By Karen Keenan

Dressing With Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia. By the Museum of International Folk Art, Carrie Hertz, editor. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2021

I am a relatively new folk art practitioner of traditional Swedish hair jewelry, an almost extinct folk art form sometimes referred to as hairwork jewelry.¹ Over the past few years I have been searching for answers to many questions about the context in which hairwork emerged and developed from the 17th to the early 20th centuries – the social conditions, the cultural influences, the aesthetic driving forces. My hairwork research in general, and of the Swedish style in particular, led me to articles and some 19th century tutorials, but I still wondered: Why and how did this art form became so deeply identified with the village of Våmhus, my ancestral home, in the Swedish region of Dalarna? Print sources and my 2018 learning experience in Våmhus were helpful. Additionally, I knew family artifacts held potential cultural and material lessons. Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia gave me a deep structural foundation for putting my past learning in order, to help me practically and creatively apply accumulated knowledge in a variety of ways. This perspective is the springboard I used to write the following book review.

This book is a companion to an exhibit of the same name held at the International Museum of Folk Art (MOIFA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from December 12, 2021 – February 19, 2023. As with any creative endeavor, the book has focused boundaries. The contributors explore the history, preservation, evolution and practice of sartorial folk art found in only three representative areas of Sweden, Norway and Sápmi. An array of artisans are featured throughout. The reader is introduced to the folk dress costumes specific to areas in Sweden (folkdräkt), Norway (bunad), and Sámi (gákti) through image, experiences, stories, and abundant references. We learn traditional Norwegian, Swedish, and Scandinavian-American folk costume use is not the same as that for the Sámi Gákti. For example, the former is naturally being adapted or expressed to reflect Nordic culture, population change, resistance, ceremonies and events. Sámi Gákti can, on the other hand, be used for daily attire, for ceremonies and events, as a symbol of resistance, and a means of creative expression.

This book’s collection of informative, reflective, connective and inspirational narratives is a good model for further exploration of other places and identity-specific folk dress not covered in its contents.

Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia is a unique source for learning about humanity’s desire and challenge to hold onto traditions, live with them in the present, and help shape their future. It takes us on a journey through folk art costuming and the knowledge embedded in its rich materiality. Individuals interested in global transitions will find this book captivating. In this case, the contents describe cultural responses to the shift from agricultural to industrial practices during the late 1800s and into present day. Essay contributors celebrate the cultural meanings of folk costumes, and reveal tensions resulting from the intersection of traditional ways of being and doing, and the inevitable winds of change.

While preparing this essay I received comments about the book from expert costume designer and clothing historian, Carol Colburn. Carol’s research confirms the findings in Dressing with Purpose, “We find that traditional dress changes in ways that reflect our transforming world.”²

I also interviewed MOIFA’s Curator of Textiles and Dress, Carrie Hertz . I asked Carrie about what she hoped the reader would glean from this book. She responded, “[A book like this can] travel all over the world, be used in education settings, handed to collaborators, and live in the future as a research reference. It is useful for the specialist and those who are interested in traditions. You never can anticipate everything that people are going to take away [from a book]. Sometimes they just completely surprise you and [this] is also a joy.”³ So true. What were my take-aways? 

I read this book prior to giving an invited presentation in November 2022  at MOIFA as a complement to the Dressing with Purpose exhibit. In the book I was delighted to see both an image of the Mora folkdräkt, a costume similar to that from Våmhus, and a familiar description of hairworkers from Våmhus:

The economic necessity of peddling regional handicrafts as traveling salespeople or specialized trade skills as migrant laborers may have contributed to the cultivation of stable, localized dress traditions. Recognizable dress contributed to economic success. Because Dalecarlians enjoyed a reputation for industrious talent, individuals who made their origins clear were more likely to be hired in city factories or trusted as vendors. Women from Våmhus in Mora parish, for example, were famous across Europe for making popular styles of jewelry using a readily available material: human hair. When hårkullor (hair workers) traveled – going as far as England, Russia, and Jerusalem – the women’s recognizable Moradräkt served as a savvy advertisement for their hair working skills and wares.”⁴

Months before touring the exhibit in Sante Fe, I was pleasantly surprised to find out from Carrie Hertz that a hair table was included in the exhibition (though not pictured in the book). Carrie Hertz explained,

“…the hair table [the tool used to weave hair] and jewelry were collected in Våmhus in the 1960s by William Coperthwaite (1930–2013), the author of A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity. Our foundation sent Coperthwaite to Scandinavia primarily to create a field collection of Sámi folk art, but during his travels, he also visited Våmhus… According to his records, the hair table had belonged to Ada Ryttar (1895-1987), who was leading revival efforts at the time (along with Bälter Elin Olsson).⁵

It was a remarkable experience to see these familiar items on display, to be able to refer to the book during the presentation, and share additional information about hairwork in a unique museum in which, as Carrie Hertz describes: 

Art is understood as having a cultural base, where it is respected for the process, craft and meaning materials have to the people…We understand art as cultural based, something that can be understood in many different ways based on where you are coming from, when you’re living, and where you are living. We do not limit what kind of genres can be considered art. We do not limit who can make art. In that way we are moving toward the very inclusive, multicultural understanding of what art is.³

Folk art can be viewed in a variety of cultural and practical ways. Laurann Gilbertson, Chief Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, offers  another way of looking at it. “When we’re talking art of the people – cultural traditions of every day life – we’re commenting on the fact that it is beautiful and useful at the same time.”⁶  I think these views are complementary.

Whether sewing clothing, making pottery or music, creating hair jewelry, observing nature, teaching, researching or consulting, I hold a life-long interest in making many types of art, including hand crafted folk art. It resonates with me. To illustrate the impact a book such as this can have on a folk arts practitioner, I now turn to a few unexpected discoveries while reading it.

One was about someone who, like me, decided to learn a folk art skill practiced by ancestors. Tapp Lars Andersson is his name. He lives in Dalarna and is a Skinntröjor, a maker of shearling coats and jackets. The book’s description about him helped further my understanding of the history of and the process used to make the jacket I inherited with my mother’s Våmhus folkdräkt.

Further, since it is so easy to connect with people via social media, I now  follow Lars’ posts on Instagram. The next time I travel to Sweden I hope to meet him at his workplace.

Another personal impact the book had on me was with regard to my work as a board member at the Nordic Center in Duluth, Minnesota. The book demonstrates a few examples of identity formation as it is evolving in today’s multi-cultural environment at the individual, group and national levels. This is enlightening. These examples are familiar to what we experience at the Nordic Center. There is a growing need for us to learn about and address the impact of historical injustices, a critical step to help build inclusive communities. Many Americans identify with multiple cultures. Organizations can provide cultural programming and provide resources to help participants learn about the multiple facets of their identities.

In summary, I hope in some way this review taps the reader’s interest and motivates individuals and groups to read Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia. Your personal take-away will most likely be different than mine, but one aspect that may unify our experience of this book is provided by William. S. Coperthwaite, mentioned above, who wrote:

Creative Simplicity

Borrow from cultures old and new
And with our imaginations
Blend those borrowings
To create new ways to live
That are simpler, gentler
More generous and beautiful⁷)

Karen Keenan, October 2023
www.hemslojdstudios.com
Instagram: @hemslojdstudios

Bio: Karen Keenan, Ed.D. is a retired music teacher, staff developer, and consultant. She currently works in two process-oriented disciplines. One is: assisting individuals, groups and organizations through planned change as an organization learning and development consultant. She is also an artisan and founder of Hemslōjd Studios. Through the studio Karen creates, teaches, and coaches, with a focus on ceramics and Swedish traditional hair jewelry, a folk art she is helping to revive.

Outside the studio, Karen enjoys working with her husband, who makes and sells wood hair tables and weighted bobbins inspired by traditional Swedish designs, for the growing number of hairworkers. Karen also is a musician. She enjoys playing the contemporary flute and early music recorders. She rehearses weekly with a recorder quartet called “Four Friday Fipple Flute Friends.” Otherwise, you can find her on local hiking trails with friends and family.

Photos from Dressing with Purpose were provided by Carrie Hertz, Editor.

Help support wonderful articles on Scandinavian textiles with a donation to the Norwegian Textile Letter. Thank you! Tusen takk!

1. Thanks to support from an American-Scandinavian Foundation 2018 Folk Art in the Midwest Fellowship, Karen studied traditional Swedish hair jewelry with Master Teacher Johanna Svensson in Våmhus, Sweden. Her goal is to help revive this almost extinct folk art form. (https://hemslojdstudios.com/ ) Note: Some readers may be familiar with other creative ways to use human hair fibers, such as palate work, dissolved hairwork, and gimpwork. These techniques were commonly applied in the making of, for example, mourning jewelry and hair wreaths. [↩]
2. Comments from Carol Colburn, March 25, 2023 [↩]
3. Interview with Carrie Hertz, March 10, 2023 [↩] [↩]
4. Rosander. “The ‘Nationalisation’ of Dalecarlia,” pp.109-11. In Hertz  2021-by the Museum of International Folk Art), Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia.  Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 36 [↩]
5. Personal correspondence with Carrie Hertz, Sept. 21, 2022 [↩]
6. Interview with Laurann Gilbertson, March 21, 2023 [↩]
7. Coperthwaite, Wm. S. A handmade life: In search of simplicity. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002. (p.111 [↩]