Friday, May 27, 2011

Lier Bunaden

The Bunads of the Lier Valley, Norway
Bunads [boo-nhads) are the traditional folk costumes of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.  Every valley has its own design and the patterns usually come from the folk traditions of the area.  However, until the mid 70s, there were few bunad traditions to be found in the lower parts of Buskerud.

The Lier Bunad was designed by Ruth Strand, my mother's cousin's wife.  She was married to "Onkel" Willy Strand, my grandfather's nephew and my mother's cousin.   Ruth designed this bunad, and submitted it to an offical Norwegian bunad committee.  The bunad was subsequently formally adopted as the official bunad of the area, and first shown in 1974. 

The bunad was inspired by Lier's bountiful apple orchards.  The bodice, skirt and reticule are covered in embroidered apple blossoms, created from 8 different colors on blue woolen cloth.  The cloth is specially woven by the Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrikk AS, Lillehammer.  The shirt is made in white linen or cotton.  Even the silver shirt buttons are special - engraved with the appleblossom motif.

The men's version of the bunad, as shown above, was developed by the Lier Valley Cultural Arts board in 1980.  The child's version of the bunad was worked out by Sonja Reiersgård in 1994.  She is also the offical producer of the bunad to this day.  She has a website where you can order your own.  But beware!  The real deal is incredibly expensive!

This beautiful bunad has been included in the coffee table book of Norway's bunads that was published in the 1990s.
Marit Strand Evensen
Here is my cousin Marit Evensen wearing her aunt's design.  Okay, the funny thing about Marit, is that she is my third cousin on my Strand family line, and her husband's Evensen family has no connection whatsoever to my American Evensen family (which descended from Even Iversen of Ringsaker, Norway, who emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s).  This confuses people a great deal! 

Marit recently posted this beautiful picture of herself in the bunad on Facebook, and I blatantly borrowed it, because I love her, and because I thought she looked lovely, AND because I knew I was going to be doing a piece on Ruth's beautiful bunad creation. 

Marit and her husband Jan are currently serving in the LDS Swedish Temple presidency.  It was her urging that got me to start this family history blog.  You go, girl!  Love you!

Here is a detail of the embroidery on the back of the bodice.  You can imagine how much time goes into this hand embroidery!

Ruth Strand with Lillemor modeling her Lier Bunad in the late 1970s

There were two Ruths in my mother's life, Ruth Ertsaas in Levanger and Ruth Strand in Lier.  Ruth Strand became generally known in the family as 'Ruth-i-Lier' to distinguish her from Aunt Ruth who lived up north in Levanger.  An article I read said that Ruth originally came from Vestre Nøste.  That she was clever with her fingers and had an eye for color and design is apparent from these pictures.

This bunad is officially registered i Landsnemda, which answers questions concerning the authentic use of and wearing of bunads, and controls the bunad industry.  The design became copyrighted (mønsterbeskyttet)  in 1977 by the governing body of industrial rights (Styret for Det Industrielle Rettsvern). 

Since the creation of this bunad in 1974, there have been thousands of them sewn and worn, not only in Lier, but throughout Norway and abroad.

I'm proud that this design that so beautifully represents the area of Norway that my grandfather came from was created by a member of the family.  It's a fitting tribute to my great uncle Erling, and my grandfather Einar - who loved the Lier valley so much.

2 comments:

  1. Marit is my mother-in-law! I was a bit surprised to find a picture of her as I was searching for pictures of the Lier Bunad for my blog!
    What a small world!

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  2. thats so funny, that is my name =) ruth ertsaas

    ReplyDelete