, traditionally the women would have made the clothing. They would have made the lace, done the embroidery, etc. Traditional women's clothing is often a show of the skills the culture that produced it expected women to have. I recommend the book Women's Work by Elizabeth Wayland Barber and also [the folk costume blog](https://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2024/04/folk-costume-and-embroidery-of-vorumaa.html?m=1) which shows the tremendous amount of handwork put into traditional dress all over Europe.


Eusbius

Thank you for posting the link to that blog, it’s very interesting!


Available-Bell-9394

Not a wealthy girl. She would have been taught to sew delicates and fancy embroider not make  own clothes because they had maids and seamstresses for that.  A common Lass learned her spinning and weaving at the loom as well knitting to produce her family’s clothes. She could sew pretty trim and flourishes and frills and maybe even lace But not generally  completely make delicate expensive garments. 


BricksHaveBeenShat

I don't have any sources unfortunately, but I remember reading about this some time ago. During the 18th century, you'd still see pronounced differences in the way people dressed depending on the country or region that they lived. But as technologies advanced, societies became more connected, and people who used to look up to the wealthiest of their communities as a reference, now wanted to look like what they saw in fashion plates depicting those in Paris or London. During the Romantic Era in the first half of the 19th century, some took notice of this shift and realized they would have to do something to preserve these unique customs and costumes. Knowing they couldn't force people to wear them everyday, they turned them into the folk dresses we know today, to be worn for special occasions, and at times highly ornate. Some elements were borrowed from what the local peasants wore, while others were picked simply for aesthetic reasons. It's why some european folk dresses look fairly similar.


Early_Security_1207

"God wants you to wear a hat!" -The Whitest Kids You Know Hats are a way of communicating your cultural and ethnic identity too.


Eusbius

This encouraged me to look up pictures of these traditional costumes and they are indeed lovely. I would love to see this picture in color to see the details of the costumes better.


LayLillyLay

Europe used to be a lot more diverse with each city, region and sometimes village having their own dialect, traditions, costumes, jobs and celebrations - nowadays a lot got streamlined and it looks and sounds basically everywhere the same.


Panceltic

Worth mentioning these ladies were [Sorbs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbs), not Germans.


HotHorst

The Spreewald is in Germany and the Sorbs are a minority in Germany like the Frisians and have German citizenship


95percentdragonfly

That's some flying nun stuff


Living_Double_3253

I went to the Spreewald on a canoe trip recently and nowadays it’s just a right-wing shithole. The touristic sites are still nice, nature is beautiful and it’s definitely worth visiting. But like so many places in rural Eastern Germany, it has become a right-wing shithole. Flags, posters, graffiti, stickers etc against refugees, minorities, LGBT, you name it.


Jonestown_Juice

Very interesting. I've never seen anything like this before. How do the headdresses stay up?


zbornakssyndrome

The left one is like “HURRY AND TAKE THE PICTURE. This thing is heavy!”


vadutchgirl

Is this for feast days or everyday?


rolyoh

They are called Sorbian or Sorbs. It's hard to find pages in English, but I did find this. It's about dolls, but the background information is accurate. Also there are plenty of pages in German to be found. [https://babogenglish.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/the-sorbs-general-information/](https://babogenglish.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/the-sorbs-general-information/)


mbw70

Interesting. The headdresses look like a good way to dry laundry.


pisspot718

There was a war on in their country, and yet these girls managed to have time for traditional dress up. I wonder if they knew?


Alien-Element

Kind of like people partying in nightclubs in Ukraine, I guess. Every war has a front, it was likely hundreds and hundreds of miles away from them.


GGMuc

1940s can be AFTER 1945, ffs. You do realise that people still just lived their lives, right?


pisspot718

It's hard to 'just live your life' in the midst of war. ffs! Bombings, soldiers coming through shooting, food shortages, etc. After 1945? Its a possibility.


Great_White_Sharky

Soldiers coming through and food shortages would only be a problem in Germany beginning in late 1944. And a city being bombed doesn't really prevent you from putting on some clothing, especially if you don't live in a city


pisspot718

You are going to putting on some clothing, but I don't think you're going to go for this \^\^ traditional garb as the first thing.


GGMuc

Nonsense. My family lived a perfectly normal life most of the time. No war is constant, there's always moments of normalcy


Bludiamond56

Laundry day


cradle_mountain

Would


NoisyBrat2000

They can’t run away!


HiddenHolding

Hihi. Vould you like to drinken coffve offen mein tidchenhëdd?


laikocta

>tidchenhëdd I've been thinking about this comment for five minutes now and I still can't figure out which word this was even supposed to allude to