People of the same region or locality wore more or less the same clothing, telling us where the wearers lived. But the costumes themselves were also subject to many variations.
 
Special clothes often played a role at major events. Most often, these events were transitional moments in life, such as birth, baptism, marriage and death. Every phase of life had its own, distinctive clothing within regional costumes.

Wearing mourning clothes after the death of a relative seldom happens these days, though people sometimes still wear dark clothes when attending a funeral. In the past, it was customary to wear specially adapted clothing for a long period of time after a death in the family. Even today, this tradition continues to play an important role with people still wearing regional costumes.
 
In some places, the clothes told you whether the person wearing them came from a family of farmers or of fishermen. Prosperous and less well-to-do people wore roughly the same clothing. There were, however, differences in quality and in the number of clothes and pieces of jewelry somebody owned. There were also localities where the clothes and accessories indicated whether the wearer was a Roman Catholic or a Protestant.
 
See all the items listed under :

Phase of life

In and out of mourning

Occupation

Income

Religion