Dress Codes

DRESSCODES AT THE D U TCH COURT 1880—1940

PAUL REM

D R E S S C O D E S A T C O U R T

A court train from the time of Willem I

King Louis Napoleon based his Dutch court on the example of the imperial court of France. Etiquette dictated that Queen Hortense, her ladies-in-waiting and all female guests must wear a court train. The lilac train embroidered with glass pearls was probably worn by a female guest at a formal reception at the court of King Willem I.

Centraal Museum Utrecht

Ballgown with train

Wilhelmina’s ballgown is a single garment, but it is designed in such a way that it appears to have an overdress with a court train. The dress was probably adapted to the queen’s changing preferences around 1923.

Paris, Premet, circa 1910

Silk, gold thread, glass pearls, mother-of-pearl Royal Collections, The Hague

Emma’s manteau de cour

A court train was worn for ceremonial occasions at court.

Queen Emma’s ladies-in-waiting assumed that they should dress formally for the baptism of Princess Wilhelmina at St. William’s Church in The Hague, in a low-cut gown with a court train. But at the last moment, the Queen ordered them to wear a high-necked dress with a train and a hat.

Paris, Corbay-Wenzel, 1882

Silk, silver thread, glass pearls

Royal Collections, The Hague

DRES S C O DES

DRESS CODES

style tribe or subculture you belong to? Not yet? Well I have: you are part of a small but perfect sub-club of culture vultures. People who like carefully curated fashion exhibitions and the catalogues that go with them. People who read them with interest, cover to cover. Which happens to be one of my favourite subcultures ;-).

LADY-IN-WAITING AT A ROYAL WEDDING

When the engagement of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik was announced on 12 October 1900, it was not only the bride-to-be who was concerned about what she would wear. Henriette van de Poll, lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma, the Queen Mother, wrote in a letter to her mother that she was constantly receiving ‘outfit queries’. Apparently, her parents consulted her, too. She advised her father to wear the uniform of his office which he had had made for the investiture, and she thought the ‘new blue and red gown’ would be suitable for her younger sister. When her brother Frits asked what would be the normal thing to do with gloves, Henriette admitted that she did not know, but concluded after making enquiries that the men should probably carry them in their hand.1

The guests’ uncertainties and doubts were not unfounded. Appearing in an inappropriate outfit could be fatal for one’s social standing. Newcomers at court were subjected to particularly close scrutiny. Take Baroness Catherina Elisabeth Boudewina Sloet van Marxveld (known as Elisabeth), who became ladyin-waiting to the new Queen Wilhelmina in 1898, at the age of 27, for example. In January 1899, the seasoned lady-inwaiting Henriette van de Poll wrote of her, ‘the Honourable Miss Sloet still bears and dresses herself a little stiffly, but things will get better.’ Van de Poll was instructed to ensure that Miss Sloet was ‘dressed nicely’ for a trip to Potsdam later that year.2

At Queen Wilhelmina’s wedding on 7 February 1901 Miss Sloet wore a low-cut gown that is now in Kunstmuseum Den Haag’s collection. The gown is made

of cream silk faille with flower and twig motifs woven into the fabric. In the bodice, the fabric falls in the form of a short vest over a pink satin waistband with wide pleats. The neckline and armholes are trimmed with pink voile. Like the short vest, the skirt is trimmed with lace, and ends just above the floor. A skirt with a train (probably pink) would have been worn under this skirt, though it has not survived, unfortunately. Needlemarks in the fabric suggest that this gown was made from an older one.

The gown is well documented. Elisabeth appears, for example, in photographs taken at the Grote Kerk church in The Hague, where the wedding took place. As a lady-in-waiting, she occupied a prominent position in the row behind the royal party. If one looks closely, she can also be discerned in Otto Eerelman’s painting of the event, although the gown appears pinker, possibly as a result of an artistic choice. The church ceremony was also depicted in an etching after a painting by Mari ten Kate, in which the gown is shown in fine detail. The whereabouts of the painting on which the etching is based are unknown, unfortunately.

Interestingly, the images of the church ceremony show that several dress codes applied at the event. The queen and her entourage are, for example, dressed in low-cut gowns, with tiaras or feathers in their hair, while the other ladies are dressed in high-necked gowns and are wearing hats. This difference in dress codes caused a practical problem. For fear that ‘all the older ladies would contract bronchitis’ the church was specially heated for this winter wedding, so ‘for people not wearing

low-cut gowns it must in fact have been oppressively warm’, as Henriette van de Poll remarked.3

Three years after the queen’s wedding, Elisabeth herself got married, to Dr. Willem Frederik Röell Esq.4 The marriage meant the end of her career. Her younger sister Isabella Geertruida followed in her footsteps as a lady-in-waiting, and one of her dresses is also in the collection at Kunstmuseum Den Haag. She wore the purple velours and satin gown at Princess Juliana’s wedding celebrations in 1937.5

TW

Ballgown Worn by Baroness Sloet van Marxveld (1871-1941) when, as lady-in-waiting, she joined Queen Wilhelmina’s wedding procession. Maker unknown, 1901 Silk Kunstmuseum Den Haag

W E D D I N G S & M O U R N I N G

Mourning gown

Worn by Lady Anna Mathilda Metelerkamp-den Tex (1861-1944) Amsterdam, Van Scherpenzeel Kahn, circa 1891-1893

Silk, cotton, metal Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Mourning gown

Worn by Lady Henriette van de Poll (1853-1946), lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma Brussels, Maison Veuve Divoire, 1890 Silk, cotton Kunstmuseum Den

Note voor lithograaf: Ze hebben beiden een glanzend gezicht. Is hier iets aan te doen?

FROM COURT CULT U R E TO POP CULTURE

MADELIEF HOHÉ

This publication accompanies the exhibition: Dress Codes - From statement to Style Icon at Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn from 9 October 2025 to 8 March 2026.

Dress Codes – From Statement to Style Icon is an exhibition by Paleis Het Loo in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Den Haag.

CREDITS

Oranje-Nassau, Stichting tot Instandhouding van het Museum van de Kanselarij der Nederlandse Orden, Edwin Oudshoorn Leiden, Toppers in Concert, Studio Exactitudes Rotterdam and various private collections.

Photography locations

Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn Escher in Het Paleis, The Hague Noordeinde Palace, The Hague

Image credits

Marijke Aerden, 2, 137 AFP, Angela Weiss, 151 ANP, Fred Boer, 66; Hollandse Hoogte/ Berlinda van Dam 69, 71/ Ruud Morijn, 64/ Robin Utrecht, 140, 145; KIPPA/ Paul Bergen, 141; Lex van Lieshout, 139

Charles III, London, 54

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 33, 42, 92

SIPA USA, Anthony Behar, 61

Robin Utrecht, 12-13, 68, 136

Ari Versluis, Ellie Uyttenbroek, Rotterdam, 62, 72, 73, 74, 75

Roger-Violett Agence Photographique, Maurice-Louis Branger, 67 World History Archive, 64

Frans van Zijst, 149

Partner of Modemuze

ISBN 9789462626447

Authors

Madelief Hohé

Cécile Narinx

Paul Rem Tirza Westland

Image editing

Angelique van den Eerenbeemd

Translation

Sue McDonnell

Photography

Adriaan van Dam

Alice de Groot

Design

Studio Marline Bakker

Publishers Waanders Publishers, Zwolle

Lithography

Benno Slijkhuis, Wilco Art Books

Printing Wilco Art Books, Amersfoort

Lenders

ABN AMRO History Department / long-term loans from the Dutch Silver Museum, MoMu | ModeMuseum Antwerpen, Dries van Noten Antwerp, Princess Diana Museum | The Princess & The Platypus Foundation Los Angeles, Givenchy Patrimoine Paris, Viktor&Rolf Amsterdam, Dutch Cavalry Museum Amersfoort, Gucci Archive Florence, Elie Saab France (SARL), Guo Pei Peking/ Paris, Frans Hoogendoorn The Hague, Elsa Schiaparelli SAS Paris, Christian Siriano New York, The Royal Collections of The Netherlands, Kunstmuseum The Hague, H.M. the King, H.M. the Queen, and Their Royal Highnesses Princesses Amalia, Irene, and Mabel / The Royal Collections of the Netherlands, The Hague, Geschiedkundige Vereniging

AP Photo, Jacqueline Arzt, 144 Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam, 80 Gregorio T. Binuya, Everett Collection, 147 Cees Buys, Abaca Press, 120 Camera Press Ltd, Rota, 145 Centraal Museum Utrecht, 50; Ernst Moritz, 34; Adriaan van Dam, 50 Gamma Press Images, Harvey, Stills, 71 Municipal archives Zeist, 130 Getty Images, Tim Graham, 71; Stephen Lovekin, 146; Jamie McCarthy, 142; MG18/ Dimitrios Kambouris, 150, 153; Sean Zanni/ Patrick McMullan, 150

Alice de Groot/ Adriaan van Dam, photographed at Paleis Het Loo, 8-9, 14, 21, 27, 32, 33, 38, 39, 40, 43, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 56, 76-77, 86, 90, 93, 96, 100, 104-105, 107, 108, 109, 118, 122, 125, 135

Alice de Groot/ Adriaan van Dam, photographed at Paleis Noordeinde, The Hague, 34, 35

Alice de Groot/ Adriaan van Dam, photographed at Museum Escher, The Hague, 30-31, 44, 52, 82, 94-95, 99, 114, 116

Frazer Harrison, WireImage, 148 Andreas Holm, 143 IMAGO, Christian Ender, 156-157

Royal Collections, The Hague, 15, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 60, 79, 84, 85, 88, 89, 98, 106, 110, 134

Kunstmuseum The Hague, 54, 83, 84; Alice de Groot, 117, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131

Jan Lankveld, 70

Michael Loccisano, FilmMagic, 146

Maison Schiaparelli, Paris, 152

J. Mayer, Shutterstock, 138

Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, 54

National Archives, The Hague, 97, 112, 116, 120

Dutch Open Air Museum, Arnhem, 63

Paleis Het Loo, 22, 26, 28, 36, 38, 39, 46, 50, 58, 59, 79, 88, 92, 98, 102, 103, 113, 116, 121, 124, 134; Robert Mulder, 16, 17, 18, 78, 80, 81, 123, 132, 133

RKD, The Hague, 46, 84, 130

Royal Collection Trust, His Majesty King

NUR: 644

This publication has also been published in a Dutch edition.

ISBN 9789462626430

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©2025 Waanders Uitgevers b.v., Zwolle; Paleis het Loo, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the authors

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