Portraits in Lace

the long version

Here is a unique illustrated study of a centuries-old costume tradition that continues to thrive in Brittany today. Charles Fréger has photographed a series of portraits of Breton women wearing costumes and headdresses of endless variety: from high starched towers to elaborately pinned, tucked and embroidered confections of handmade lace, as delicate as they are distinctive. Each costume and headdress may indicate a wearr's village, as well as age or status. They are worn for celebrations of a marriage, birth, or a local saint's day, or to mark a period of mourning. Against a translucent gauze backdrop, young girls, women both married and unmarried, mothers, sisters and grandmothers pose in costume for these photographic portraits. Over fifty headdresses are introduced and described in a separate reference section, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations. Fréger's exceptional photographs demonstrate a wealth of pride and personal expression that make this book a unique testament to a living tradition.