men in traditional Volendam costume (no wooden shoes)
In a recent post I told about a trip to Volendam, to buy a fabric to make galgo coats.
Recently we visited Volendam again. Just to see what the tourist scene would look like around the end of august. Well, at this time of the year, it's still a lively scene, one can say.
I looked around to see if I could buy some fabric, and yes, there happens to be a shop on the Dike, close to Volendam Harbour, where they sell all varieties of laces and also had some bolts of fabrics.
I bought two meters of a blue checkered light cotton fabric, to manufacture a shirt out of (to be discussed in a future post).
And in the same shop, I also came along this one:
This is a black/white striped red cotton fabric, as in ancient times was incorporated in (male) traditional costumes in the Netherlands.
The red fabric was also used in women's dresses, like in the picture above: a young lady's traditional dress with a blouse in white striped red fabric, as worn on Marken.
The vendor in Volendam told me this black/white striped red cotton fabric was his last bolt. He would not have a new order of this one, becasue of insufficient demand. This did it, I just had to buy this stuff before it would be too late. And I thought it might be fine for a gilet or so.
(I know, I know, it will never be a gilet. I am fatally attracted to red fabrics, but red does'nt suit me, so whatever red stuff I buy, it's being stored and in all probablity will never be transformed into a garment).
The black/white striped red cotton fabric has been produced by the dutch firm van den Acker, located in Gemert, Brabant. This firm for more than 200 years has been run by the same family. They have been great in manufacturing fabrics for traditional costumes, as worn in a variety of (fishermen) communities in the Netherlands.
Demand for this kind of fabric, however, is declining, so nowadays the firm is specialising in designing and producing high quality fabrics to be used in the interior.
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