Welcome to de nieuwe sneden.
This website is about much more than the clothing of the Low Countries in the 16th century. It’s about the world, as I understand it, of the inhabitants of the Low Countries in the 16th century. It’s about butter. It’s about markets and kermissen. It’s about inventory translations.
A lot has changed for me since I became interested in the “Flemish peasant dress” in 2005. My first website iterations really only touched on the clothing. Sometimes I referenced the geopolitics. So it’s a new iteration – a new cut.
In 1548, Anna Bijns (1493-1575), a nun and writer living and working in Antwerp, wrote a poem on the poor goings on in the world. In the manifold manners of dress she finds one of the explanations:
‘Om datmen vint soo veel nieuwe sneden (…)
Hierom gaet de werelt alsoo sij gaet.’
Because one finds so many new cuts
That is why the world goes the way it goes.
All Together Respectably Dressed, page 64
de nieuwe snede 