Text and photo Laila Duran ©
Something wonderful happen every time I travel north passing the Polar circle. I get this wonderful feeling of space and air and it is so easy to breath. The scenery is open and I often find myself driving at 30 km pr hour just so I do not miss the shades of the mountains or the clouds reflecting in the lakes. I am totally in love with the landscape, the crisp air and the people living there. For those of you who do not know me, I have been a globetrotter all of my life. Traveling to all parts of the world and loving it, I always had this tendency to go north whenever I needed peace and rest. For me the small birch trees, cool lakes and northern light are bliss. It feels like being in a sanctuary.
In the past few years I have had the good luck of meeting people who let me share private moments in their life. Letting me join with their family and friends and showing me the traditional way of life, as it has been lived by the indigenous people of Scandinavia for centuries. The traditional costumes of the Sami people are colorful, practical and warming. But most of all, the traditional crafts are vividly alive. Young people take courses or learn from their parents and relatives, and their costumes are developing with time. In a series of entries I am going to introduce you to some of the people I have met and show you the variation and decorative stitching on the Sami traditional costumes. We start in Lappland, Sweden.
The young woman is wearing her Lule Sami kirtle. The neck section in red broad cloth is decorated with fine tin thread embroidery.
This man is wearing a Karesuando kirtle. In the next photo he is seen with his family.
The woman is carrying her newborn in a cradle made of leather , a “gietka”. You can see another version of it on top of this page.
Bright colors and lots of fine silver detail are used on all the Sami folk costumes.
The man is wearing a kirtle from Kautokeino, Norway and the woman a Lule Sami kirtle from Sweden. Her kirtle is of chamois leather and he has chosen to have the rather unusual combination of grey broadcloth with the ribbons stitched on to white panels. The traditional colors would be blue with red panels.
The decoration at the hem, front and back, of the kirtle (tunic) consumes hundreds of meters of ribbon. The round silver buttons on his belt tells us that this man is unmarried.
This beautiful girl is wearing her silk kirtle in traditional blue. Today young people makes their kirtles in a great variation of colors and fabrics. The red cap identifies her origin from Karesuando.