National Party Skirt

Skirts

Unity
The Amsterdam resistance heroine Mies Boissevain-van Lennep invented the Nationale Feestrok (National Party Skirt) shortly after the Second World War. She had come up with the idea after taking comfort in captivity from a patchwork tie, made from family members' clothes, smuggled in with the clean laundry. The handmade patchwork skirt is a symbol of the Reconstruction era. Women were called upon to register their own design with the National Institute. About 4000 liberation skirts were registered, but considerably more were made. On the waistband of this copy, made shortly after the Liberation, are the notes of the Wilhelmus, the Dutch national anthem.

Image: © Collection Fries Verzetsmuseum

 

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