The bunad is Norway’s best-loved traditional dress, and it is very much worn today.
Where the bunad comes from
Although bunads draw on rural clothing from before the industrial age, they are a fairly modern creation, bound up with national revival after Norway’s independence in 1905. The writer and cultural activist Hulda Garborg shifted attention from a single national costume to regional ones. In 1913 she travelled to Valdres, where a small embroidered hat belonging to a woman born in 1820 inspired the Valdres costume. Her book Norsk Klædebunad, published in 1917, presented the Valdres and Sunnmøre designs. She favoured Norwegian wool and embroidery over imported silk, and wanted a comfortable waist rather than a corseted one.
Details and occasions
Bunads typically feature embroidery, shawls or scarves and handmade silver jewellery known as sølje, often passed down within families and once thought to offer protection. Traditionally people choose the bunad of the region where they or their ancestors lived. The Norwegian Institute for Bunad and Folk Costume, founded in 1947, documents garments but has never had the authority to approve designs. Bunads appear at weddings, baptisms and confirmations, which is the most common moment to acquire a first one, and above all on 17 May, Constitution Day.
Many bunads
Life in Norway counts around 450 recognised bunads or variants, a reminder of how much local identity the dress carries.
Sources: ScienceNorway: The hat that marked the beginning of Norwegian national costumes, Life in Norway: The Norwegian Bunad Explained, FamilySearch: How Bunads Helped Revive Norway’s National Identity.
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