DUTCH (SCHEVENINGEN) LADIES IN TRADITIONAL DRESS

A series of portraits of Dutch (Scheveningen) ladies in traditional dress. Back in the day the streets of Scheveningen - then a small fisherman village on the Dutch coast near The Hague - would have been filled with the sight of hardworking local fisherman ladies in their traditional dress: pastel colored shawls, stiffened lace caps, silver head irons and intricately made golden hairpins and jewelry. The beautiful clothes and jewelry were handed down generation upon generation. Wearing them gave them a sense of community and they wore them with pride. But with the changing world, traditional dress slowly disappeared from the streets and now only a handful of elderly ladies still wear it on a daily basis. The younger generation still wear their traditional dress on special occasions, thus keeping the old ways alive. In this series of portraits I wanted to capture the strong character of the Scheveningen ladies in their traditional dress.