On my last trip to Iceland, I was lucky enough to be taken in by locals for a day and get an inside look at traditional Icelandic clothing. By the end of the day, I even got to slip into one of those traditional costumes myself. (Including a gorgeous hand-made 20th century belt made of silver!!)
This all happened as part of an event that I attended called, “Out of the closet – use the national costumes!” The event was run by the lovely, kind and talented Margrét (pictured below). She runs the Icelandic Handicrafts Association and School, and even teaches a course about how to make traditional Iceland clothing.
What blew me away more than the costumes though, was how kind and welcoming everyone at the event was. I came as an outsider/journalist of sorts, who didn’t speak the language and knew little to nothing about national costumes at the start of the event.
Despite all of that, the event attendees let me be a fly on the wall as they tried on beautiful handmade costumes. They told me more about the history of traditional Icelandic clothing and how they plan to bring this clothing into a new era rooted in national cultural heritage.
And at the end of the event, when I was far from my hostel and nowhere near a bus stop to take me back to downtown Reykjavík, one of the attendees even drove me back to town!
I cannot thank Margrét and the other attendees enough for being so gracious with their time.
But Now, Let’s Get To Talking About the Traditional icelandic Clothing!
Currently, national costumes are often only worn on special occasions like on Christmas or at Christenings. Since they aren’t used much in daily life today, many Icelanders who own costumes come to Margrét looking for advice.
What should they do with the old costumes?
Many come to her hoping to sell, but there isn’t much of a market for the costumes. Instead, Margrét encourages them to find someone in the family who will wear them in everyday life.
With this goal in mind, she hosted the event as part of a larger project called “Out of the closet – use the national costumes!” This allowed the public to come to her, as well as other on-site specialists, to have their costumes/costume-related items inspected and fitted for younger generations.
And the event was a huge success!
There was a big turnout (larger than expected) with older and younger generations alike. I got to see the costumes being fitted on young Icelanders as their family members watched with joy and pride.
Here are a few of examples of traditional Icelandic costumes that were on display at the event:
Let’s talk a little more about each of these traditional costumes themselves. Maybe you’re wondering when they were worn or for what kinds of occasions or how far they date back.
So let’s dive back to the beginning and cover a few of the most popular costumes along the way.
Faldbúningur:
The first and my favorite, is called faldbúningur, with its name coming from the wonderfully unique and ostentatious headdress called “faldur.” Here’s what it and the rest of the costume looked like:
That crazy (and seriously awesome) headdress is actually slightly different than the one that was worn in the 18th century. This faldur headdress is called “skautfaldur” and is part of the skautbúningur costume that I’ll cover later on. But it is pretty similar and is the same style of headdress.
The faldur was made with white linen cloths that are wound around the head and pinned down, with a scarf of a contrasting color at the bottom. It was worn out and about, to the theater, for example, by women who—you guessed it—wanted to be seen. For everyday life, women instead wore a tasseled cap like the black and red one above.
There are more pictures of all of these costumes on the Icelandic National Costume Board website. Here’s where you can find it if you want to see what the original faldur looked like.
Anyway, the entire faldbúningur costume consists of 10 different items: a skirt, apron, shirt, bodice, jacket, decorative belt, headdress consisting of a headscarf and faldur, neckerchief and handkerchief. I can’t imagine how long it must’ve taken to get dressed every day!
The faldbúningur was generally worn in both the 18th and the 19th century. By the middle of the 19th century, no one really wore it anymore though. Instead, women starting wearing peysuföt and upphultur costumes (we’ll cover these next), or even imported clothing.
Peysuföt:
Remember the costume that Margrét was wearing? That one is called peysuföt, which became an independent costume toward the end of the 18th century. It evolved throughout the 19th and 20th century, but contained a few of the same basic components: jacket or peysa with a keyhole opening above the chest, apron, cap and scarf.
In the 20th century, the peysuföt costume changed quite a bit in style, since more materials had become available. That meant that the fabrics used were pretty different than before. What did remain the same, however, were the trademark keyhole opening above the chest, as well as the scarf around the neck. The scarf used seemed to be a lot larger though and was tied into a big decorative bow.
Here’s Margrét wearing a peysuföt costume:
Upphultur:
The upphultur actually began as just a bodice and wasn’t a full costume on its own. It was generally used in combination with other costumes and was originally part of the faldbúningur costume.
It’s laced up in front, almost like a corset, but instead with silver chains threaded through decorative eyelets. An upphultur bodice is actually what I got to wear when trying on a costume! Here’s how it looked:
This bodice is probably from the 20th century, since it has a lower neckline than the upphultur did in the 19th century. It was also decorated differently in each century.
In the 19th century, embroidery was generally done in silk (though sometimes with metal thread). The one I tried on, however, was decorated with metal thread and large silver flowers, as was done on 20th century upphultur bodices.
Also, belts were never worn with the 19th century upphultur, but once it become a full-fledged costume of its own in the 20th century, a belt was always worn with it. The reason it became an independent costume is super interesting:
In 1907, the Danish king made a visit to the state and because of it, this became the costume that women waiting on dignitaries would wear. By the 1920’s, the general public began wearing the upphultur as an independent costume as well.
That covers the three main kinds of traditional Icelandic clothing that women wore.
Now I’ll cover a little bit about men’s costumes, as well as two other costumes for women that have an interesting origin.
First, here’s a general overview of what men wore:
Less is known about what Icelandic men used to wear. However, enough information has been pieced together over the years to provide us with a good overview.
Here’s what traditional Icelandic clothing was like for men. They would wear:
- an undershirt tucked into short trousers aka breechers, as well as suspenders to held them up
- waistcoats or vests
- a collarless jacket with a double-breasted front and buttons made of silver, pewter, tin or bone
- a neckerchief
- a striped knitted woolen cap with a tassel shorter than the one on women’s caps
- long knitted woolen socks held up by garters at the knee
- homemade shoes made from sheep leather or fish skin
I imagine it also must’ve taken men a minute or two to get dressed in the morning!
Skautbúningur and kyrtill:
Like I mentioned before, there are two more costumes for women that I want to touch on. Their names are skautbúningur and kyrtill. What makes them especially interesting is that famous Icelandic painter Sigurður Guðmundsson málari designed them.
At first, I thought it was odd that a painter would design clothing. However, it turns out that the painter did it for a greater purpose than simply for the fun of designing.
As a way of both reviving the traditional faldbúningur costume and increasing national pride, he created the skautbúningur costume between 1857 and 1860. It was also made as a sign of Iceland’s independence from Denmark. (This was at the time when Iceland was part of the kingdom of Denmark. And at this point, they weren’t far from achieving home rule).
So, there was a lot of cultural and national significance to the skautbúningur.
Since the skautbúningur costume was created by working off of a faldbúningur model, the two costumes were similar in many ways. There were, of course, a few differences though.
Here’s an example of a skautbúningur costume:
The tall headdress called skautfaldur is the one you saw in the photo above. It included a gilded silver band that looks a little bit like a crown AND it was decked out with a long white veil. It also included ornamentation like a brooch and beautiful hand-crafted linked belts made of molded silver panels or decorative filigree panels called stokkabelti.
All of this silverwork was done by hand. Depending on how elaborate a belt was, it could have taken weeks to make just one. Here’s a close-up of the belt that I got to try on.
Can you imagine taking the time to make anything like this by hand? Comment below and let me know if you think you could make it!
The second costume I mentioned earlier that the painter designed is called the kyrtill costume. Sigurður designed it in 1870. The kyrtill is made of lighter fabrics and was meant to be worn on special occasions, like as a confirmation dress or even a wedding dress. It could also be worn as a ballroom costume.
The kyrtill also included the same bold headdress as the skautbúningur. In terms of the look of the actual costume, it is also similar to the skautbúningur. However, it was originally designed to be white and thereafter was also made in other colors like blue, green and black.
Traditional Icelandic Clothing in Modern Times:
Nowadays, organizations like the Icelandic Handicrafts Association are trying to revive the use of Icelandic costumes, as well as preserve and promote Icelandic folk art and handicrafts in general. They don’t want their national cultural heritage to be forgotten.
In order to keep that from happening, the Icelandic Handicrafts Association School (run by the wonderful Margrét) teaches classes in everything from national costume making to embroidery, carving, weaving and even plant dyeing and more.
At the same location, which is also where the event that I attended was held, there is a shop where you can buy all of the necessary materials to make Icelandic costumes, in addition to weaving supplies and Icelandic embroidery patterns. Here is what it all looks like behind-the-scenes:
Coming from someone who knows the struggle involved in finding the right notions and materials for my projects, I know how valuable it is that everything a person needs to make Icelandic costumes can be found right there at the school. Sometimes, finding the right materials is honestly half the battle!
Once someone has made a costume or had an older one fitted, the idea is to find someone in the family who will wear it. The costumes are made to last for at least 40 to 50 years.
All in all, my visit with Margrét and other locals was super interesting and fun, and it was really cool to these national costumes in person. So if you’re in or going to Reykjavík any time soon, be sure to check out the school and shop to see these works of art up close. Margrét also speaks perfect English and would surely be happy to tell you more about the incredible preservation and promotion work she’s been doing.
Here’s where you can find the shop:
Heimilisiðnaðarfélag Íslands
Nethylur 2e
110 Reykjavík
ICELAND
Tel. +354 551 5500
Here is their main website:
http://www.heimilisidnadur.is/
And here is a website with more information about traditional Icelandic clothing and photos of the costumes. This one has a lot of information in English:
Once again, I’d like to thank everyone at the event for taking me in for the day—it meant the world to me and almost made me feel like an Icelander too! It is certainly a visit that I’ll never forget.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or if I left anything out. I’d also love to hear what you think of these unique costumes. I mean, seriously, would you be bold enough to wear a headdress like that?? Let me know!
If you’re also a designer/aspiring designer/DIY-er and you’re feeling inspired by these costumes and amazing designs, head over to my Designs & Tutorials. There you’ll find step-by-step instructions to make whatever you want–no pattern needed!
Take care and see you next time.
Love, Emily