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The second type of folk costumes after the Lapp/Sammi styles are the tradition clothing of the Swedes. Here we are not talking about the medieval Vikings, but the peasant clothing worn in the 18th and 19th centuries--a least fancy version. This was the general situation throughout Europe, what is today seen as folk costumes had their origins in folk or peasant costume of the period. Peasant communities were fairly isolated by natural borders, bad roads, limited economic opportunities, and centuries of tradition. Thus rural districts and parishes preserved local costumes and trditions. They were every day wear. A good example is a portrait by Swedish artist Carl Larsson of a rural scene probably in the 1890s where two brothers seem to be wearing outfits influenced by folk styles. Interestingly their mother and sister are not wearing clothes that show any folk influence.
Especially elaborate outfits were brought out for special festivities. One auhor suggest that folk costumes became 'uniforms of equality'. The upper-classes (aristocracy and rich bourgeoisie) in contrast dressed alike, commonly in styles developed in Paris and London. By the mid-19th century, major changes were under way in Sweden. The Industrial Revolution was bringing about huge changes in the lives of ordinary individuals. The most obvious changes were in the cities, but gradually reached the countryside as well. One of the changes is that the standard European styles that were once primarily worn in the cities began to be worn in the countryside as well, gradually replacing folk styles. As this ocuured a reaction gradually developed, a kind of ronantic nostalgia for the simpler earlier days. Part of that romanticism was an interest in the disappearing folk costumes. We do not have lot of information on this, but we see CDVs confirming this developing interest as early as the 1860s (figure 1). This of course means that the actual interest began even ealier.
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