Personally, I think the tour is one of the most beautiful objects from this region, a typical country costume! I’m going to tell a story about that tour in a number of episodes in the context of “Closed but not locked”. This is the third and final part.

In mourning time, one year and six weeks after a death, people wore a black tour, the mourning tour. For the heavy mourning, at the death of a close relative, father, mother, child, brother or sister, the women wore a tour, in which no lace or a shiny fabric was incorporated. Lace was too frivolous. Usually you used black crepe fabric, which was processed pleated, hence the name tear crepe! In case of light mourning, nephew, niece, neighbor or friend, black flowers or a tulle decoration were allowed. Often the women went into mourning for the rest of their lives, but after remarriage they wore a white tour again. This remarriage often happened, especially when the widow was left behind with a young family. The farm had to be run and the children needed a “father”. The pastor usually brought the solution, he was looking for a new husband. In such a case, the pastor was also a marriage broker.

The tour was made by the tour maker or hat maker, an important person in the village. You gave her an assignment and brought the decorations that had to be on it. It was not always certain whether she would use these decorations, for she had to prevent a simple peasant woman from wearing a nicer dress than, for example, the mayor’s wife. On the basis of the tour you could read the status of the woman. Rich people had beautiful, precious, unusual decorations on the tour and a lot of real hand-made lace was used in it. The ordinary farmer’s wife bought the decorations from the pedlar who came by the door, or from a draper’s shop. Sometimes a pig’s bristle was used in the row, to beg fertility, a pig gives birth to a lot of piglets. It was hoped that the woman would also give birth to many children. Rich women had beautiful things brought from abroad. In addition, there was the tour and hat make-up. She took care of the cleaning and repair of the tour. The various parts were untorn by her, washed, starched again and sewn on again. Quite a job. Underneath the row was the hat and underneath a black hat, but I’ll tell you more about that later.

Marlé de Laat