Key Objects
Skautbúningur Sigurlaugar í Ási

Skautbúningur Costume

Key Object for the Time Period 1800-1900

Sigurður Guðmundsson, known as “the Painter”, was keenly interested in all aspects of Icelandic culture. He proposed improvements to women’s formal costume. His new skautbúningur rapidly became popular, and the old faldbúningur disappeared. The first skautbúningur was worn as a wedding dress in the autumn of 1859.

The main components of the skautbúningur are a black broadcloth jacket and skirt. The jacket has gold or silver embroidery, and the hem of the skirt is bordered with embroidery. A belt was worn, usually a pendant belt. A low hook-shaped headdress (skaut) is worn on the head, with a veil and headdress knot of the same colour. A gilded fillet was worn with the headdress. The costume was sometimes worn with a long cloak (möttull). Sigurður also designed a simpler, lighter, formal costume, the kirtle (kyrtill), which was worn with the same headdress as the skautbúningur. The costumes designed by Sigurður are still popular today as formal dress.

This Costume was made in 1860 by Sigurlaug Gunnarsdóttir of Ás, Hegranes, North Iceland, following instructions from Sigurður the Painter. The costume is made of black broadcloth, with a simple pattern of foliage embroidered in silver thread on the edges of the jacket, while the skirt hem is embroidered in split-stitch with a floral pattern designed by Sigurður. This is the oldest extant skautbúningur known. The headdress fillet is the work of goldsmith Sigurður Vigfússon, later director of the Antiquarian Collection. The belt is by an unknown craftsman.



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