A disclaimer: We do not speak or read Dutch1.
Contents & quick links
- Dutch Clothing Terms – page 2
- Table of Dutch, French and German weaving terms – page 3
- Table of Dutch and French embroidery terms – page 4
- List of other Dutch words relevant to this site – page 5
- References used to compile these lists – page 6
This list of words was compiled from various sources, you can find the reference list for these on the last page of this article. If you have any corrections or additions to this list of words we would really like to hear from you.
Most of the clothing terms come from a book which is predominantly about the Regents’ Period of Holland, the early 17th Century. Therefore some words may only be appropriate for clothing in the early 17th century. This can be determined either through knowledge of the clothes of the period, e.g corsets and hip pads are late 16th century, or through the dates listed against a word.
The weaving and embroidery terms come from a Dutch book about medieval textiles found in the Abbey of Sint-Truiden. The textiles are from the period 1250-1400. The list is probably a modern, technical list rather than a list of period terms.
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment on this page, specifially Henk t’Jong and Christina Lemke for their long lists of suggestions. I hope this page is helpful to you in your costume or textile research.
- although Karinne started learning a bit via Duolingo ↩