Folklore - A printed woollen shawl.
By Martin Ciszuk. Photo: Laila Durán.

For the winter Durán Textlies presents a woollen shawl or neck kerchief. The original is kept in the collection of Skansens klädkammare, the Costume department of the open air ethnographical museum in Stockholm. It was donated in 1941 together with a regional costume from Delsbo, Hälsingland in northern Sweden. The kerchief is block printed in brownish black on fine red twill and has fringes of red wool knotted to four sides. Similar shawls are documented from all over Sweden and also form Norway where they often are of lager size and have black fringes. The neckerchief can probably be dated to the middle of the 19th century. Neck kerchiefs in cotton silk or wool were characteristic goods sold at by peddlers and at market stalls. The salesmen travelled over wide areas and it is thereby hard to decide the location of production. The print was, however, probably made in Sweden. Printing one colour on wool was a much simpler technique, compared to the cotton printing, and was often executed in small workshops in the homes on the countryside. In the museum collections there are examples of woollen neck kerchiefs of both simple and advanced design and various ground fabrics. Possibly some of them are imitations of products from bigger workshops. Shawls, neck kerchiefs and head kerchiefs were part of every woman’s costume in the mid 19th century both in the countryside and the cities. They were used both in combination with the regional traditional costumes as well as for more fashionable styles.

Our reproduced neck kerchief is named Folklore. It is hand printed on a soft fabric of 100% wool with hand-stitched hem and hand knotted fringes. The shawls are 36 X 36 inches plus fringe and available in the original red but also in grey coloured ground with black print.

Reconstructed wool neck kerchiefs in red and grey with black print.

Folk costume from East-Telemark
in Norway with a warming traditional wool neck kerchief.

The original neck kerchief belongs
to the collection of Skansens Klädkammare, the Costume department of the open air ethnographical museum in Stockholm.

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