HSF Challenge #7: Tops and Toes
The huik (also spelt heuk, heuke, hoik or hoyke) is a cloak-like garment with a distinctive “duck-bill” which appears in the artistic and written records of the Netherlands from around 1520, gaining in popularity (or perhaps gaining in evidence as interest in documenting foreign clothing increased [Rublack 2011]) through to the late 1500s.
This garment was worn by women in the Low Countries in the 16th century. It is primarily pictured in outdoor scenes, although there is also one image of a room full of women in this garment in a church.
In general it seems to have been worn for warmth and modesty, with a possible benefit of protecting against the elements. Notes on a pattern sketched by Durer also seems to indicate that this item was worn in church as he names it a kirkliche (church cloak).
I’ve been wanting to have an attempt at this pattern and this item since I first found it, and 2014 was the year to give it a go.
3 views of me in my huik
Just the Facts
What is it?: A huik (also spelt heuke, heuk, hoik, hoike, hoyke), a cloak worn by Dutch and Flemish women in the 1500s.
The Challenge: Tops and Toes
Fabric: Wool
Pattern: Based on a pattern sketched in Albrecht Durer’s journal of his visit to the Netherlands in 1521
Year: 1521-1530s
Notions: Boning
How historically accurate is it? Short of having an extant example I’m quite happy
Hours to complete: 6
First worn: unofficially for this photo, officially it will be worn this weekend at Rowany festival, where it will help keep me warm
Total cost: $25 AUD
Want to know more about this strange item?
I’ve produced a research paper on the huik pulling together all the evidence I currently have, as well as a more detailed description of how I made this item.
I also have a pinterest board of images of the huik and images of women outside the Low Countries to chart the uniqueness of this item.
Dear Karinne,
In your April 23, 2014 post, “Clothing the Low Countries,” you refer to the “absence of sumptuary laws in the Netherlands” in the 17th century. Can you point me to an authoritative source confirming such absence? I am getting conflicting impressions from reading contemporaries such as William Temple and Thomas Sheridan, both of whom traveled to the United Provinces and reported the existence of such laws. Many thanks.
Hi Henry, thanks for the question. I’ve just re-read this article, and the attached research paper and can’t see where I referenced sumptuary laws (or lack of them). Are you able to point me to a more precise article name? “clothing the low countries” is the name of the entire site. Or a more specific URL?
I suspect my statement was meant to imply an absence of discussion of such laws in the various articles and sources that I have read and searched. It’s highly probable that they existed, given the influence the 15th century Burgundian court had on court practices across Europe into the 16th Century[1], and their use in those courts. The 17th century is really outside my research scope, so I can’t (and generally wouldn’t) comment on the existence of sumptuary laws in that century.
However, always happy to be wrong and to update my work if new evidence is found/presented to me 🙂
1. Read Marina Belozerskaya’s book “rethinking the renaissance” for the supporting thesis behind this statement.
Hi Karinne,
I really love your work on the hoike! I myself do some late 15th century reenactment in the area of (southern) northern Germany. In my sources it becomes evident that the hoike (that’s the way how it’s spelled in the German regions) was a very popular garment in this area and every woman had at least two of them. But unfortunately there are many written sources where this kind of cloak is mentioned, but barely pictures, which could show how it really looked like. So for first inspiration I tried to research on Pinterest and there I found your board and used it as a first approach from the flemish side 😉
Due to this picture problem there is also much uncertainty about the northern german hoike, if it was a cloak worn on the shoulder or a cloak worn on the head. There is written evidence for both ways, but it doesn’t become clear if it is the same type of cloak, only worn in two different ways, or if these variations also differ in their construction. Now I found some illustrations from the Hamburg municipal law from 1497 where some women wear cloaks on their shoulders with long slim stand-up collars. And if you imagine how it would have looked like when they pulled the cloak to their head the collar would have formed this kind of bill at the fore-head as your hoike has! The german cloaks only appear to be longer than this flemish style of hoike and have more foldings and plications in the back. So I think I can assume that the type worn on the shoulders and the one worn on the head could really be the same… Now I have an idea of how it could have worked (also thanks to the inspiration by you 😉 ) and I think, I’ll try to sew one, too.
Hi, thanks for stopping by and for the fantastic and exciting information. This seems really plausible to me and fills in a gap in the history of the item. 1497 is the earliest reference we now have. Hooray!
Margaret has been doing some research into the origin of the huik, so will point her at this new information.
Is there anywhere I can see you or our group in action? Always good to find people interested in a similar area.
Karinne
Origin of Huik is “hayek” north african garment ladies wore in North Africa and andalusia and it made its way to netherland and kept its name ! amazing !
In Kairouan Tunisia only one woman is still wearing it and that is my mum’s cousin.
here a picture of it : https://plus.google.com/103285921991493523047/posts/U1kCAkiAZSi
Thanks for sharing. I’d heard there was a North African connection, and only came across the hayek last year when I read a traveller’s account of Morocco and Algeria in the early 2000s. I’m fascinated by Andalusian culture and its influence on Europe and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. I think we’ve forgotten a lot.
Hi Karinne!
Good to know that this could help you! 🙂 In fact the written sources often are much older (even 14th century) than this illustration from Hamburg, but this is the only picture I know of a hoike. I’m still searching for some more hints and I will let you know 😉
You can visit us (so my boyfriend and me, we’re not really a group…) on our blog, but it is still quite new and there is not so much information or pictures yet. We see to pimp it up 😀 –> sionpilger.wordpress.com
Mai-Britt