TBT: Stripe Identification

stripedcap
17th Century Hat, courtesy of the Rijks Museum

17th century Dutch whaler hunters & workmen wore knitted wool hats with unique stripe patterns to identify themselves; winters were very cold and the men had to wear so much to protect themselves from it that only their eyes were visible.  More details (such as they are) here. I find the idea of personalized stripes really appealing and might someday design something based on this concept. It’s a neat idea!

7 responses to “TBT: Stripe Identification”

  1. Personal stripes is a wonderful idea. Now I must think about what stripes would be for me 🙂

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    1. That’s what I was thinking, kind of. There must be a way to code letters of the alphabet into stripes so you could spell your name in stripes. It’s time like this I wish I’d learned Morse code or paid more attention to ciphers/cryptogram/codes, etc.

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  2. Wouldn’t it be funny if you made a ‘spelling mistake’ part way through?!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. lol – yes, but it would be kind of an inside joke.

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  3. This has totally captured me – what an amazing fact! I love stuff like this, wow.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m glad you like it!

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  4. […] think this is an entirely sweet, sentimental message and it reminds me of this other TBT post about how the Dutch used stripes on hats to identify the wearer. I’m surprised that no […]

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