Sequin garlands: Gorgeous headwear to complement traditional dress
Sequin garlands used to be worn as crowns for festive dress. And in Franconian Switzerland, Dagmar Rosenbauer still makes them according to traditional specifications.
By BAYERN TOURISMUS Marketing GmbH
BAYERN TOURISMUS Marketing GmbH
Fascinating: The culture of traditional dress
Since the end of the 18th century, glimmering sequin garlands have been part of traditional festive dress in rural Franconian Switzerland.
More than 430 hours of work by bavaria.travel - Tobias GerberOriginal Source: Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
Festive attire says a lot about its respective wearer
At religious festivals, they adorned the heads of unmarried women. Already taken or still available? Catholic or protestant? Rich or poor? "Her wedding is the last opportunity a woman had to wear the crown," explains Dagmar Rosenbauer
Dagmar Rosenbauer in her workshop by bavaria.travel - Tobias GerberOriginal Source: Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
Attention to detail
In her small workshop in a restored timbered house in the picturesque Franconian town of Kunreuth, Dagmar Rosenbauer makes traditional festive crowns based on historical models.
She has been restoring and making sequin garland for more than 30 years and is far and away the only person in the region doing so. Dagmar Rosenbauer produces each piece using traditional specifications and a huge amount of dedication.
The artist skillfully twists bullion wires to form rosettes. She then alternately threads cut glass beads, hollow glass beads, and sequins. She repeats the whole thing over and over again from the start—taking weeks to finish each lovingly made crown. The Franconian woman makes her sequin garlands using the materials found in traditional models of festive crowns, as well as board and gold lamee braids.
Materials of traditional festive headwear by bavaria.travel - Tobias GerberOriginal Source: Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
The "sequins" are the metal or brass stamped platelets that are incorporated into the garlands. It takes more than 430 hours of work to thread 3,500 to 4,000 of these sequins into the special crowns—all by hand.
Details of a "Flitterkranz" by bavaria.travel - Tobias GerberOriginal Source: Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
Flitterkranz by bavaria.travel - Tobias GerberOriginal Source: Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
In Franconian Switzerland, the basic shape looks like a crown. But in the Alpine region and in parts of Upper Palatinate, the sequin garlands are shaped more like a baguette. As wealth increased over the last 200 to 250 years, so too did the size of the crowns, which now weigh around a kilo.
Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH—erlebe.bayern Dagmar Rosenbauer
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