Festival Skirt: A colourful reaction to the horrors of the Second World War from The Netherlands.
Feestrok celebrating the liberation of The Netherlands in May 1945 (TRC 2011.0001a).On the first day back after the Christmas and New Year break we received an anonymous donation of a very special garment. It is a feestrok ("festival skirt") or bevrijdingsrok ("liberation skirt") from 1948, which was made, together with many other comparable skirts, to celebrate the liberation of The Netherlands in May 1945.
The idea of the feestrok has its origins in 1943, when Mrs. Mies Boissevain-Van Lennep (1896-1965), a member of the Dutch resistance, was imprisoned by the German occupying forces. She was secretly sent a scarf (lappendasje) made up of small pieces of cloth taken from the clothing of family and friends.
Upon her safe return, and following the end of the war in 1945, Mies Boissevain-Van Lennep, together with a group of other women, decided to create a garment that represented: "Unity in diversity" (eenheid in veelheid); "New from old" (nieuw uit oud); "Reconstruction from destruction" (opbouw uit afbraak); "One garment makes unity" (één dracht maakt eendracht).
