Hedebo Region
The Hedebo Region ("Hedebo") is a special one for Danish folk costume lovers. Like Amager Island, Hedebo was a wealthy area due to its highly fertile heathland. Women often did not have to participate in field work, and instead had the time and money to make clothes. Thus, Hedebo women were unusually skilled in embroidery. As a consequence, Hedebo folk costumes were some of the finest in Denmark.
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Today, Hedebo is rightly famous for Hedebo embroidery as well as the headgear embroidered with metal fibers. The Greve Museum in Denmark occasionally offers exhibits of such items.
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In Hedebo, women wore blue in winter, green in spring and red during the summer. Red fabrics were more expensive as it was difficult to dye properly. Therefore, red fabric had to be bought from a dyer in a market town rather than being dyed at home.
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The first several images below can all be identified as Hedebo costumes due to the distinctive apron pattern.
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Hedebo 1770-1795
Image credit: Dávid Botond and GeoFolk
Hedebo Region Costume, 1790-1800
from "Folkedragter i Danmark" by Ellen Andersen, 1952
The woman above was wealthy enough to afford a cloak for bad weather, made of either cotton, wadmel (coarse, dense wool) or silk. which she holds draped across her left arm. Less affluent women would instead have to pull their outermost skirt up over their heads in bad weather. The cloak shown above is half-length, which in Denmark very gradually superseded full-length cloaks during the Renaissance. Reportedly, the reason for the slow adoption of the half-length cloak in Denmark stems from a pre-Renaissance custom that respectable women wore long cloaks while ladies of disrepute wore half-length cloaks.
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On the head is a bonnet (kyse) of variegated cotton or black velvet.
Hedebo Region "Brown Suit", 1790-1800
from "Folkedragter i Danmark" by Ellen Andersen, 1952
The Hedebo Region's "Brown Suit" displayed the owner's wealth by showing that he could afford to wear a vest underneath the matching jacket.
Hedebo Easter Costume (1830-1840)
from "Folkedragter i Danmark" by Ellen Andersen, 1952
The hat shown above is of pink silk with a small, metal-embroidered "neck" (not visible in this image). By the 1840s, the neck grew and became 5-sided. Unmarried girls wore red or pink hatbands. The short sleeves and collar are richly ruffled. The sweater (nattrøje), bodice and skirt are green. The bodice appears to be trimmed with golden yellow silk ribbons. The apron and scarf are of a matching pattern.
Hedebo 1820-1835
Image credit: Dávid Botond and GeoFolk
A Blue Hedebo costume, which was worn in winter
Image credit: B&U Dans Viborg
Hedebo 1820-1835
By 1830 a blouse with so-called "ham sleeves" had replaced the sweater (nattrøje) worn in prior iterations
Image credit: Dávid Botond and GeoFolk
Hedebo Costume, circa 1860
The dress shown has so-called "ham sleeves"
Hedebo costume, National Nordic Museum
A married woman from the town of Havdrup, Hedebo Region.
Image: F.C. Lund/Luplau Janssen, 3rd Ed., 1915
Hedebo Alternate Costume
The Hedebo costumes below are notable for having white sleeves and a solid white apron (below). Few Danish folk costumes have long white sleeves, which is far more common in Swedish or Norwegian folk costumes.
According to Ellen Andersen's 1952 "Folkedragter i Danmark," women from Frederiksborg County preferred blue hatbands, while women from the Hedebo Region preferred red or pink (see below).
Image Credit: Mikael Bjerregaard
Married woman from Havdrup, Hedebo Region
from "Danske Nationaldragter," 3rd Ed. (1915)
by F.C. Lund with illustrations by Luplau Janssen
