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Designs and popularity[edit]

The designs are typically elaborate, with embroidery, scarves, shawls and hand-made silver or gold jewelry known as sølje. There are bunads both for men and women, although women's bunads are more diverse and popular.[1] However, according to daily manager Turid Liss Agersborg at Husfliden Oslo, they now produce and sell more men’s bunads than women’s for the first time in history. The male customers are often characterized as urban and modern, and range between the ages of 20 and 40 years old.[2]

A number of books on the history of bunads recount the story of how once when on holiday in Hardanger with her Danish husband the British Princess Maud of Wales thought that the Hardanger bunads worn by the women in Hardanger were so beautiful that she had one made for her. At that time she could have had no inkling that a decade and a half later she would return to Norway as its queen, the matriarch of a new dynasty of Norwegian kings. She later wore this Hardanger bunad at numerous public appearances in Norway, a tradition maintained by the present Queen Sonja, the Crown Princess Mette Marit and Princess Martha Louise, although Queen Sonja and her daughter wear the East Telemark bunads, Telemark being the ancestral county of the Queen's own family.

Bunad traditions in Norway[edit]

Nordic bunad and folk dress on Faroe Islands stamps


There is ongoing debate about the official status of various outfits, and what allowed variations are. In 1947 an official institution, the Landsnemnda for Bunadspørsmål (National Committee for Bunad-related Questions) was organized to act in an advisory capacity on all questions dealing with bunads in Norway. Due to ongoing discussions on the status of bunads, it is not possible to state accurately the number of different types of bunads in Norway, but most estimates place the number at around 200.[4]



Design and origins of bunad[edit]

Woman in a traditional bunad, 1892




Bunad movement[edit]

Traditional folk clothing of eastern Telemark, 1880s




Criticizing that only wealthy people can afford to purchase a bunad and to carry out this tradition, Norske Bunader moved the production of some Norwegian bunads to China.[8] This shift has lowered the price and made the national costume more affordable. It has also caused major concerns by patriotic citizens who believe the Norwegian national costume should be completely authentic and only produced domestically. Although some people argue that traditional bunad producers such as Husfliden and Heimen contradict themselves by having immigrants sew bunads and make embroideries at their company. One response to this claim has been that the immigrants are equally licensed as Norwegian sewers and that the bunads are still made in Norway.[9] Since then, however, the Husfliden production has also largely been outsourced to low-cost countries such as Estonia, making the counter argument towards newer suppliers moot.[10]


Other sources[edit]


External links[edit]